Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No. 483

(日本語はこちら→「リアル過ぎる昆虫モチーフの大正期の着物の逸品から学ぶこと」）

Hello from Ichiro.　I have obtained an amazing piece from Taisho period. It is a thin silk kimono for summer-flowing water patterns is woven and filled with charming insects among plants. They are so graphic! 

They are so vivid-as if we can almost see scales of butterfleis coming off and grasshoppers jumping out! Dragonflies and fireflies are showing thier winks. There are some insect we cannot remember the names. The detailed patterns are like the ones from insects pictorial book.

We find amazingly graphic patterns like this, among kimono from Taisho sometimes.

However, this particular kimono is SO different. In this peaceful scenery of grass and insects, there are big spiderwebs. On the left panel and on the right shoulder, the big spiders are waiting for the prey.

Isn't it like a real world?

For innocent butterflies and dragonflies who are happily flying, and also the fireflies giving winks of their short lives and grasshoppers hiding in the grass-the future is waiting for them fairly with the spiderweb.

Of course spiders are not always evils, I just cannot see the design without associating with our real world!
Vintage kimono often give us these surprise with very unique design.