Japan in the Golden Era?

[jp*81]

It is easy to get fascinated with.

I lived in Okinawa a couple of years ago. I went on a lot of tours and I was just totally engulfed with their history, culture, customs and courtesies. Most of the tours were about WWII. I don't remember seeing anything or hearing about anything earlier than that. But that makes sense, because WWII had a big impact on Okinawa. I wish I could have visited Mainland Japan, while I was there, to see the older Japanese traditions. As other people have already said, enjoy your studies and post anything beautiful and interesting.

 

[LaMedicine]

The history and culture of Okinawa is somewhat separate from mainland Japan. It was an independent kingdom until early 17th century when it was brought under Japanese rule, but existed as a kingdom until late 19th century when the kingdom was abolished, and incorporated officialy as Japanese territory. Their costumes are a little bit different from the mainland kimonos, and they have some beautiful prints called "bingata" as well as several kinds of weaves that are made into kimonos and "obi", the sashes, mainland style.
I have never been to Okinawa, but the Shuri Castle is a beautiful place, seen in photographs and TV travelogues, and I hope to be able to visit the islands some day.

Incidentally, just about all kimonos are literally handmade, never mass made. The fabrics are often machine woven nowadays, but the prints, embroideries and dyes are almost always hand crafted, and hand sewn into the final product as well. The same goes for sashes. Many are machine woven, but there are lots of craftsmen who dye, weave, print, all by hand. There are many hand woven fabircs as well, produced as specialties of various areas. Kimonos ordered by the Japanese for themselves are never 100% machine made in large factories, rather, they are made in small factories and workshops.
Yukatas are another matter, and the yukatas sold these days are mass made in factories, with the exception of some special fabrics, and sewn by sewing machines rather than by hand.

I should post some links I have for Japanese fashion illustrations that were popular during the Golden era, and write some about daily life in Japan during that time, but it will have to wait for now.

 

[LaMedicine]

It's a beautifully done film, although I can't shake the feeling that it was made by westerners for a western audience. In my opinion, if it been made in Japan by an entirely Japanese cast and crew it would have had an entirely different look.

Still, the film's timeline goes from the 1920s to 1940s, so that places it smack dab in the middle of the Taisho Chic era.

Cheers!

Though the film was released almost simutaneously as in the US, it never made it big here. I have not seen it, and didn't particulary have the desire to, after reading a couple of reviews that stated, while the phtography was superb, and the effort for accuracy can be commended, it was not much more than a Hollywood fantasy of by the filmakers and far from accurate.. The dance scene in particular was criticized as being a very poor Hollywood interpretation, and could be born to be seen only with the thought that it was a bad Hollywood musical. I saw the particular scene when it was shown during the Academy Awards presentation, and sure enough, the little that they showed were in no way close to the true traditional Japanese dance. I guess the real thing is too slow for Hollywood producers to perceive as dancing. What surprised me was that Ken Watanabe, who is one of the best actors we have here, would have let that kind of mispresentation pass, but I guess money speaks. As for costumes, I've only heard so much, but I do suppose they were good enough, as I read no mention of it, but the few promotion photographs that I have seen, have made me wonder if the hairstyle for maiko, the apprentice girls, were accurate. Anyway, I know only what I've read, so, I really can't say anything actually.
As for actors, if done by an all Japanese cast, Ken Watanabe probably would have come up as candidate for his actual part.