Japan’s Souvenir Business for Foreign Tourists after WWII

• In Event: Reshaping the “Kimono” in the 20th Century

Abstract

This paper examines Japan’s souvenir business targeting foreign tourists after WWII. In order to earn vital cash, amid the post-war economic catastrophe, Japanese clothing manufacturers and business people exercised their ingenuity by using kimono materials and techniques to make souvenirs for foreigners, the majority of whom were American GIs. That meant that the souvenir business people had to find out what kinds of souvenirs--commemorative merchandise associated with a location, in this case “exotic” Japan or the Orient--could appeal to these American customers. Moreover, in the case of clothing items, they needed to be easily wearable even for those who were not familiar with kimono.
As a case study, this paper focuses on Kyoto Silk Co., LTD., established in 1949. It concentrated on the souvenir business at PXs of U.S. bases, opening a shop in Ginza before the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and another in Kyoto before the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka. The company was originally selling broad silk textiles to GIs, alongside other souvenirs. Much wider than the width of traditional kimono textiles, the broad silk was suitable for Western-style tailoring. Soon, the company started tailoring, as well as selling silk kimonos, Happi Coats, suka-jan, and Aloha shirts. The paper discusses how these items were made by employing but modifying conventional kimono materials and techniques to appeal to the foreign tourists. By doing so, it intends to shed light on these souvenirs as things that defy, re-examine, and negotiate the boundaries of the conventional kimono.

Author

• Keiko Suzuki, Ritsumeikan University