Kabuki kimono costumes

 

This is the second series of beautiful kabuki kimono costumes loaned to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford by the famous Japanese performer Bando Tamasaburo V and they are just as amazing as the first series. Kabuki is a traditional Japanese style of drama involving melodramatic plots, stylized acting, music, dance and stunning costumes. All kabuki actors are male and Tamasaburo is famous in Japan as the most well-known ‘onnagata’ or performer of female roles. He collaborates closely with the textile designers to produce unique personalised costumes.

There are many costume changes throughout the dramas and they subtly reflect the personalities of the characters, their feelings, the development of the plot and the seasons of the year. The techniques used to produce them include weaving, embroidery, dyeing and painting.

This ethereal over-robe incorporates a design of cherry blossom by firelight (there is a detail at the top of the post). The under-layer of silk is dyed and overlaid with silk gauze embroidered with thread wrapped in gold foil. This kimono is worn by the courtesan Matsuyama as she appears to her lover in a vision on a spring evening. It looks beautiful here but seen on stage, in a film that accompanies the exhibition, it really comes alive and shimmers under the stage lights.

Two over-robes worn by the courtesan Yugiri at different times in the play ‘Love letters from the pleasure quarters’ show how the costumes help to develop the narrative. She wears the black and white robe embroidered with egrets by a flowing stream with snowflakes and snow-covered weeping willow branches to reflect her fragility and the bleakness of winter when she falls ill after being separated from her lover. Later she wears the colourful robe below, embroidered with peonies and peacocks, to express the joy she feels when she recovers from her illness and is reunited with her lover.

There are six stunning kimono in the exhibition and in the accompanying film Tamasaburo explains how the costumes were made and the inspiration for their designs. It also shows how he dresses for the performances and seeing the robes being worn under theatre lighting also reveals how these beautiful costumes come to life on the stage and become an integral part of the drama.