Japanese Meiji Cubist Style Kimono

A Japanese woman's silk kimono from the late Meiji, early Taishō period.

• Japan was among the first Asian countries to be influenced by Cubism which abandoned the conventional perspective in favor of showing multiple viewpoints simultaneously, as a way of suggesting a three-dimensional form.
• The first contact occurred through European texts published in Japanese art journals in the 1910s and in the 1920s, Japanese artists studying in Paris brought back with them an understanding of modern art movements, hence in Japan, all modern art movements were subsequently called “Cubism.”
• The designer of this kimono made in the meisen technique has used their interpretation of the Western alphabet decoratively, but their incorporation of it may have been prompted by the influence of Cubist works such as Pablo Picasso's Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar, and Newspaper from 1913 seen here.