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The Case of the Dying Kimono: The Influence of Changing Fashions on the Development of the Japanese Woolen Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Keiichirō Nakagawa  and
Henry Rosovsky
Keiichirō Nakagawa
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Tokyo
Henry Rosovsky
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

Recognizing the importance of the woolen industry in Japan's industrial development, this article explores the impetus given that industry by the gradual Westernization of Japanese tastes in clothing.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 37 , Issue 1-2: Special Illustrated Fashion Issue , Spring/Summer 1963 , pp. 59 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

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References

1 On the cotton industry during the Tokugawa period, see Takako, Sanpei, Nihon kigyoshi (History of Textile Manufactures in Japan) (Tokyo, 1961)Google Scholar , Part II, Chap. V, and particularly pp. 150–58.

2 For the history of Japanese fashions, a most useful source is Tsutomu, Ema, Nihon fukushoku shiyo (Outline of the History of Japanese Fashions) (Kyoto, 1944).Google Scholar The kimono itself is an outgrowth of a kind of undergarment called kosode and worn by the upper classes between the eighth and twelfth centuries. This gradually became an outergarment, and the basic style was fairly well set by the fourteenth century.

3 Sanpei, Nihon kigyo-shi, pp. 107, 115, 124, 143–46, 150, 197–201.

4 Kyōgikai, Chihō-shi Kenkyū (Local History Society), Nihon sangyō-shi taikei (History of Manufactures in Japan) (Tokyo, 1961), vol. I, p. 271.Google Scholar

5 Thomas Carlyle Smith says that in the Bunka era (1804–18) some sheep were imported from China to provide wool for the Tokugawa family. See Political Change and Industrial Development in Japan: Government Enterprise, 1868–1880 (Stanford, 1955), p. 63. In terms of output, this could not have amounted to much.

6 Japanese proper names are throughout cited in the Japanese manner, with the surname preceding the given name.

7 Shimbunsha, Nihon Orimono (Japan Textile News Co.), Dai Nihon orimono 2600-nen shi (A 2,600-Year History of Textiles in Greater Japan) (Tokyo, 1940), vol. I, pp. 220–23Google Scholar, vol. II, p. 266. Some wool was imported as early as the Ashikaga period (1392–1568). See Smith, Political Change, p. 63.

8 Kumiai, Osaka Yofuku-shō Dōgyō (Osaka Association of Merchants and Tailors of Western Suits), Nihon yofuku enkaku-shi (The History of Western Suits in Japan) (Osaka, 1930), pp. 26–28.Google Scholar The Tokugawa shogun was the effective ruler of Japan until 1868. In that year, during the Meiji Restoration, power was ostensibly returned to the Emperor.

9 Between 1859 and 1868, imports of woolen fabrics for the army and navy amounted to between 20 and 40 per cent of total imports.

10 The kimono, being a loose garment, presented no special problems of cutting and fitting. Until recently, most Japanese women were capable of putting these garments together entirely by hand. Western garments require a much closer individual fit, and the Japanese needed special training in order to become Western-style tailors. In the late 1850's and 1860's there were a few foreign tailors catering to the small foreign settlements in Yokohama and Kobe. Some of these establishments took Japanese apprentices, and they in turn became the first native entrepreneurs in this trade. In 1886 the Association of Merchants and Manufacturers of Western Suits was founded in Tokyo with 123 members. See Tōkyō yōfuku shokogyō dōgyō kumiai enkaku-shi (The History of the Tokyo Association of Merchants and Manufacturers of Western Suits) (Tokyo, 1940), pp. 53–72. In 1890 there was issued the first style book (fukusō zasshi) designed to introduce the newest fashions of Europe to the tailors and the public. See Nihon yōfuku enkaku-shi, p. 134. Some sewing machines had been in use since the 1860's, and in 1887, a special sewing-machine school was founded in Tokyo mainly for the benefit of apprentice tailors. The Singer Co. established a school, also in Tokyo, in 1907, and here the students were largely housewives and young girls.

