I feel as though, with the New Year's event coming up, that it might benefit folks to be reminded to do some research on traditional kimono before they draw the canon characters or OCs in kimono. I'm not going to lie, I have seen a lot of folks put masc characters in women's kimonos, and femme characters in men's kimonos. I've seen a lot of folks draw sleeves incorrectly and at the wrong length, indicating class and marital status. I've seen folks draw obis in the front, which historically has been seen as wildly improper.
There are differences between male/female kimonos. There are differences between singled/married kimonos. The accessories, designs, and colors all carry meaning and significance. While I understand a lot of folks do genuinely want to explore and have fun with kimono, and I do genuinely think its good to learn and explore creatively with regards to other cultures besides our own, it is important to remember that this is an aspect of traditional Japanese culture that has hundreds of years of history, nuances, and social signalling. And we are responsible for handling these things with intentionality and respect.
If you have no idea where to start, not knowing different styles or different eras, or even what certain garments are called, here are some resources you can use to start your learning journey:
- History of Kimono
- Kimono Sleeve Types and Lengths
- Male vs Female Kimono - Types and Occassions
- Kimono Fabric Patterns
- Kimono and Colors
- Crash Course on Kimono
I hope you all find this genuinely helpful, and I hope this helps you all in exploring the beauty and history of Kimono. I hope it inspires you to dig even deeper into the history and to learn about those little nuances that make them so subtle and yet so openly communicative. You can express so so much in kimono, from gender, to status, to sexuality, to personal expressions and thoughts, and its so cool to see it done right!!
Breaking off the chain, cause it was getting long. But thank you @the-travelling-witch for tagging me in a chain of wanting to get to know folks more!
❀ last song: Shining Collection - Iceman
❀ favourite colours: blue, red, black
❀ currently watching: Dimension 20: Neverafter
❀ currently reading: Sinophagia (anthology by Xueting Christine Ni), the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (James McBride), Haunting Experiences (anthology by Diane Goldstein), The Ghost Story, 1840-1920: A Cultural History (Andrew Smith)
❀ current obsession: TWST, The Unexpectables, the Legend of Zelda, the King in Yellow
❀ last google search: Ghost Stories and Folklore (on google scholar)
No pressure tags: @the-trinket-witch @hamstergal @ganfordknight @daisyneptune @cyanide-latte @symphonicmetal101 @thehollowwriter @vianthegryphon and anyone else who wants to!
I mean this in the kindest and gentlest way possible:
It's a genuine act of courtesy to tag your spoilers. The general rule has been to wait until at least 2 weeks before posting untagged spoilers. This is so that people have a chance to watch/play it on their own time. Some folks can't immediately drop everything to watch/play the newest update of whatever it is that released as soon as it's out.
Spoiling things without tags can and will ruin the enjoyment for some people. The blacklist is there for people to be able to curate their feed, and it's their responsibility to use it. But the blacklist is meaningless if people don't actually use the tags.
Does that mean that we shouldn't share our excitement? No, but we should do so with consideration for others in mind. We can genuinely rob people the opportunity to share that joy and excitement by sharing spoilers openly- and that's not fair.
In the kindest way possible, please tag your spoilers. Please be considerate of other people.
Y'all remember this post I made talking about how kimono carries visual and cultural language within it and how you can express so so much just by picking the type, the cut, and the patterns? I actually want to extrapolate on this and show how we can actually see that language used during the TWST New Year's event! (Sources will be directly linked as information is introduced.)
For some initial context, while the "plot" of the event is mainly just Sam's New Year Sale, a lot of the visual language, accessories, and cultural references used in the event call back to Shōgatsu or the Japanese New Year festival. This is a time where people WILL dress in traditional kimono and participate in traditional games, dances, eating traditional foods. So seeing the cast in kimono makes a world of sense.
The character I want to talk about in this post specifically is Ortho. His design for the New Year is honestly such a great example of how the different subtleties in kimono all come together to paint a picture, and tell you so much about the person wearing the kimono. Because ultimately, when I look at Ortho's kamishimo? All I see is brilliant foreshadowing about the entire plot of Book 6 and his role in the narrative.
