Foil

White kimono and orange lining decorated with flowering plants of peonies in blue and pink. \The red flowers of the peony, which became so popular in Spain through Manila shawls, came to the Japanese imagination from China long before, in the eighth century. Symbol of good luck and prosperity, they soon became a favourite flower of painters and textile craftsmen. \Books of this type were known in Japan as hinagata-bon (literally, books of beautiful forms), and began to be printed as early as the late 16th century so that customers could choose designs for their clothes. They usually showed an entire kimono per page, and their features remained unchanged with little change until the early 19th century. By the Meiji period (1868-1912), to which our books belong, the hinagata-bon had become more formally daring, often showing designs asymmetrically and partially. These compendiums of textile motifs were changed every spring and autumn, and copies of the previous collection were resold on the second-hand market. Some came to the attention of Westerners, and thus a number of hinagata-bon have ended up in European and American collections, including that of the Costume Museum Library. \This wonderful five-volume design series entitled Nihon or Nippon, i.e. Japan, is curiously anonymous; there is no record of place of publication, date or publisher. However, its characteristics suggest that it was printed in Kyoto in the early years of the 20th century.