著者

森 理恵

出版者

The Japan Society of Home Economics

雑誌

日本家政学会誌 (ISSN:09135227)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.66, no.5, pp.197-212, 2015

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The purpose of this study was to clarify how the term <i>kimono</i> became popular as a way of referring to Japanese traditional clothing. <br>  We collected articles from the <i>Yomiuri</i> and <i>Asahi newspapers</i> in which the term <i>kimono</i> in <i>kanji</i>, <i>katakana</i>, and <i>hiragana</i> were used by searching those words on their online databases, and analyzed them in order to find out the meaning of the word, as well as the sex and the nationality of the people who wore or possessed <i>kimono</i> in the articles. <br>  We found the following: Firstly, <i>kimono</i> once referred to clothing in general or <i>nagagi</i> (long garment), regardless of which sex it was meant for. Secondly, <i>kimono</i> came to mean Japanese traditional clothing in the 1900s after the word "kimono" was established in Western languages. Thirdly, the word "kimono" tended to be used for women while <i>wafuku</i> and <i>nihonfuku</i> were gender-neutral words. In addition, it became increasingly common to write <i>kimono</i> in hiragana in the 1960s, during which time the main consumers of <i>kimono</i> were women, who preferred that it be written that way.