Kimono threads: unraveling ontologies, epistemologies, and ethics

What is kimono? How do we know what we know about kimono, and whose voices matter? Who should (or should not) wear kimono? Repeated protests, social media engagement, and boycotts have underscored the exigent nature of these divisive questions, particularly for those interested in fashion, aesthetics, and cultural exchange. This thesis presents an extended reflection on these themes in the form of three essays. In the essays, I draw on interviews with wearers of kimono, public discourse on kimono from news outlets and social media spaces, English-language scholarly writing about kimonos, and autoethnographic anecdotes from my own experiences wearing kimono in Japan and the U.S. to show how the simplest answers to these questions only scratch the surface of people’s diverse experiences of kimono. Each essay “remixes” the same set of sources to examine a different angle on kimono knowledge: kimono ontologies, kimono epistemologies, and kimono ethics. I think with grassroots theorists, kimono enthusiasts, and activists to present alternative approaches to these questions that begin to fill in the gaps left behind by the macro-level approach prevalent in social media discourse and English-language scholarly writing on the kimono. I argue that attention to specificity is the first step we should take in course-correcting away from easy answers toward a more complex engagement with the breadth of ways that different people use and think about kimono.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Rodriguez, Natalya D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Martin, Jeffrey T
• Tierney, Robert
• Wilson, Roderick I

• kimono
• fashion
• identity
• ethics
• anthropology of dress

Statement dc:rights

• © 2021 Natalya Rodriguez

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113213

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113213