大阪北新地 高田屋小時

About this photo

Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka) is a photo album published in 1903 (Meiji 36). In this photo, she sits in a kimono patterned all over with rows of tiny round dots, holding something like a slender stick diagonally in both hands, with a smile on her lips. The name under the photo reads "Osaka Kitashinchi, Takadaya Kotoki."

Kyo-kanoko shibori, done on silk in Kyoto, is a tie-dyeing technique designated a national traditional craft in 1976 (Showa 51). Kanoko shibori is a technique of tying cloth in tiny bunches before dyeing to make a pattern like the dappled back of a fawn, and its origins go back to the Nara period. Because it takes so much work, in the Edo period sokanoko, cloth covered entirely in kanoko, was sometimes banned as a luxury. The dotted pattern on the kimono in the photo also looks like kanoko shibori. The reading of the name is our best guess.

Glossary