京都祇園 内藤小秀

About this photo

She seems to be passing a needle through a striped cloth spread on her lap. Her kimono also has thin vertical stripes, and her obi a pattern like small squares patched together. Her eyes have turned away from her hands, off to the side. The name under the photo reads "Kyoto Gion, Naito Kohide."

In this photo from the 1903 (Meiji 36) album Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka), both the kimono and the cloth on her lap are striped. The Japanese word for stripes, shima, was originally written with the character for "island." From the mid-16th century, striped cloth from southern China, India and Southeast Asia came to Japan through trade with Ming China and the Nanban trade with the Portuguese and Spanish. It became fashionable under names such as shima-momen (island cotton), and in time the character for "stripe" became the usual way to write the word, it is said. By the middle of the Edo period, as cotton spread, striped fabrics were woven widely in Japan as well and were taken up for the kimono of ordinary people.

Glossary