Fabric sample with university baseball motif

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1273

Omoshirogara (interesting or amusing designs) portrayed the fads, fashions, popular events and technological advances of the times. They were illustrated on the haura interlining of haori coats and on nagajuban (long kimono undergarments). These omoshirogara portray literature, popular music, children’s games and toys, and entertainment such as film and kamishibai storytelling. Popular sport also featured, such as Japan’s success at the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and the university baseball league, with the letters W, K and H representing Waseda, Keio and Hosei universities.

Men’s jacket (haori) with baseball team

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1268

In the 1920s and 1930s, sport represented a healthy and important leisure activity for a modern and progressive nation. Sports that had been unknown in traditional Japan, such as baseball, tennis, athletics, golf, rugby and skiing, captured the public’s imagination and became closely associated with a modern, fashionable lifestyle. Baseball became particularly popular thanks to the great rivalry between university teams, the establishment of a professional league in the 1920s, and in 1934 a tour of an American allstar team that included professional player Babe Ruth.

Women’s kimono with spiral and stripe design and accessories

c. 1930 Japan

silk, cotton, rattan bamboo, enamel, plastic and metal (meisen textile)

Purchased NGV Foundation, 2016
2016.110

This outfit for a spring or summer daytime outing features a large rattan and bamboo picnic basket, a fabric headband with delicate artificial flowers, imitation pearl and diamond hairpins, a refined enamel lotus flower obi brooch, and a pair of metallic-thread cloth flat zōri sandals, which lack the platform of geta sandals. The obi sash displays the popular amusement of moga and mobo ballroom dancing and alludes to the international atmosphere of the dance-class scene, as described in Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s popular novel Naomi (1923–24), a story about a quintessential moga.

Women’s kimono with stylised chrysanthemum design and accessories

c. 1930 Japan

silk, cotton, rush grass, wood, bamboo, plastic, bakelite and metal (meisen textile)

Purchased, NGV Supporters of Asian Art, 2016
2016.109

Created especially for the NGV Collection, this kimono was tailored in Japan from an unused bolt of 1930s Japanese meisen fabric. Its vibrant stylised chrysanthemum motif resembles fireworks, or hanabi, a Japanese word that means ‘fire flowers’.Traditional Japanese attire did not include necklaces, rings, bracelets or chest brooches. Rather, accessories included kanzashi hairpins and an obidome brooch that secured the obi waist sash. Historically, these items were produced from gold, jade, ivory and turtle shell. During the modernist era in the twentieth century, new materials such as bakelite plastic were used to make these beautiful accessories at affordable prices.

Women’s kimono with thistle and check design and accessories

c. 1930 Japan

silk, cotton, rush grass, straw, wood, vinyl, plastic and metal (meisen textile)

Purchased with funds donated by Allan Myers AC and Maria Myers AC, 2016
2016.112

This outfit shows the influences of international trends that became popular fashion accessories amongst moga (modern girls) during the 1920s. The rush grass summer cloche hat follows the design often attributed to Parisian milliner Caroline Reboux. Beaded handbags, sometimes referred to as ‘flapper bags’, were originally designed to complement the beaded, tasselled flapper dresses of the 1920s. The exquisite hand-woven example here displays a waterlily, a recognised symbol of Asia. The fine craftsmanship and presentation in relief would have made it a treasured item in any moga’s wardrobe.

Men’s undergarment (nagajuban) with ships, cars and planes

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1260

Nagajuban (long kimono undergarments) were often covered with lively repeating patterns known as omoshirogara (interesting or amusing designs) featuring cars, boats and planes, or the latest sports craze, such as tennis, golf and athletics. Similarly, haori coats were dark and plain on the outside, but concealed sophisticated illustrations on the haura interlining. These often gave insight into the wearer’s interests and the dramatic transformations that Japan had experienced over the previous fifty years. To present the haura designs in full, the haori in this exhibition are displayed inside-out.

Fabric sample with scooters

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1275

Fabric sample with Winter Olympics motif

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1274

Omoshirogara (interesting or amusing designs) portrayed the fads, fashions, popular events and technological advances of the times. They were illustrated on the haura interlining of haori coats and on nagajuban (long kimono undergarments). These omoshirogara portray literature, popular music, children’s games and toys, and entertainment such as film and kamishibai storytelling. News stories and popular sport also featured, such as Japan’s success at the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and the university baseball league, with the letters W, K and H representing Waseda, Keio and Hosei universities. Until the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, Zeppelin airships represented the luxury and excitement of world travel.

Women’s kimono with marbling and chrysanthemum design and obi with Egyptian-inspired designs
c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton, bakelite (marbling and yuzen textile)

Purchased, NGV Supporters of Asian Art, 2016
2016.111

Women’s kimono with geometric design and obi
c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton, plastic (meisen textile)

Purchased with funds donated by Allan Myers AC and Maria Myers AC, 2016
2016.108

Fabric sample with zeppelins

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1277

Men’s jacket (haori) with modern cityscape and Mount Fuji travel scene
c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Gift of Ian and Barbara Carroll, 2016
2016.142

A popular design for haura jacket interlinings and nagajuban undergarments was to dramatically divide the composition diagonally to contrast scenes of traditional and modern Japan. A nostalgic scene of olden-day travellers camping at the foot of Mount Fuji is here juxtaposed with a cityscape that celebrates Japan’s modernity, featuring biplanes flying over an idealised Tokyo skyline with New York–inspired skyscrapers. On another coat samurai on horseback gallop across a battlefield alongside contemporary warriors in modern tanks.

Men’s jacket (haori) with cityscape and samurai film set

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1261

Japanese cinema was particularly productive during the 1920s and 1930s, with 562 films produced in 1937 alone. Many of these films were lost during the Second World War: of the 1249 films produced by the leading Japanese film studio Shochiku between 1920 and 1936, only fifty remain. Cinema motifs on textiles displayed both traditional and contemporary film scenes, with this dramatic example illustrating a samurai-period film set alongside a modern cityscape featuring trams and cars.

Men’s jacket (haori) with world globe, ships and planes

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1269

Men’s jacket (haori) with samurai on horseback and tanks

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1270

Fabric sample with horse riders, bicyclists, toy trains, cars and planes

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1276

Men’s jacket (haori) with modernist motif, Mount Fuji, map and pen

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1271

Fabric sample with film projector and boys

c. 1930 Japan
silk, cotton

Maureen Morrisey Bequest, 2018
2017.1272