[A striking archive of hand-painted kimono designs from the design department of Marubeni Shoten, Ltd., and also including their contracted design studios such as the Keimeikai Textile & Dyeing Studio, and the Tanioka Shoten Design Department. These often large and extraordinary designs encompass a broad range of traditional Japanese motifs, such as ornamental fans, flowers, landscapes, sailing junks, house crests, and animals often with annotations, revision notes, as well as references to potential clients].

[Kyoto, Japan: Marubeni Shoten Design Dept., Keimeikai Textile & Dyeing Studio, Tanioka Shoten Design Dept., ca. 1918-1945]. Folio. 61 original hand-painted, inked, and pencil designs with a few on a lightly toned but quality semi-translucent paper, the majority on thick paper stock, and still others with two pieces carefully pasted together with contiguous designs, sized from 9 x 15 in. up to 19.25 x 38.5 in., with 13 of the pieces larger the larger size, a number of them sized 18 x 32 in., and many in the 14.25 x 15.5 in. size colour painted; the majority feature the design studio chop, or crest at lower corners throughout, many w/ annotations in margins, several w/ change orders neatly annotated, or even the title of the design, and still many others w/ Roman numeric inventory codes in margins as well, two still retaining original small silk samples (many with creasing, or minor tears & edgewear, or creasing to fore-edges, a few w/ small & large closed tears, while others show some creasing and thumbing from continued use), still an exceptional group of manuscripts. This superb archive of 61 original hand-painted kimono designs furnishes an exceptional visual array of Taisho- and early Showa-era Japanese motifs and styles. A number of the designs evoke traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints with deep vivid colours, and well rendered illustrations. Many of these designs incorporate floral patterns, including Kiku (Chrysanthemum), Botan Mon (Peony Pattern), Manju Kiku (Marigolds), Japanese Irises, Morning Glory, Cockscomb, Ivy, Dahlias, and many other botanical motifs. In addition, there are many illustrating ornately embroidered designs, austere bamboo, mushrooms, and intriguing landscapes, some with a small portion fully painted in with brilliant colouring, while the outline of the kimono fills out the drawing. Two of the designs still features their original small attached silk kimono sample, more reminiscent of Western Design houses which often attached their chosen fabric samples to their clothing designs. A few of the designs are executed on translucent thin paper for the kimono draper to transfer the design to white silk, or other fabrics via some type of carbon paper process. Another of the designs has been executed on a stunning silver metallic paper, with palm, or bamboo leaf fronds executed in vivid blues & browns. Some feature a nearly surrealist quality, while several others include illustrations of doves, or chickens. Two of the designs incorporate Art Deco representations of Chinese Junks, and Japanese sailing vessels typical of the 1930’s prior to World War II. In the Taisho Era a new era opened for textile designers working with Kyoto drapers and department stores, with many having trained at new art colleges, and then working in the design studios of Marubeni, Keimeikai Textile & Dyeing Studio, and others. The Tachiki Artist design studio designs on thin translucent paper, include one with designer stamp of character embedded within a skull. Some appear to have two different date stamps for the Marubeni Shoten Design, and some are unsigned, or stamped. The Taisho- and Showa-era kimonos featured brighter colours, more groundbreaking designs, as Japan’s designers embraced traditional dress and transformed it into a new garment equally appealing to the “Moga” or brazen “Modern Girl.” The designer notes include instructions to “leave a little more space between the fans;” “Drop the little fan crest;” “too much white bush clover” on the pine cones, and even that Matsuo Taishichi had ordered a design for “clothes for paying a visit for a young person.” The Marubeni Shoten originated with Chubei Itho who began in 1858 as a salesman for linen cloth, and by 1872 had opened his drapery store Benchu in Senba, Osaka. By 1918 Chubei Itoh had expanded the business into Osaka, and deciced to merge with Itochu Shoten, Ltd. becoming Marubeni Shoten, with their own drapers shops, and many contracts with department stores. Later by the mid-1950s Marubeni merged with the company that operated the Takashimaya Dept. Store Chain, all the while preserving their design studio and artists. See: Yuko Fukatsu-Fukuoka, The Evolution of Yuzen-dyeing Techniques and Designs After the Meiji Restoration (2004); Arisa (Shinko) Tomikawa, Hand Painted Kyo Yuzen Atelier “Arisa” A Brief Introduction, (2020); Annie Van Asche, Japanese Kimono Fashion of the Early Twentieth Century, Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings (2000); Our History, Our Roots, Marubeni Corporation (2020).