Furisode: The Japanese Sense Of Beauty

Many thanks to our friend Masashi Yamaguchi for another fascinating article, this one about the decorative plants and flowers on Japanese kimonos. Please visit Masashi’s Plants & Japan, a botanical and cultural feast.

Furisode (detail, with crane and chrysanthemums). Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi.

Recently, a foreign friend asked me to research kimono, the Japanese traditional costume. It was then I noticed in my house several kimonos that my sister had worn in her youth, and I began studying the images and patterns on them.

This kind of kimono is known as “Furisode,” the type worn by young girls, and the most colorful of kimonos with many images and patterns.

On this kimono, you can recognize pine trees, bamboo leaves, plum flowers, wisteria flowers, chrysanthemums and a crane. Most of them are the symbols of happy fortune and often appear in Japanese crafts.

Pine tree: a symbol of long life, since the pine is a long-lived plant as well as an evergreen tree.

Bamboo: a symbol of youth or growth since bamboo shoots grow very rapidly.

Plum flower: a symbol of endurance, since it shows beautiful flowers in winter and people think that plum flowers can endure coldness (= hardship).

Chrysanthemum: a symbol of long life. It is said that you can live long if you drink water in which chrysanthemum flowers are soaked. This idea came from China in the old times.

Crane: a symbol of good and long relationship since cranes are monogamous birds and they keep strong relationship (wife and husband) for a long time.

Furisode (detail, with seigaiha). Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi.

Until recently, Japanese parents used to buy such kimonos praying for their daughters’ happy marriage and long life. Unfortunately, these days Japanese parents no longer buy kimonos for their daughters; they’ve begun to forget the Japanese sense of beauty that was cultivated since the old times. (I, too, had not noticed the beauty of kimonos until my foreign friend asked me about them.)

On this kimono you can recognize the “wave” pattern. This design is called “Seigaiha,” literally meaning “blue sea wave.” It has been used worldwide. I heard that it was first created in Egyptian crafts. In Japan, this pattern is often used to depict water flow. What do you think about the images and patterns that appear on this kimono? Can you see flowers and plants floating in flowing water?

Mr. Shuichi Kato, a famous art critic of Japan, said, I wonder if the Japanese might have wanted to depict the moment of flow (= motion) in Japanese culture.

If you see Nihon Buyo (classical Japanese dance), you might think the dancing style looks like a slow motion picture. If you see Ukiyoe (classical Japanese print), you might think that Ukiyoe artists ignore rules of perspective. This also applies to Japanese animations and Manga. But what if you wanted to depict the moment of motion, subjectively? You might better understand these expressions of Japanese arts.

I think that one unique point in Japanese art works is asymmetry. You might have noticed on this kimono that the images and patterns appear asymmetrically. This point also applies to Japanese gardens. I know that some European gardens (not English gardens) are well organized symmetrically, like the gardens around the Palace of Versailles. However, the Japanese historically have not created such environments. It seems that the Japanese tend to be fond of asymmetrical expression in their gardens too. Here, too, perhaps the goal is “to depict the moment of flow (= motion.)” and to show the moment of nature subjectively.

Furisode (detail, with crane). Photo: Masashi Yamaguchi.

Thinking about the idea “to depict the moment of nature,” I recalled how the Japanese love to view the moment that cherry blossom petals are falling like snow. We are also fond of viewing red maple leaves falling in autumn. (Falling cherry blossom petals and falling maple leaves often appear in Japanese art.) I am happy to know that we still observe customs like Hanami (= viewing cherry blossoms) or Momijigari (viewing red maple leaves) nowadays. I wonder if nature, the plants and landscapes where we used to live, I wonder if nature, the plants and landscapes where we used to live, created the Japanese sense of beauty. Now that many people have moved from countryside to live in city-sides, I am afraid that in the future we may lose this sense of the Nature’s beauty.

(Editor’s note: Kent State University is winding up what looks like a marvelous exhibition: Raiment for Receptions: A Japanese Bride’s Last Furisode. The show closes March 12, tomorrow. If you can’t attend, make sure to see the website.)