Sartorial Japonisme and the Experience of Kimonos in Britain, 1865—1914, explores the experience of kimono in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Through the medium of painting, theatre, performance, dress, department stores, postcards, and drag, it examines the design, construction, dissemination, and reception of kimono as garments situated as a sartorial medium in the critical discourse of Japonisme. Approaching kimono as a unique space of transformation, the book includes the everyday experiences of kimono in Britain and of those people and spaces previously ignored or overlooked. Researched and written by Arisa Yamaguchi, assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba, it draws on research conducted at museums and archives in Britain and Japan to elicit new perspectives to established scholarship of Japonisme in the visual arts (Ono, Taylor and Francis, 2003; Kikuchi, The Journal of Modern Craft, 2008; Tornier, Journal of Japonisme, 2017; Emery and Rado, Journal of Japonisme, 2024).

Starting with the concept of transformation, chapter one follows kimono’s material agency in transforming the body through paintings and theatrical performance. Initially constructed to frame nakedness in the representation of the female body, kimono was used to reveal, but also conceal and transform, whether through gender or race as actors wore kimonos to transcend normative boundaries. In this way, kimonos were brought to the attention of the upper classes as potentially emancipatory garments that provided a different space in which identities could be explored as fluid and transmutable.

In chapter two, through the female dress reform movement, kimonos became associated with healthy and aesthetically acceptable feminine dressing that was comfortable and decorative, whilst also containing links to feminine intellectualism, art movements, and the classical world. Disseminated through department stores first as curios, kimono became a popular expression of Japonisme as fashion, translating into different forms more palatable for British tastes and uses, such as the tea gown.

As part of Japonisme, chapter three positions kimonos in the wider context of Orientalism as an imaginary space for the exploration, negotiation, and expression of identity, status, and positionality, in which the Orient becomes a place of British fantasy. As such, in chapter four, kimono can be seen as a space of contested power and agency in an age of empire. Initially romanticized as a pastoral and rural idyll, “Old Japan” became subject to the new disciplines of scientific knowledge and social Darwinism in the study of bodies and customs through the 1885 Japanese Native Village Exhibition.

Yet by the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition, military alliances and the modernization of the Japanese state meant that representations of Japan began to change from the bodies to the lives of people. This is evidenced in the demonstration of Japanese skills and the positioning of Japanese people as civilized in contrast to other East Asian cultures situated as more “native” in the exhibition, as well as images of modern Japanese people in postcards in chapter five.

Finally, through the dissemination of exhibitions, inscribed postcards, and use of kimono in drag, chapter five outlines the personal and interactive elements of Japonsime for all levels of people in their every day, of which the dissemination and consumption of kimono was such a vital part.

In terms of its scholarship, this work was comprehensively researched, covering a variety of areas, drawing from a range of archived material of artworks to performances, pamphlets, posters, preserved costume and dress, photographs, and postcards. Specific examples were examined in depth, and it was evident a variety of sources were accessed that covered materials obtained from archives of exhibitions, theatre productions, and department stores in Britain and Japan.

As such, the methodologies and analysis used were varied and intertextual, spanning historical, cultural, material, and garment analysis. This was especially evident in the materiality of the kimono as a method. Understanding how it was constructed, folded, hung, and draped over the body was pivotal to understanding its multifunctional uses as clothing, interior decoration, and stage prop. The potential for kimono to become a space of possibility was facilitated by this material analysis, expanding work on the area and adding to scholarship where  kimono goes beyond the purely material (Cliffe, Bloomsbury, 2017; Chiba, Routledge, 2022).

Kimono as fashion in chapter two was more conventional, examining the garment as fashion in Victorian and Edwardian Britain and the role department stores played. Of interest was the recounting of the Japanese department store Takashimaya, as the counterpart to the department stores in Britain, and its role in the dissemination of kimono as fashion aimed at the international market, featuring garments from the Kyoto Institute and the Takashimaya Historical Archive. To hear about the Japanese side of designing kimono-inspired garments is a valuable contribution to the field, especially through accessing Takashimaya archives, where there has been limited scholarship (McDermott, Monumenta Nipponica, 2010; Rado, Fashion Theory, 2015).

In the connection and analysis of kimono within the context of wider orientalism and colonialism, this research was particularly brave, tackling not only the implicit and open racism and Darwinism of the British Empire but also the historic complicity and ruthlessness of the Japanese imperial government towards its Indigenous subjects and their use as natives displayed and juxtaposed against the civilization of Japanese people. This book was unafraid to confront uncomfortable issues regarding empire, imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism from different perspectives of British and Japanese imperial history. Moreover, by connecting British and Japanese military interests to the portrayal of Japonisme in Britain, it identified Japanese nationalism and colonialism as strategies implemented beyond Asia in popular culture, which can be framed as influenced by British imperialism and militarism. In this, it adds to other work in the area that focuses on specific cultural items as a locus for cultural politics (Surak, Stanford University Press, 2012; Cwiertka, Reaktion, 2006).

It also deftly connected the use of kimono to the anxieties of British citizens about the empire, making the case for kimono as a signifier of Japan to be utilized as a medium for British fantasy. In this, the very nature of kimono as an ambiguous, unstructured material was identified as enabling multiple interpretations, transgressing the body to encompass space itself. This metaphysical and metaphorical interpretation of kimono as Japonsime was particularly evident in the compelling inclusion of postcards and photographs of drag, in which the ambiguity of the garment enabled a more open interpretation of research materials about kimonos as a mode of communication and self-expression rather than worn clothing.

However, for the book’s aim of bringing to the fore the everyday experiences of kimono as sartorial fashion in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, especially from previously unheard voices, it was rather sparse on actual voices and their thoughts on kimono fashion. Apart from a few quotes from newspaper columns and writings on postcards, there seemed little provision for the opinions of the wearers, users, and viewers of Japonisme and kimono. While the analysis of the events, exhibitions, and materials accessed was detailed and excellent, the inclusion of recorded narratives would have added a closer and more intimate dimension to the research.

A promising line was the account of the London Jewish community’s encounter with Japonisme through local exhibitions. However, although interesting, it was rather inconclusive and would have benefited from further development or a stronger message on the wider themes of colonialism, empire, race, or social Darwinism. Likewise, although adequate in summing up the research covered, considering the richness of the material, the conclusion was rather short and could have been more advanced for the greater significance of the research to the wider field.

In conclusion, this body of work was a valuable contribution to the field, constructing a compelling argument that covered a variety of areas, materials, and transnational archives between the UK and Japan. Taking the kimono beyond the conventional scholarship as a worn garment, it was skilfully interwoven within the larger narratives of imperial power and competing interests and anxieties of modernity and different national interests.

In addition to the material qualities of kimono, the metaphysical qualities were explored, leading to its significance not only as a draped and fashioned garment, but also as an exploratory space for self-expression, liberation, fantasy, and self-realization. This was conducted through rigorous analysis of the representation of kimono through a variety of mediums, from paintings, photographs, brochures, and postcards to performative use on stage, society balls, festivals, exhibitions, and drag.

However, a bit more development of individual and marginalized voices within the engagement with Japonsime and kimono would have raised the novelty of this research further, especially of the Jewish community, of which narrative appeared a promising line of inquiry.

Nevertheless, this was a well-written and well-researched book, in which the writing was clear and well-supported with documented material evidence both textually and visually. Links were made between diverse areas to construct a compelling historical narrative and analysis in which kimono was reassessed, and its scope as a cultural artifact was widened to include politics, identity, and its significance as a transmedia object of Japonisme—a valuable and engaging addition to the field of Japanese and fashion historical studies.