@techreport{oai:bunka.repo.nii.ac.jp:00001981,
 author = {森, 理恵 and ミルハプト, テリー・五月 and フレデリック, セーラ and 鈴木, 桂子},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {During the last three years, our research group visited museums, libraries, and private collections located in England, America, and Japan, in order to uncover as much material as possible on our respective, proposed topics. As an internationally-based research group (Kyoto, Tokyo, Boston, and New York) we have been in regular contact, exchanging ideas and opinions among the group, and with other scholars throughout the duration of our grant. At this stage of our research, we offer the following observations, which should be viewed not as our final statement, but ideally as a research-in-progress report, since our topic is a relatively new area of exploration for cultural historians, anthropologists, art historians, and literary historians.
1. Both the meaning of the word “kimono” and the actual garment as it was produced, marketed, and consumed within Japan, vis-à-vis the West, and within the larger Asian region shifted throughout the twentieth century. An array of new forms, techniques, and kimono designs appeared to meet specific consumer demands. Some of the representative examples of changes in kimono for export include: additional panels inserted at the side seams to increase the skirt’s flare; new embroidery techniques inspired by Western techniques; and colors and motifs geared to the consumers’ taste, whether Japanese or foreign. One of our researches extended her study of export kimono to include other Japanese-textile-related products as souvenirs, such as aloha shirts and suka-jan, and regarded their consumer groups (Japanese emigrants to Hawaii and American soldiers in Hawaii and Occupied Japan) as active agents in the construction of a new understanding of these textile products and their meaning in relation to Japan.
2. In addition to viewing kimono simply as garments, our research suggests that a broader approach to the study of kimono reveals that kimono came to be viewed as symbols of Japan. In the United States, England, and Europe, the kimono today is displayed in museums, representative of the genius of Japanese craftsmanship, and is valued more as “art” than as “clothing”. Research on media portrayals of kimono, such as film and magazines that circulated around the world, are filled with images or descriptions of kimono. At certain moments in time, particularly during the Taishô era, the kimono was perceived to be a “modernist” garment both in Japan and in the West, while at the same time it was viewed as a symbol of Japanese clothing within Japan’s colonies in Asia. The kimono is freighted with political and symbolic meaning that extends far beyond Japan’s shores. The dynamic interplay of these multiple perspectives should be considered synchronically, as well as diachronically.
3. One of our research group’s aims was to consider new theoretical approaches in order to contextualize the function and meaning of kimono, not simply in terms of Orientalism, which has previously been considered, but by evaluating what the kimono means when viewed through other lenses, such as cosmopolitanism and colonialism. Depending on when (the Interwar period, WWII, or Occupied Japan), where (Japan, Asia, or Western countries), and a person’s class and gender, the kimono’s meanings continually shift.
4. When viewed from the perspective of an object of material culture, the kimono has been produced and consumed not only in Japan but all over the world, thus moving beyond Japan’s borders (or un-Japanization). Today, global yukata designed by a British firm, manufactured by a Japanese company, and sewn in China, document how transnational the kimono has become. Ironically, despite the fact that kimono’s function and meaning was subjected to multiple changes during the twentieth century, more and more people today identify the kimono as a symbol of Japanese tradition., 3年間にわたる、国内外の美術館博物館、図書館、個人収集先での調査と、共同研究員相互のディスカッション、外部研究者との意見交換により、次のことが明らかになった。
（1）20世紀の西洋やアジアにおける生産・流通・消費をとおして、物質としての「きもの」は、形態、技法、意匠のそれぞれの面において、多様性を獲得した。たとえば、裾にかけて広がるように襠を入れるといった形態の工夫、西洋風刺繍のような技法の開発、そして、受容される地域に合わせた色と模様の考案である。アロハやスカジャンといった衣文化も「きもの」の受容の一局面である。
（2）さらに、このように多様に展開した「きもの」は、着る物としてだけでなく、美術品として美術館に展示されるようになり、映画や雑誌などのメディア上に表現され、イメージとしても流通した。20世紀における「きもの」文化は、従来考えられていたより、はるかに多様な物質性と表象性を持っていたことが確認できた。
（3）また本研究では、「きもの」をオリエンタリズムだけでなく、コスモポリタニズムやコロニアリズムの文脈からとらえようと試みた。大正期の国内では、西洋対東洋の枠組みではないコスモポリタニズム的な「きもの」が実践されていたし、植民地では植民者の規範的な文化のひとつとして「きもの」が使用されていた。「きもの」のもつ意味は、戦間期、15年戦争期、占領期といった時代の変化につれて変化してきたし、日本かアジアか欧米かといった地域によっても、そして、「きもの」を着たり見たりする、各個人の階層やジェンダーによっても、変化しつづけてきたのである。
（4）物質文化としての「きもの」は、近年とくに、アジアで生産され、国内のみならずアジアや欧米で消費されるといった、脱日本化の傾向が強まっている。ところが、それと反比例するかのように、「きもの」が長く続く「日本の伝統」であるとする誤った考え方もまた、強まってきている。「きもの」が、近代史のなかで大きな変貌をとげたという事実、そして現在、グローバルに生産・流通・消費されているという事実は無視されているのである。, 2009～2011年度　文部科学省委託　服飾文化共同研究拠点事業報告},
 title = {20世紀における「きもの」文化の近代化と国際化 : 物質文化・表象文化の視点から},
 year = {2012}
}