11 Nihon yōfuku enkaku-shi, pp. 65–88.

12 The government had the Emperor say the following things: “The national polity (kokutai) is indomitable, but manners and customs should be adaptable. We greatly regret that the uniform of our court has been established following the Chinese custom, and it has become exceedingly effeminate in style and character…. The Emperor Jimmu [660–585 B.C.] who founded Japan, and the Empress Jingu [201–269] who conquered Korea were not attired in the present style. We should no longer appear before the people in these effeminate styles, and we have therefore decided to reform dress regulations entirely.” Ibid., pp. 80–81. What Emperor Jimmu's reaction would have been to the cutaway must remain an open question.

13 The Satsuma Rebellion was an uprising on the part of former Kagoshima samurai led by Saigō Takamori. The differences in dress during the rebellion can be seen in the contemporary paintings contained in Gaho kindai 100-nenshi (A Hundred-Year Pictorial History of Modern Japan) (Tokyo, 1951), vol. IV, pp. 316–19.

14 At that time foreigners had extra-territorial rights in Japan, and the government thought that the rapid spread of Western manners and dress would enable it to get rid of the unequal treaties at an earlier date. In line with this policy the government sponsored, beginning in 1883, a variety of nightly social affairs at the Rokumeikan, a Western-style building in Tokyo. These affairs were attended by foreigners and high-class Japanese, all in Western dress. See Kumiai, Tōkyō Fujin-Kodomo Fuku Seizō Oroshi Kyōdō (The Cooperative Society of the Manufacturers and Wholesalers of Ladies' and Children's Suits in Tokyo), Tōkyō fujin-kodomo fuku gyōkai 30-nenshi (A Thirty-Year History of the Ladies' and Children's Suits Traders of Tokyo) (Tokyo, 1960), pp. 9–12.Google Scholar Some of the department stores also opened Western-dress sections at this time. See Shirokiya Co., Shirokiya 300-nenshi (A Three-Hundred-Year History of the Shirokiya) (Tokyo, 1957), p. 252.Google Scholar

15 Nihon yōfuku enkaku-shi, pp. 113–14. Obviously these transformations took quite some time. In Reischauer's charming essay on the great Japanologist Serge Elisséeff, we read that after Elisseeff was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University in 1908, he “soon shifted from the student uniform to a kimono and hakama, the formal double skirt, then worn by the more old-fashioned students and men of education.” Reischauer, Edwin O., “Serge Elisséeff,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. XX (June, 1957), p. 11.Google Scholar

16 Shimpō-sha, Tōyō Keizai (The Oriental Economist), Nihon bōeki seiran (Foreign Trade of Japan: A Statistical Survey) (Tokyo, 1935), p. 243.Google Scholar

17 For example, see Uenoda, S., Japan and Jazz (Tokyo, 1930), p. 133Google Scholar: “Upon arrival at his hfjme, the first thing [the Japanese] does is to change from his foreign clothes to a kimono. It is unutterably relieving and refreshing to be thus released from the yoke of foreign clothing” (italics supplied). Since one generally sits on the floor in a Japanese house, rather tight Western suits or dresses are not particularly suitable.

18 Tombi and nijūmawashi were the Japanese versions of the “inverness” (the coat worn by Sherlock Holmes). It became especially popular in the 1890's. Azutnakōto was a ladies' coat with wide sleeves and collarless, and therefore comfortable over a kimono. See Nihon yōfuku enkaku-shi, pp. 97–98, and Tōkyō fujin-kodomo fuku gyōkai, pp. 44–46.

19 Shōichi, Ikegami, Mosurin to sono torihiki (The Muslin Trade) (Osaka, 1926), p. 8.Google ScholarHaori is a kind of short or three-quarter length cape, and the obi is the broad belt worn with a kimono.

20 Ibid., pp. 15–17. The name Yūzen comes from a technique of dyeing silks, developed at the end of the sixteenth century by a Kyoto painter named Miyazald Yūzen. See Dai Nihon orimono 2600-nen shi, vol. I, pp. 182–83.

21 Nihon bōeki seiran, pp. 246, 249.

22 Inahata Katsutarō kun den (The Biography of Inahata Katsutarō) (Osaka, 1938), pp. 317–25.

23 Kyōkai, Dai Nihon Orimono (Textile Society of Greater Japan), Senshoku 50-nen shi (A Fifty-Year History of Dyeing) (Tokyo, 1935), pp. 202–203Google Scholar, and Daidō Keori, K.K. (Daidō Worsted Mills, Ltd.), Ito hitosuji (Spinning and Weaving for Eighty Years) (Tokyo, 1960), vol. I, pp. 157–59.Google Scholar

24 Among other things, kimono have the advantage of lasting much longer than Western clothes. Styles change less frequently, and since the garment is loose it can fit successive generations of wearers.

