Kimono pattern

Since ancient times, Japanese people have put various thoughts into patterns. The same is true for kimonos, which sometimes express the wearer's wishes and prayers, and sometimes even culture and playfulness. There are many patterns that can only be seen on Japanese kimonos.

The desire to pray for happiness and celebrate, along with material desires, is deeply connected to human nature. Therefore, it appears in various forms in our lives and gives rise to various events. This is why objects, shapes, and colors that are considered auspicious are often carefully chosen in our daily lives.

There are many ways to express prayers for happiness and joy at being happy. They are usually expressed through sounds, body movements, or shapes and colors, and all of these have remained unchanged since ancient times.

Among these, auspicious patterns as craft designs are representative and are often seen on clothing.

If we classify the auspicious patterns found on kimono, they can be roughly divided into the following two types. One type is patterns that were brought over from China and then established as auspicious patterns in Japan. These include patterns that were originally considered auspicious in China and were accepted in Japan as they were, and patterns that did not have a very strong auspicious meaning in China, or none at all, but were given auspicious meanings uniquely in Japan.

From the Asuka period to the Nara period, Japan was strongly influenced by Chinese culture, and various books were brought from China, and patterns were no exception.

Representative examples include dragons, phoenixes, and clouds, which have long been considered auspicious patterns in China. Other auspicious patterns that were relatively recently introduced to China from the West, such as the ganjucho pattern (a pattern of a bird holding a ribbon, thought to have originated in Persia), were also adopted in the same way. In the Heian period, with the movement towards nationalizing culture, the auspicious patterns that had been introduced from China in the previous era were selected and Japaneseized. Among these, the crane pattern was originally a symbol of longevity in China along with the turtle pattern, but due to its elegance it was especially beloved in Japan, becoming a central auspicious pattern and being repeatedly used in designs.

Also, the pine, bamboo, and plum motifs that are the most familiar to us as auspicious motifs did not have strong auspicious meanings in China. In the first place, the pine, bamboo, and plum, which endure the cold and are dignified, were called the "Three Friends of Winter" in China, and although they are symbols of integrity and chastity, they did not have strong auspicious properties like the dragon or phoenix. However, in Japan, the positive image of the pine, bamboo, and plum has grown over time, and their auspicious nature became stronger especially in the early modern period. On the other hand, there are also auspicious motifs that can be said to be purely domestic. For example, the tachibana is a representative auspicious motif that originated in Japan. Tachibana (Yamatokochikan) is a fruit brought from the utopia "Tokoyo-no-kuni" that is said to be located in the sea far to the east since the time of the "Kojiki", and it has been believed to bring longevity and healthy children. This is why mandarin oranges are placed on the kagami mochi of New Year's, and it is also for this reason that the tachibana is often used as a design on wedding costumes and hanging cloths.

Also, from the Edo period onwards, motifs associated with the imperial court, such as blinds, folding screens, folding fans, booklets, and imperial carriages, were used as auspicious motifs. It is believed that during this period, people began to yearn for the good old days of the Heian period, and this led to motifs associated with the imperial court becoming auspicious motifs. These elegant and gorgeous designs, without any religious meaning, were therefore often used at weddings.

It is generally thought that Japanese people used colors and patterns based on seasonal plants, animals, and natural phenomena, but in fact there are many cases where this is not the case. On the other hand, it is also true that Japanese people have a strong interest in the differences and changes of the seasons, and there are many examples of this being reflected in kimono patterns.

For example, during the Momoyama period, plants belonging to each of the four seasons were sometimes grouped together by season, and sometimes mixed together, and were depicted on the same clothing or costume for performing arts.

Just because it is clothing to be worn in spring does not mean that it depicts spring plants such as cherry blossoms or dandelions, and just because it is clothing to be worn in autumn does not mean that it depicts chrysanthemums or autumn leaves.

Rather, it is common for spring and autumn plants to be depicted together with summer and winter plants such as lilies and camellias, bringing together motifs of all four seasons. These, which could be called "seasonal patterns," can be seen not only on ordinary costumes such as kosode and uchikake, but also on costumes for performing arts such as Noh costumes, and it seems that what people at the time sought and tried to express in these patterns was the vitality of nature itself, rather than the seasonal feeling of each motif.

It is thought that there was significance in showing motifs of all four seasons at the same time in this type of pattern. The "Seasonal Flower and Plant Motif Dankatami Mikawari Kosode" in the Kyoto National Museum has the back of the kosode divided into four sections, with plants representing the four seasons arranged in each section.

The Tokyo National Museum's "White Background with Floral Pattern and Sewing Leaf on Shoulders and Hems" has compartments at the shoulders and hem filled with a variety of seasonal plants.

