Exhibition Outlines

No.22 The Beauty of Imperial Court Costumes -From Edo to Meiji- (2000/9/23 - 2000/12/10)

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The Beauty of Imperial Court Costumes

It gives us great pleasure to present, as the 22nd special event of our museum, a unique exhibition entitled The Beauty of Imperial Court Costumes-From Edo to Meiji.

It is widely known that the Japanese Imperial Household has long been a great lover of the country’s arts and culture and has played an important role in their promotion and development over the centuries. The legacies of this fact are now to be seen, in a variety of forms, in practically every facet of the nation’s traditional culture. There is no denying the fact, however, that the nation’s unique sense of beauty is most faithfully preserved in the traditional costumes of the Imperial Household. After dress regulations were first formulated in the Nara period on the basis of their Continental counterparts, the costumes of the Japanese Imperial court underwent considerable changes to meet the local climactic and other needs. Once they found their true uniqueness, however, the costumes have remained basically the same over the centuries, although some formal and other adaptations have been made from period to period. The costumes are the very flower of the culture of the Japanese Imperial court.

Fabricated in the late Edο period through the Meiji era, the historical costumes shown at the present exhibition, are the most legitimate and precious of all Imperial court costumes, as they were actually worn by Emperors Komei and Meiji and Empress Dowager Eisho. The costumes are in possession of the Imperial Household. As the exhibits include headdresses, belts, folding fans, shoes and other items, viewers will be able to easily picture how the entire costumes would have looked in their days. Also on display are the dolls illustrating the court nobles’ costumes in the Edο period and the Drawing album of designs of court costumes of emperors and crown princes, in our museum’s possession produced with the aim of recording for posterity, in minutest detail, the traditional court costumes which at one time faced extinction in the course of the nation’s aggressive westernization with the arrival of the modern era.

The present exhibition, the home country version of the special show, Ceremonial Costumes and Treasures of the Emperors of Japan, held with great popularity at the Paleis Het Loo National Museum in the Netherlands from June through August of this year in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the start of the friendly relationship between Japan and the Netherlands. For the home exhibition, the focus is placed on historical costumes with addition of several new items never before put on public display. Nothing will gratify us more if the viewers will take this opportunity to personally appreciate the beauty of Imperial court costumes and see for the themselves the very essence of the Imperial court culture that successfully survived the revolutionary changes the country went through in and around the Meiji Restoration.