京都祇園 奥村さめ

About this photo

On the obi at her back, a checkered pattern of alternating light and dark squares shows. She sits at an angle with one hand at her collar, looking to the side. Her kimono has a pattern like scattered fine dots, and her other hand, on her lap, holds something whitish. This portrait of a woman of Gion, Kyoto, appears in Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka, 1903).

The name of this checkered pattern, ichimatsu, comes from Sanogawa Ichimatsu I, a kabuki actor of the Edo period. He became popular wearing hakama with alternating white and navy squares on stage, and as he was portrayed in ukiyo-e, the pattern spread as a kimono design. Before that it was called ishidatami (stone paving), and going further back, in the Heian period, it was called arare (hail). It is an old pattern that was used on the costumes and furnishings of court nobles.

Glossary