МАЭ № 13-33

Men’s summer kimono

Japanese

early 19th c.

silk textile, silk thread, natural colourant

146.0 x 132.0

The kimono is made of blue thin transparent silk, without lining, is decorated with 5 family crests – and is called itsutsu-mon kimono – “a five-crest kimono”. Such kimonos were used for summer official ceremonies. The crests are kuyomon – the “nine stars”; these crests marked the civil garments of the Mori clan representatives and attendants. This item must be a present from one of them. Perhaps, initially this kimono was of a much darker color.

Ethnography of East and South-East Asia