This silk kimono displays a striking pattern of vertical stripes with dramatically feathered, irregular edges against a deep brown ground. The stripes appear in cream, pale lavender, and soft pink tones, with their boundaries dissolving into jagged, flame-like or icicle-like projections that create a sense of movement and energy.

This design powerfully anticipates several major Western art movements:

Abstract Expressionism - The gestural, painterly quality of the feathered edges strongly prefigures the spontaneous mark-making and emotional expressiveness that would define Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s-50s. The way the stripes seem to "bleed" or dissolve echoes techniques later used by artists like Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis.

Color Field painting - The large areas of saturated color with soft, atmospheric boundaries anticipate the work of painters like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, who explored similar effects of color dissolution and edge variation.

Process Art - The pattern suggests an interest in the inherent properties of the dyeing process itself, where controlled techniques yield partially unpredictable results - a concept that wouldn't be fully explored in Western art until the 1960s.

Minimalist aesthetics - Despite its expressive edges, the fundamental structure of vertical bands relates to the reductive, systematic approaches that Minimalist artists would later adopt.

The stenciling or silk-screening technique allows for this unique combination of precision and spontaneity - the overall stripe structure is controlled while the irregular edges suggest natural processes like erosion, melting, or organic growth. This kimono demonstrates how Japanese textile artists were exploring the expressive potential of industrial processes decades before similar investigations appeared in Western contemporary art.

Its measurements are 49 inches from sleeve-end to sleeve-end and 59 inches in height.

This artwork is featured on page 330 of Art Kimono: Aesthetic Revelations of Japan, 1905-1960. This book, published by Yorke Antique Textiles, can be previewed or purchased on our website here.

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