Japanese Taishō Egyptian Revival Style Haori

A Japanese silk haori in the Egyptian Revival style from the Taishō period.

• Japanese designers have often looked to other culture's art for inspiration, particularly during the Art Deco period. Cycles of Egyptian Revival coincided with times when Egypt was thrust upon the world stage from Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798 to the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, which received worldwide press coverage.
• Egyptian Revival influenced fashion, architecture, furniture, decorative arts and nearly every aspect of design in the West such as this Saturday Evening Post cover from 1923 and architect Franz Scheyder's Maison “Egyptienne” from 1905 in Strasbourg, France.
• The overall hieroglyphic pattern on this piece by the designer seized on Egyptomania, prevalent at the time.