6111: 1950s Japanese Meisen Silk Fabric, By Piece 61in. (AraiHari)

6111: 1950s Japanese Meisen silk, longview

Vintage Japanese Textiles:
1950's Meisen Silk Fabric Piece

Width: 13.5 inches / 34.29 cm
Length: 61 inches / 154.94 cm

Catalog# 6111:

US$20.00 per piece

USA Shipping included under 4 pounds package weight

Fabric History/Pedigree: Pieces received from traditional Japanese kimono cleaner/reconstructor called Arai-Hari -- see an excellent explanation of traditional Arai Hari by textile expert John Marshall,by click-pushing HERE.

Fabric Description: Lightweight, slightly translucent meisen silk is a 1950's piece; Meisen is defined literally as 'common silk stuff'; and has grown in popularity in the last few years; Meisen from that period are usually larger bold patterns and bright colors. See close-ups.

Fabric Motif: Dark plum color background fabric with various sized geometric figures; Inside of the figures are flowers, leaves, stars and other geometric type designs; design colors are mostly shades of iron red, mustard with white and off-white grays. of two bands running lengthwise; right half is a brightly colorful thatched pattern with diamond shapes; Note that this style of 50's meisen is intentionally fuzzy at edges; patterns same on both sides.

Colors: Reminder that colors differ on different devices, so please refer to our text color descriptions.

Condition: Excellent.

Cultural Notes: The best discussion we've found of Meisen silk fabric was on an old blog post by Japundit, excerpted here, from the early 2000's*:

"...Young women have rediscovered(Japan Times) the kimono, and you can see them out in Harajuku on the Sunday fashion parade. There's even a term for these girls -- not surprisingly they are called "kimono girls." There are even some nice books documenting the trend which you can check out at J-List and are definitely worth having if you are at all into fashion...."The meisen kimono, in particular, has become very popular. These kimono were made in the first half of the twentieth century, and were characterized by a glossy sheen, and brilliant patterns. There is often a sort of blurry quality to the silks...."

[*original article is no longer on the internet.] more info on meisen is here.