The sewing machine is the featured attraction in this print of upper-class women making and ironing clothing. Sewing machines were a novelty in Japan in the 1870s, but by the mid-1880s, when Western dress was enforced for many government employees, seamstresses and tailors started to use Singer machines in preference to hand machines. The sewing machine was among the efficiency-improving devices that carried Western ideas concerning gender roles, progress, and technology into Japan. The Meiji empress supported imported fashions with caution but at the same time was an advocate for the development of the domestic textile industry. However, around the 1880s only the upper classes could afford expensive Western garments.
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安達吟光画 『貴女裁縫之図』
Title:Ladies Sewing (Kijo saihō no zu)
Artist:Adachi Ginkō (Japanese, 1853–1902)
Period:Meiji period (1868–1912)
Date:September 3rd, 1887
Culture:Japan
Medium:Triptych of woodblock prints (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions:Image: 14 × 28 1/2 in. (35.6 × 72.4 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959
Accession Number:JP3272
Signature: Shosai Ginko
Lincoln Kirstein American, New York (until 1959; donated to MMA).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," May 20–September 7, 1986.
Santa Fe. New Mexico Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," June 28–August 3, 1987.
Portland Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," August 28–October 4, 1987.
Billings. Yellowstone Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," October 31, 1987–January 3, 1988.
Santa Fe Community College Art Gallery. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," February 13–March 20, 1988.
Albany Institute of History & Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," April 16–July 17, 1988.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," August 6–November 6, 1988.
Charleston. Museum at Sunrise. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," November 26, 1988–January 1, 1989.
Pullman. Washington State University. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," January 21–February 26, 1989.
Champaign. Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," March 11–April 23, 1989.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," March 13–June 18, 1989.
Syracuse. Everson Museum of Art. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," July 8–August 13, 1989.
Storrs. William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut. "Impressions of a New Civilization: The Lincoln Kirstein Collection of Japanese Prints, 1860–1912," September 2–October 15, 1989.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kimono: A Modern History," September 27, 2014–January 4, 2015.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection," June 4, 2022–February 20, 2023.
Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The World of the Meiji Print: Impressions of a New Civilization. New York: Weatherhill, 1986, color pl. 25.
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