Meisen (textile)

Meisen was generally dyed with bright new aniline dyes, which were cheaper and faster to use than traditional plant-based dyes.[2] Unlike in Meiji-period clothing, no attempt was made to match the colours of the older dyes;[4] vivid, obviously-synthetic shades were commonly used.[2]

While traditional kasuri (Japanese ikat) involved tying bundles of threads and dying them by hand, meisen was often patterned using less labour-intensive techniques. These produced kasuri-style blurred edges to the patterns, but with lower labour costs than hand-tying.[2] For instance, for warp-faced fabrics, the warp threads might be dyed (printed) on the loom, or dyed by the hogushi ("unravelling") technique: weaving the warp with a very sparse, temporary weft (called tane-ito[3]), laying the cloth on a printing-table,[3] stencil-printing the pattern, letting the dye dry, removing the temporary weft, and re-weaving the now-coloured warp threads with a permanent weft.[5][2] Later, techniques for stencil-dyeing the weft threads were invented (yokoso-kasuri), and then techniques for dying both warp and weft (heiyo-kasuri). The dyes were mixed with rice paste or a similar starchy paste before being squeegeed over the stencils.[3]

These thread-dying techniques produce a double-sided pattern,[5] unlike painting or printing cloth, so when a meisen garment begins to show wear on the outside, it can be resewn with the panels flipped inside-to-out.[7]

Patterns on meisen are often somewhat mismatched,[2] and motifs range far beyond traditional kimono subjects.[5] Motifs may be taken from portions of traditional patterns, and are largely abstract, often bold, geometric, or with op-art-like dazzle effects.[3][5] Designs included exotic motifs like stained glass patterns, Egyptian patterns, exotic birds, and exotic flowers like roses and tulips, and were influenced by imported movies.[8] Designs are often Western-influenced, including by the Art Nouveau, Modernist, Expressionist,[8] Art Deco,[5] and Arts and Crafts movements, which had in turn been influenced by Japanese art.

Meisen advertisement art print, 1934, commissioned by the Ashikaga Meisen Association (of textile-makers) and the Takashimaya Department Store. The large peony pattern is in a non-traditional colour combination.[8]

The market was highly competitive and had a rapid pace of technical innovation. New designs were produced each season, and advertised as defining specific "looks" and social meanings; department store requested specific patterns, made fashion forecasts, and gave marketing advice. Networks of wholsalers at various geographic scales formed.[8]

After the military, the textile industry lead Japanese industrialisation. Initially, there were government subsidies and substantial government ownership. In 1882, government had just begun to privatise major enterprises, and textile mills made up half of private factories and employed 2⁄3 of factory workers. Textile workers increasingly became mostly female. In the Taishō period, many workers were daughters of well-off farm families and the former ruling class, but later they came mostly from poor peasant families.[8]

Meisen garments were often lined with lightweight cloth, from cheaper fibres like cotton or cupro. These were usually not treated with fibre-damaging sizing, as more expensive cloth often was, improving the chances of the garments surviving.[2]

Meisen was a fairly cheap cloth, used for clothing, noren curtains, futons, and zabuton (cushions).[8]

Meisen was extremely popular in its day, especially among newly-financially-independent women, before abruptly going out of fashion. This abrupt unfashionalbleness helped preserve many meisen garments. Small amounts of meisen are still produced in the 21st century, and there are many meisen garments on the secondhand market. Boldly-patterned meisen is periodically popular with wafuku enthusiasts.[2]

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  Kimono, stencil-printed warp, with a notably Arts and Crafts lattice-and-rose motif, 1912 to 1926
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  Kimono, stencil printed on warp and weft
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  Stencil-printed meisen kimono, chrysanthemum pattern
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  Stencil-printed haori
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  Meisen haori over a more subdued kimono.
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  Kimono with paper cranes (origami), portrayed in Western perspective
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  A store selling meisen, 1930
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  Another Ashikaga advertising poster, 1928; Art Nouveau-influenced pattern[8]

• Tanmono, the traditional bolt of cloth used for making kimono
• Kasuri, traditional Japanese ikat dyework
• Tsumugi, a rougher, softer, less-uniform slubby noil cloth.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meisen (textile).

• Meisen Kimono exhibit at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, Haruko Watanabe's collection
• Photogallery of meisen garments from that exhibit: "From the collection of Haruko Watanabe: MEISEN". nancypricestudio.ca. Retrieved 5 April 2022.