about zu-an-cho

The city of Kyoto was Japan’s imperial capital from 794 until 1603, when the Tokugawa Shogunate relocated the central government to Edo (Tokyo). As the center of court life, Kyoto was a vibrant cultural magnet that supported a high level of connoisseurship in the arts and crafts. The Shogunate established strict control over a class system of warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants. In Kyoto, while the royal family had been stripped of its power, the Edo period (1600–1868) gave rise to the machishu, a wealthy, culturally sophisticated group of the artisan and merchant classes. Through their patronage, the city’s skilled artisan traditions were maintained, and goods of the highest quality were produced and distributed throughout Japan. The kimono tradition sustained by the machishu stands out as a distinctive aspect of Kyoto culture.  The Meiji Restoration of the emperor to power in 1867 lifted the restrictions imposed by the Shogunate, and enabled wealthy merchants to exercise their economic power in new ways. They had both the means and the refined aesthetics to acquire and appreciate exquisite custom-made kimono, and were both consumers and purveyors of luxury textiles and the tools essential to their production, the kimono zuancho, or design-idea books, which began to be published in  this era.

When you view the zuan, or designs, in these books you may be surprised by how contemporary these tools from a now bygone industry look, and how relevant they seem in today’s similarly rich cultural climate.  

Misako Mitsui curated the exhibition " Zuancho in Kyoto: Textile design books for the kimono trade" at the Stanford University Libraries in 2007 and an exhibition catalogue is available.