"opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:11:50 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

>On Jun 18, 2005, at 10:19 PM, douglas at NB.NET wrote:
>>
>> It is not necessarily obvious IMHO that there was any Japanese
>> reference at all in the original metaphor. The word "kimono" was used
>> like "housecoat" or "dressing-gown" a few decades ago (maybe some
>> people still use it so?);
>
> An excellent point, Doug. I don't know whether anyone still uses the
> term with the "housecoat," etc. meanings. But, now that you've jogged
> my memory, I am, sadly, old enough to remember when "kimono" was
> almost a standard term, used by everyone and anyone, with the
> pronunciation, among blacks, at least, [kI mon@].

As in the Rosemary Clooney hit, "Kimono My House"?

> I suppose people who gave the matter any thought knew that
> the word came from Japan, but a reference to a US woman lounging
> around in a kimono might not have had much (if any) reference to Japan
> (as an inexact analogy, probably few native Anglophones think of India
> when they think of pajamas). "Open the kimono" might have had a
> non-ethnic sense like "open the bathrobe" originally, especially if it
> dates from before WW II. Still it would probably have referred to a
> woman, I think, although perhaps not entirely exclusively.

I'd be quite surprised if the original metaphor didn't have some Japanese
referent, but then again I wasn't aware of the generic "housecoat" sense.

Here's one undocumented explanation of the phrase's Japanese origin:

-----
http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_hang_kimono/
A little more digging reveals that the expression "open the kimono"
actually originated in feudal Japanese times and referred to the practice
of proving that no weapons were hidden within the folds of clothing.
-----

That sound rather etymythological to me (isn't there a similar story about
the origin of the handshake?), but I suppose the "no weapons" tale
(regardless of its veracity) could have had something to do with the
origin of the expression in business circles.  If so, then that would be
an alternative to the "geisha" interpretation.

I'm still betting that the "geisha" reading was in the mix early on, as
suggested by the obviously gendered analogue, "lifting the skirt(s)".
Googlehits for that expression are mostly from UK/Australia, so perhaps
that's where to look for early developments of the skirt/kimono metaphor.


--Ben Zimmer