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the colors. It's the thing we see at a first glance. And while yes, these are the colors of Ignihyde, you might find it interesting to know how this combination translates in the kimono visual language. White, black, and blue are colors associated with and/or signify winter and death. So even if you had no idea that Ortho lived in STYX and was twisted from the film adaptation, Hercules, you could still draw that association from what colors he chose to wear and specifically which color is his base color - white, and which are his accent colors- black and blue.
To further explain, black is the traditional color worn when wearing mourning kimono. And white bleached cotton is traditionally worn as the garments of the deceased. While it may be a bit of a stretch, to me, the choice to use white base garments with black and blue accessories may actually reflect his in-between state. The way that real Ortho is dead, and this Ortho lives in his place is a huge aapect of the narrative behind Idia and Ortho. Grief and the negotiation of self identity, the path that Ortho takes to figuring out who he is despite being a living memory of someone who is dead, is not lost in the visual language of this kamishimo. I think, whether intentional or not, it's something reflected in how the black overlays the white, signifying that mourning and that life after the passing of another.
The next thing I want to actually draw your attention to is the era that the kimono comes from and the style of the kimono. This kimono is actually called a "kamishimo". The Kamishimo was the uniform worn by samurai during the Edo Period shōganate. The combination of the overcoat with the inner shirt, hakama pants, and specific style of adorned obi was quintisential for anyone who lived as a samurai. It signified their role in the government and their social status without the need for explanation, allowing people to adjust their mannerisms accordingly upon first meeting the samurai.
We know from how Idia refers to himself as 拙者 (sessha) and refers to others as -氏 (shi) that he and Ortho are incredibly passionate about the Edo period and very specifically samurai. So it really is a cute nod to that that Ortho would be wearing it. At least... if that's where the symbolism ended.
See the thing that strikes me about his kamishimo is that it's not a "real" kamishimo either. From the silouhette, color scheme, and broad shoulders, we can actually deduce that the kamishimo here is a theatrical kamishimo- worn in Kabuki theater.
Kabuki theater really developed and took off during the Edo period, especially during the Era in which women were forbidden from performing on stages. Many of the jidai-mono (historical plays) performed in Kabuki utilize yakugara (character archetypes) to make it much easier for audiences to watch and appreciate the narrative. These archetypes are often visually defined by uniform or repeating characteristics in their kimono, their makeup, their wigs, and their props as a short hand for audiences to be able to follow.
One such yakugara is called the "jitsuaku". This archetype is specifically defined by an "evil mastermind who plots to overthrow the goverment/feudal lord through rebellion", either due to seeking revenge, wanting power, or by whatever rationale the narrative gives him.
Here are some classical depictions of the jitsuaku in traditional artworks:
Source
Source
We can see by the depictions what the common color schemes and patterns used in their kamishimo are; the big/baggy silouhette with extremely dramatic, pointed shoulder pads; and the various decorative accessories and how they are placed.
Look familiar?
Ortho's silouhette very clearly harkons back to these specific types of kamishimo, that are considered archetypal of the jitsuaku. In other words, I have reason to suspect that the card designers of TWST are depicting Ortho as a jitsuaku... a evil mastermind who seeks to take over an institution through rebellion...
That sounds an awful lot like the plot of Book 6 and his specific role in the narrative to me.
This is all to say that the visual language of kimono is so so prevalent in his design, and I would extend that argument to every design in the New Year's line up - yes, this includes the most recent inclusion of Jack, Malleus, Jamil, and Floyd. And personally, I think it's genuinely so so cool and incredible that they would choose to add those nuances intentionally into the design in order to tell us everything that we need to know about the character- from social status, to gender and sexuality, to even personal feelings and emotions. It shows how much love is genuinely poured into making these characters feel alive and dynamic, and I think it's genuinely worth taking the time to appreciate.
And if you are still reading this and you are just starting to learn more about the visual art of kimono, then I genuinely hope you find this as encouragement to deep dive and learn more for yourself. Because honestly having that access and knowledge to those cultural elements and traditions truly helps open your eyes to all of the subtleties and messages that the creator wants you to see. And moreover? I think it really helps allow us to better appreciate the characters and the artwork on a much deeper level.
Thank you for reading this. I hope you genuinely found it fun, insightful, and maybe even inspiring. 💚