25 Nihon yōfuku enkaku-shi, pp. 190–91.

26 Tōkyō fujin-kodomo fuku gyōkai, pp. 70–72.

27 Ibid., pp. 66–67. In the big cities primary and secondary school boys were already dressed in Western uniforms in the 1900's.

28 Ibid., pp. 89–90. See also Gaho fuzoku-shi: nihonjin no seikatsu to bunka (A Pictorial History of Japanese Life) (Tokyo, 1958), vol. XV, pp. 1022, 1023, 1040–41, and vol. XVI, pp. 1062–63.

29 Shirokiya 300-nenshi, pp. 488–89, 494–95.

30 For example, in 1900 the average twenty-year-old male was 160.0 cm. tall and the average female measured 147.9 cm. By 1940, these measurements were 164.5 cm. and 152.7 cm. respectively. See Japan, Mombushō (Ministry of Education), Gakko hoken tōkeisho (School Health Statistics), 1960, pp. 158–60, 170–71. Also Tokyo University, Taiikugaku-kiyo (Review of Physical Education) (June, 1960), vol. I.

31 Throughout the article, figures are cited in current yen. To give some perspective on real values, the following information may be helpful. Between 1878 and 1942, the General Price Index rose from 35.9 to 251.9 (1928–1932 = 100). At the same time, the yen gradually depreciated vis-à-vis the dollar. For example, Y100 = $82.12 (1890), $49.54 (1910), $49.63 (1920), $49.00 (1930), and $23.44 (1940). On the government program to introduce new industries, see Smith, Political Change, and Yamaguchi Kazuo, Nihon keizai-shi kōgi (Lectures on Japanese Economic History) (Tokyo, 1960), pp. 104–105, 106, 120–21, 130–32. For the history of Senjū, see Senjū Seijū-sho 50-nen ryaku-shi (Outline of the Fifty-Year History of the Senju Woolen Mill) (Tokyo, 1928), and Inoue Shōzo den (Biography of Inoue Shōzo) (Tokyo, 1938). The initial investment for Senjū consisted of Y877 for land, Y104,500 for buildings, and Y116,300 for machinery. Inoue Shōzo den, pp. 92, 100.

32 Smith, Political Change, p. 65.

33 Cited in Ibid.

34 Senjū Seiju-sho 50-nen ryaku-shi, Appendix table 2. The mill employed 150 workers in 1880. The British consul at Yokohama who visited Senjū at that time reported that the samples of cloth were “certainly very good specimens.” He also listed the following equipment: 1 seventy-six-horsepower “non-engine,” 6 carding machines, 42 looms, 6 self-acting mules, 8 fulling machines, 5 brushing machines, 1 sizing trough, 2 centrifugal pumps, 2 washing vats, 2 rising machines, 8 shrinking machines, 5 teasers, and 1 steam presser. Smith, Political Change, p. 65.

35 Senjū Seiju-sho 50-nen ryaku-shi, p. 14. It had been under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry (Kōbushō).

36 Ibid., Table 2. Senju only produced heavy woolens and flannel. It never produced light fabrics.

37 Ibid., pp. 18–20.

38 See Table 1 where the principal establishments of the period are listed. Senju reached its peak at about the time of the Russo-Japanese War. With the gradual development of private industry, output dwindled from the high reached in 1904 to 1,500,000 yards in 1906, 1,000,000 yards in 1915, and less than 500,000 yards in 1927. Ibid., pp. 14, 39, and Chart 2.

39 For information about Gotō Josaku, see Tōyō Keizai Shimpō (The Oriental Economist Magazine), vols. XCI and XCII (1898), and vol. CL (1900). The firm changed its name and main products several times. In 1893 it became tie Goto Blanket Manufacturing Co. (Gotō Mōfu Seizōsho), and in 1896 the Gotō Wool Textile Manufacturing Co. (Gotō Keorimono Seizōsho).

