‘앤티크 기모노붐’을 통해 본 기모노의 근대화와 재생

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the phenomenon called “the Antique Kimono Boom” in contemporary Japan. Antique kimono refer to kimono made during the Taisho and early Showa periods, which recently have become very popluar with their Western-style bold patterns and designs, and low prices as recycled ones. In order to understand what the current antique kimono boom means, I address the following three questions: 1) What kind of changes kimono have experienced in the process of modernization since the Meiji Restoration, and 2) who prefer antique kimono to ordinary ones and what are their motivations, facing the crystalization and ritualization of kimono after the postwar period, and 3) what are the characteristics of modernity in Japan, exemplified in the modernization of kimono? As conclusion, while antique kimono as hybrid culture symbolize “exotic Japan” beyond the binary opposition between the West and Japan for young Japanese women, the power of kimono as Japanese national dress can threaten the possibilities of antique kimono boom as subculture.