THE HISTORY OF Kimono

Kimono, in English, means “wearing thing.” But the garment everyone associates with Japan was not always called by that name. Its long history is one of the best examples of how clothing confers a sense of identity.

The first ancestor of the kimono was born in the Heian period (794-1192). Straight cuts of fabric were sewn together to create a garment that fit every sort of body shape. It was easy to wear and infinitely adaptable. By the Edo period (1603-1868) it had evolved into a unisex outer garment called kosode. Literally meaning “small sleeves,” the kosode was characterized by smaller armholes. It was only from the Meiji period (1868-1912) onwards that the garment was called kimono. This last transformation, from the Edo era to modern Japan, is fascinating.

In the early 1600s, First Shogun Tokugawa unified Japan into a feudal shogunate. Edo, renamed Tokyo in 1868, now became Japan’s chief city. The resulting Edo Period (also called the Tokugawa Era) spanned 264 years. The years 1603 to 1868 are known as the last era of traditional Japan. Japanese culture developed with almost no foreign influence during this time. And the kosode was one of the key elements of what it meant to be Japanese.

During the Edo era, kosode was a visibly unifying cultural marker. Every Japanese person wore it, regardless of age, gender, or socio-economic position. On those rare occasions when a Japanese person came in contact with foreigners, one visible distinction was that foreigners did not wear kosode. Edo kosode are therefore a window into a culture just before a fundamental change.So as Japan was undergoing a fundamental change on multiple levels during the Meiji period, Japanese women wearing kimono were a reassuring, visual image. The kimono became a visible yet silent link between between woman, mother, and cultural protector. Even today, the kimono is a reminder of Japan’s core culture as it was just before its fundamental change.