Depending on how you look at it, this could be seen as a lack of seasonal awareness. This is also suggested by the appearance of "yukimochi pattern," a plant motif of snow placed on flowers, leaves, and trunks during this period. Plants depicted as "yukimochi pattern" are not limited to winter plants such as camellias, or pine and bamboo, which have green leaves even in winter.

The fact that snow is depicted on plants that grow from spring to autumn, such as cherry blossoms, willows, and reeds, shows that even snow does not have a seasonal meaning.

Of course, there are some designs that depict only one or two limited plants, but rather than expressing a sense of the season, it is thought that the interest in the design was centered on the beauty of the plants themselves or the ideological background.

During the Edo period, plant patterns intended to represent the four seasons began to appear frequently on women's clothing and costumes for the performing arts.

However, this does not mean that all plant patterns express a sense of the season, and it should be considered that there are now many plant patterns that combine the expression of a sense of the season with other purposes.

Auspicious patterns are typical examples, but other examples include literary works such as "The Tale of Genji" and "The Tales of Ise," as well as Japanese and Chinese poetry, and performing arts such as Noh and Bugaku, in which plant patterns are used to implicitly express the content of those works.

In these cases, if the story has a strong connection to a particular season, the plants will end up suggesting that season. On the other hand, the evening primrose and wisteria in the pattern based on "The Tale of Genji," the iris in "The Tale of Ise"'s "Yatsuhashi," and the peony associated with the Noh play "Stone Bridge" are quite far removed from expressing a sense of the season.

Summer kimonos have patterns depicting autumn grasses, pine crickets, fireflies, autumn leaves, and fallen leaves, as well as patterns with snow and ice as motifs. In relation to this, it is worth noting that autumn grass patterns are very common in Noh costumes.

Autumn grass patterns are often seen on the costumes of female roles, such as Karaori and Nuihaku, but this is not because many Noh stories are set in the autumn season.

Rather, it seems that this is related to the fact that the content of the stories is somewhat sad but at the same time has a quiet beauty, and that many of them are essentially close to the image of autumn, and that of the four seasons, autumn is the closest to the aesthetic sense of "mysteriousness" that Noh as a performing art aims for. Therefore, it would have been thought that designs of autumn grasses were most suitable for expressing the image of the stories and the aesthetic sense of Noh.

However, there is also the background that Japan has many seasonal festivals, ceremonies, and customs, and people have incorporated these into their daily lives to add variety to their lives. It is thought that at such times, in order to share these with society and other people, people used patterns that clearly evoked the time or season on clothing and dyed textiles.

For these reasons, the expressions of the seasons in Japanese dyeing and weaving are extremely complex and diverse.

When comparing Japanese patterns with those from other countries, we notice that Japan has many unique designs that cannot be found abroad. These are patterns that do not directly express the interesting or beautiful appearance of the motif, or the inherent meaning or content of the motif, but are patterns that have been created by seeking themes from legends, stories, poetry, performing arts, etc.

This type of pattern, which takes its theme from legends or literature, is widely seen in Japanese craft designs, but its history is thought to date back to the Middle Ages. In dyed and woven textiles, designs based on poetry appeared the earliest, and in "Eiga Monogatari" there are already descriptions of clothing with poetry as a design.

The earliest surviving example of a kimono that displays a poetic design is the "Kosode (short sleeve) with a pine and sea wave character pattern on a dyed silk ground" from the early Edo period, housed at the Toyama Memorial Museum.

The silk fabric is dyed in different colors, with stitched crests, kanoko crests, Seigaiha (wave pattern), pine trees, and the characters for "mountain" and "dog." As "dog" is an abbreviation of the character for "etsu," it is thought that the combination of Seigaiha (wave pattern) and pine tree refers to a poem from Volume 14 of the "Shui Wakashu," "As I wring my sleeves for the one I have made my promise to, I look upon the pine trees of our youth" (Kiyohara Motosuke).

The first examples of designs based on stories can be seen in Noh costumes from the Momoyama period, which dates back to the early days.

The "Red and White Striped Strip of Yatsuhashi Grass and Flower Pattern Sewing Foil" in the Tokyo National Museum's collection has parts depicting Yatsuhashi and Iris japonica in its pattern, and it is clear that the design is based on the famous passage in the ninth chapter of "The Tales of Ise" that begins with "In the province of Mikawa, at a place called Yatsuhashi."

In this way, literary designs, which can be said to be one of the traditional designs in Japanese dyeing and weaving, were most widely used to decorate people's clothing during the Edo period.

During this period, the "Yatsuhashi" bridge was the most commonly used design in the "Tales of Ise," and the "Musashi stirrup" and "Tsutsuizutsu" patterns were also used, although to a lesser extent.