Kimono at the Morris Miller Library (UTAS Sandy Bay Campus)

Kitsune

Kimono and Kitsuke Club

presents:

Kimono at the Morris Miller

With its dangling sleeves and decorative sash, kimono is the instantly recognisable national dress of Japan.

The modern kimono takes its current form from the garments worn by wealthy samurai women and the upper class in the 1800s when Japan underwent a period of rapid modernisation known as the Meiji Restoration.

It was in the 1920s and ‘30s, with the rise of department stores and prêt-à-porter (ready to wear) kimono that the garment became an everyday style and fashion item.

The garments on display come from the kimono collection of Emerald King, a recent PhD graduate of the (former) School of Asian Languages and Studies and current President of TUU Kitsune: Kimono and Kitsuke Club.

(With thanks to Bec Muir - Kitsune Treasurer - for her wedding accessories and Hitomi Yoshida - Kitsune VP - for her mens yukata)

Items date from the mid Shôwa period (1926-1989) to modern day.

The exhibition is free and will run for the month of April at the Morris Miller Libray, UTAS Sandy Bay campus. (Opening hours here: http://www.utas.edu.au/library/about-us/our-libraries/morris-miller-campus-library/opening-hours)

Japan Design Today 100

http://www.jpf.org.au/jpfevents/11-jpdesigntoday100/index.html

The Australia Japan Society (Tasmania) with the Japan Foundation are bringing this fantastic exhibition down to Hobart from the 20 June - 15 July at the Schoolhouse Gallery & Rosny Barn, City of Clarence.

Featuring the finest Japanese design of household products from the 1990s to the present-day.
These selected designs provide a modern mirror into the hopes and dreams of the people who used the products, as well as the designers and corporations who created them. It illustrates the trends and features of Japanese design at specific time periods, allowing an insight into the nature of today's Japanese culture.

More details and photos on the website.

foxy fox fox - kitsune in images #1

Prince Hanzoku terrorized by a nine-tailed fox. Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 19th century http://www.worldsofimagination.com/monster%20Kitsune.htm; Kikukawa Eizan, 'Geisha Playing the Hand-Game Kitsune-ken' http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/7318; Kuniyoshi's woodblock print of the legendary kitsune Kuzunoha http://abutterflydreaming.com/2009/05/20/fox-magic-kitsune/; Kitsune no Yomeiri - The Fox's Wedding Series Print by Tachibana Minko and his Circle http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/IX004602/kitsune-no-yomeiri---the-foxs-wedding/?ext=1; Dancing Fox, Ohara Koson (Japanese), c. 1910http://effyeaharthistory.tumblr.com/post/1177190896/dancing-fox-ohara-koson-japanese-c-1910; Kuniyoshi's "Fox Wife Departing" http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/02/meg_foxs_commen.html; Kunitarō Sawamura II as Kitsune Tadanobu (left) flying over the stage, in the August 1825 production of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura http://wapedia.mobi/en/Kabuki; (1R) Nakamura Sankô I as Kojorô kitsune (fox); (2R) Kataoka Nizaemon VII as Sengoku Gonpei; (3R) Ichikawa Ebijûrô I as Takechi Samanosuke; (4R) Arashi Karoku IV as Izumo no Okuni; (5R) Nakamura Utaemon III as Nagoya Sanza in Kotobuki Horaisan, Naka Theater, Osaka http://www.osakaprints.com/content/artists/info_pp/hokushu_info/hokushu_13a.htm

At the first meeting of 'Kitsune' the meaning of the club name and symbol was discussed. The pictures above are a small sample of wood block prints depicting kitsune in various forms: fox wives, nine-tailed foxes, and a fox wearing a leaf on his head preparing to transform. Some of these foxes are from kabuki plays. One image depicts geisha in kimono doing the hand actions to a dance about foxes. You will notice that all of these foxes are red or brown not white. White foxes are messengers to the rice and fertility deity Inari.

The 'Kitsune' club logo is taken from a woodblock print by the artist Yoshitoshi and is part of his series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–1892).

This post is the first in what will hopefully be a series on famous kitsune and foxes. Topics that I hope to cover include: Inari shrines and foxes; foxes in anime and manga; fox wives; foxes in kabuki; Yoshitune senbon zakura; Abe no Seme;