'kimono' pronun & use

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:07:22 -0400, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
wrote:
>At 12:00 PM 6/21/2005, you wrote:
>>At 11:33 AM -0400 6/21/05, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
>>>
>>>I have only ever used the "long-o" final syllable, but then, I have
>>>never used the word to mean anything but the Japanese garment.
>>ditto, on both conjuncts
>>
>>Larry
>
>Ah, but you're not wearers of the thing!  I never used the word
>"kimono/a" either, but my mother did; as Vicki and I said before, it
>appears to come from that earlier generation--probably as a catchy
>"exotic" term for a then new lightweight maybe flowery garment to be
>worn over a nightie (that's a cute one) at breakfast.  I suspect the
>earlier Victorian era items were heavy, dark, and stodgy.

But the kimono itself first caught Western interest in the Victorian era.
I think it dates back to Anglo-American fascination with Meiji-era Japan
in the 1880s, famously reflected in Gilbert and Sullivan's _Mikado_ (Mike
Leigh's 1999 film _Topsy-Turvy_ captures this Japanophilia vividly).

By the turn of the 20th century one can find ads in the Chicago Tribune
for "kimono wrappers" from Marshall Field's. There were even elaborate
kimono parties among fashionable ladies...

-----
Chicago Tribune, Jul 14, 1901, p. 46
KIMONO TEA THE LATEST FAD.
Fashionable Women Find Comfortable Form of Afternoon Reception.

The latest thing for a warm day social function is the "kimono tea." The
invitation is in the usual form of a calling card of the hostess, with the
date written in the lower lefthand corner, but across the top is written
the word "kimono." This is inclosed in a tiny envelope, which is addressed
in Japanese style, beginning at the wrong end, Illinois, Chicago, Sheridan
road, number, Smith John Mrs. For the convenience of Uncle Sam this is
reinclosed in an ordinary envelope and addressed in the usual manner.
[...]
The hostess receives her guests, who are all ladies, dressed in any light,
clinging skirts, but, instead of a fancy modern waist, she wears a kimono.
Her hair is dressed in Japanese style, she wears pointed embroidered
slippers, and her face is heavily powdered. In greeting each guest she
bows low three times. The guests are conducted to the waiting-room, where
a maid assists them to don slippers and kimonos, and to use freely the
rice powder, and after the hostess has greeted them they find scattered
about the rooms a variety of cushions on which they are expected to
recline or sit, the chairs being conspicuous by their absence.
[etc.]
-----

And here's an early indication that the Americanization of the kimono was
accompanied by a change in the spelling/pronunciation of the final vowel:

-----
Washington Post, Jul 27, 1902, p. 33
NEGLIGEES FOR SUMMER WEAR.

>From the kimonos, the genuine sort spelled with a final o, and the
Americanized ones that are spelled sometimes with an o, sometimes with an
a ... every style, every gradation of quality and of beauty is spread
before us.
-----


--Ben Zimmer