This study aims to analyze how Western culture has
recognized the Kimono, and how the Kimono has been accepted
in occidental life from 1860 to the present. In the
1860's a great deal of concrete information about Japanese
life began to spread to the west.
This study, which includes a discussion of the Western
perspective on the Kimono leads in to the problem of the
western definition of occidental clothing by pointing out the
particular thought and aesthetic consciousness concerning
clothing in general.
The Western cultures discussed here are those of Western
Europe (English. French) and American culture.
In a later, discussion we will try to discover how to define
the Western tradition of clothing, and if in fact certain distinctions
exist in this definition.
Kimono has been modified from 1860 to the present, and
Western consciousness concerning customs of dress has also
changed. These two evolutions of the object observed that
is the Kimono, and the observer, Western culture, make the
relationship between the two difficult to analyze.
Western culture in the 19th century paid more attention
to Japanese morality, as reflected by Japanese clothing, than
to the Kimono itself.
We can perceive the fundamental difference between the
Kimono and Western clothing by analyzing the aspects of the
Kimono accepted by the West, together with the Europeanized
Kimono.
Viewed architecturally, Western clothing can be consider-
ed a wall-like structure and a massive-structure, the foundation
of Western aesthetic consciousness having been based on the
physical mass of the body.
On the other hand, the Kimono has a pillar-like structure.
The geometrical forms of the Kimono are organized around
pillars. One pillar, for example, is the long neckband of the
Kimono. The pillars are produced because the Kimono is
separated from the body.
We can consider that the Western conception of Japanese
clothing came from a preconception based on a comparison
with Chinese clothing or Oriental clothing in general, and that
these are included in the Western conception of orientalism.
If we consider all of these factors together, the Western
consciousness of fashion and body worship becomes more
comprehensible to the Japanese.
西欧人のキモノ認識
KH_008_4_001.pdf
(27.19MB)
