Featured on PDR in the collection Designs from Kimono Pattern Books (ca. 1902)

“Kimono”, which translates to “wearing thing” in Japanese, is both a modern invention and a millennium-old style. Becoming the kimono we know today only during the Meiji period (1868–1912), this garment, details Cynthia Green, developed from the Edo kosode, which, in turn, was a revised form of clothing popular during the Heian period (794–1192). In these images from three pattern books published by Honda Unkindō (ca. 1902), we glimpse both evolving tradition and modern fictions, which imbued the kimono with complex associations of national heritage.