40 For information on the Tokyo Wool Spinning Co. (since 1893 Tōkyō Seiju K.K.) see Tōyō Keizai Shimpō, vol. CCC (1904), and for Osaka Wool Spinning Co., Gennosuke, Yokoyama, Naichi zakkyo go no Nihon (Japan after the Revision of the Treaty) (Tokyo, 1954), pp. 147–52.Google Scholar

41 Japan, Tōkyō Fuchō (Tokyo Prefecture), Tōkyō-fu tōkei-sho (Statistical Yearbook of Tokyo Prefecture), 1893 and 1896.

42 Yokoyama, Naichi zakkyo, pp. 147–52.

43 A strong movement to protect the woolen industry was led by Kanematsu Fusajirō, a leading Kobe importer of raw wool from Australia. See Kanematsu 60-nen no ayumi (The Sixty-Year Progress of Kanematsu) (Kobe, 1955), pp. 48–49, and Japan Wool Textile Co., Nippon Keori 60-nen shi (A Sixty-Year History of Japan Wool Textile) (Kobe, 1957), pp. 66–67, 78–79.

44 The abbreviation K.K. stands for kabushiki-kaisha, meaning joint-stock corporation.

45 For the history of the Japan Wool Textile Co., see Nippon Keori 30-nen shi (A Thirty-Year History of Japan Wool Textile) (Kobe, 1931) and Nippon Keori 60-nen shi.

46 Nippon Keori 60-nen shi, pp. 94–95, 98–99. A major new company appeared on the scene in 1906: Tokyo Wool Textile Co. (Tōkyō Keori K.K.). Its initial capitalization was Y1,000,000, supplied by leading Tokyo cotton traders. See Tōyō Keizai Shimpō, vol. CDVIII (1908).

47 Kenkyūsho, Seiji Keizai (Research Center for Political Economy), Nihon yōmō kōgyō-shi (A History of the Japanese Woolen Industry) (Tokyo, 1960), pp. 134–35Google Scholar, also Kenkichi, Umeura, Yōmō kōgyō (The Woolen Industry) (Tokyo, 1937), pp. 43, 135–38.Google Scholar

48 This company was started by Inahata Katsutarō, who was so important in the development of Yūzen muslins.

49 Tōyō Keizai Shimpō, vol. DIX (1909).

50 Nippon Keori 60-nen shi, pp. 117–22.

51 The number two slot was occupied by the Tokyo Wool Textile Co. with 38,450 spindles. Ibid., pp. 133–34; also Tōyō Keizai Shimpō, vol. DCCXXX (1917), and Japan, Nōshōmushō (Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce), Shuyō kōgyō gairan (Survey of Major Industries), 1920, p. 117.

52 Especially because in Japan the factories made mainly plain muslins. Printing remained in the hands of small-scale enterprises. Mosurin to sono torihiki, pp. 305–312.

53 For the pre-Restoration history of the Bisai district, see Hajime, Tamaki, Aichiken keorimono-shi (History of Wool Textiles in Aichi Prefecture) (Nagoya, 1957), pp. 31–61Google Scholar, and Bisai Orimono Dōgyō Kumiai (Bisai Weavers Trade Association), Bisai orimono-shi (History of Bisai Textiles). Tamaki's book contains biographies of some of the leading manufacturers in the district.

54 Among these the Tsuyakin Co. (Tsuyakin Kōgyō K.K.) became the most important.

55 See Tamaki, Aichiken keorimono-shi, Part II, and Part III, Chap. I, and Nihon yōmō kōgyō-shi, Chap. III.

56 Nihon yōmō kōgyō-shi, pp. 155–58, and Daidō Worsted Mills, Ito hitosuji, vol. I, pp. 489–96, 502–508, 534–36.

57 Nihon Keori 60-nen shi, pp. 236–42.

58 The history of Kurihara-Daidō is fully described in Ito hitosuji. This is one of the most important recent contributions to Japanese business history. One of the authors of this article (Nakagawa) cooperated in the writing of this book, and our paper owes much to the experience gained in this work.

59 Ito hitosuji, vol. I, pp. 161–67.

60 Ibid., pp. 202–204, 213, 231–32.

61 The swift adaptation of this company to the rapidly changing structure of the Japanese woolen industry was quite remarkable. It is the case of a medium-sized, family business, free from stockholders' control, behaving with considerable progressiveness and alertness. This is a sharp contrast with the more general picture for France drawn by David S. Landes. See “French Entrepreneurship and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Economic History, vol. IX (May, 1949), pp. 45–61.