LONG POST AHEAD! (though no images, sadly)
On October 5th I went to a lecture at the Japan Foundation titled "
Women's Kimonos of the Edo Era: Social Class Reflected in the Patterns". The description was:
( Description of LectureCollapse )In short, this lecture did not disappoint! And I was sure to leave a review as such.
Before I get into the nitty gritty that you're all so impatiently waiting (haha), I wanted to express joy that there was another woman there in kimono (besides
sarcasm_hime, who we talked to for a while and exchanged information. She lived in Hamilton, and took the bus out (in kimono! Taisho Roman style). She had lessons in Japan before coming to Canada, and knew all sorts of little trivia things that I wish I could remember. Sadly, she's back in Japan now. :( Her 5 year stay was over.
We also fielded many questions people had about Sarcasm's outfit, and many were wondering why she dressed like that (one woman just couldn't get it, and eventually was satisfied when she found out Sarcasm was "an artist" >.<). I did talk to the wife of the Japan Foundation's director (?), whose stay in Canada is pretty much over, but she's staying behind. She was excited to learn of the kimono club, so I gave her a card, too. I was glad I brought those with me.
As a bonus, the JF Toronto had cookies and water out for attendees. Yum yum!
And now, what you've all been waiting for...The Lecture!It was given by Professor Kazuto Sawada* who works for the
National Museum of Japanese History, and had been in Canada for
the exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, which had a few kimono as part of the display. He utilised 3 kimono for this lecture, all of which were on display at some point at the recent exhibit.
The lecture started with discussing clothing in general, and how the role of clothing at times was to distinguish a person and their role, especially in Western wear. However, as Japanese clothing is all the same shape, this distinction comes from the pattern and materials used. He used three kimono to explain the differences. (Unfortunately, I do not have images of the kimono, making describing what was learned in relation to them specifically kind of useless.) The kimono were ceremonial kimono, worn for special events like New Year, and on sacred events and ceremonial days.
( The Kimono in Brief & Ceremonial Days InformationCollapse )He started by comparing the noble's kimono to the samurai kimono, and then these to the townsfolk kimono. Since most of it is specific to these kimono, I've distilled it to a more general table, which I saved and shared in my googledocs,
here. I have also converted it into a PDF which can be viewed/downloaded
here.
( Other General Information Gleaned from the Lecture, Cut to save your FLCollapse )Whew! If you have questions, I can do my best to answer them, though I'm not the expert. XD
* Studied aesthetics and the history of art, and has a masters from Osaka University. He works for the National Museum of Japanese History in the Research Department, Museum Science Division. He frequently has small articles in their bimonthly magazine, Reihaku, about kimono and textiles.
chipper
accomplished
