Akinosuke no Yume - Kimono Ideas

Akinosuke no Yume Kimono Design

I posted this one and some others onto a forum but not yet to this blog. Now and then I think of the kind of kimono I would want to wear, the kind of kimono I would illustrate for books... now, books are easier than ever to have illustrated and published. Since I don't have a proper tablet to learn how to draw on (which is nothing like drawing by hand), I decided that my sketchbook would have to do. What would I wear for all 72 seasons? Muzukashii...

This kimono would be appropriate for mid-March or early April, I think. I haven't decided exactly when I'd place it, but the exact dates typically change from year to year due to the reliance on the Lunar calendar and not the solar calendar. The scanner alters the colours...

The theme of this kimono is Akinosuke no Yume

If you do not know the story of Akinosuke no Yume, it is an adaptation of a Chinese story. Since China and Japan have some significantly different landscapes and climate variances, the story between places has many changes, but the elements are essentially the same. This is one of a few versions of the story I have read:

An aristocratic governor is having an outdoor lunch with some friends. He falls asleep against a cedar tree, and feels like he has awakened almost immediately after... but his friends are gone, left for home- so quickly? As he is getting his bearings, a royal procession passes Akinosuke. Of course, he must be dutiful when this royalty offers to take him to meet their king, so he joins them. He is taken down a long road (then, some say, across a river to a nearby island). Akinosuke is introduced to the king of this land and entertained by him. They get along quite well. By the end of the night, the king has offered Akinosuke a daughter to be his wife. He accepts.

The marriage is actually quite a happy one. Akinosuke is made governor of a nearby land, and he and his wife have many healthy children. The small district is happy and prosperous, a farming town where they spend many years together- until one day, when an army from a place called Sandalvine invades. Many die, and much of the land is destroyed. Akinosuke's wife dies sometime later. When he is informed, he builds a large monument in her honour, grieving, and goes to tell her father what has happened.

As the king falls apart, he tells Akinosuke that his children will be well cared-for, but that Akinosuke is no longer of this kingdom and must return home. The same palaquin that he rode in on has been brought out, now as dilapidated as Akinosuke's spirit. He falls asleep on the ride home, too exhausted to go on.

He awakens again- under the cedar tree, his friends all around him! He had been asleep for only a few minutes! He exclaims how happy he is to see them, and what a strange dream he had! His friend tells him that a strange thing happened during Akinosuke's sleep- a small yellow butterfly came out of his mouth and fell into a line of ants, and was carried off. Under the cedar's roots, an anthill. Nearby, a small pebble was found with the body of a female ant underneath... and nearby, a sandalwood tree covered in vines... with it's own anthill under it...

Akinosuke sobers, and upon realising the fleeting nature of existence, becomes a monk.
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The original Chinese version of the tale is said to have been set in 794 (this would make sense; the Heian era city of Kyoto is a replica of Tang-dynasty capital, and China and Japan traded many things then, including stories). The kimono here is to be sewn with the larger sleeves and perhaps wider body of the Heian kosode, in sakura-turning-peony pinks. The motifs were more difficult to choose without a scene too cluttered.

For nobility ranks, only a hiougi (a fragrant cedar fan used in the courts) would do. This kind of fan has long, trailing tassles, both for beauty and visual balance but also as a signifier of wealth- someone who could afford the silks and time needed to make something luxurious like this.

On the fan should be the motif of sandalwood, the long trailing tassels like vines and roads trailing. Cedar pollinates during sakura season, mid-March to early April; sakura themselves are a sign of fleeting existence of nature and would not be out of place if the motif were woven into the fabric itself, only visible as the light shifts over silk. A few petals may be outlined in a hint of gold; or gold thread details can be put on the fan and other motifs, another sign of luxury and wealth.

The yellow butterfly told of is likely a "Large Grass Yellow"; they migrate throughout the year. The males are yellow; the females are white. A palaquin cart is shown unmanned across a winding path along the bottom. I would have liked to have drawn a procession but I wasn't sure how I should portray it without becoming too direct. In this case, the palaquin would be seen at the hem on the front of the kimono, the hiougi at the back shoulder. The hidden inside panel would show a yellow butterfly and blowing sakura petals. Perhaps a hidden lining of peonies would not be out of place: April's flower to come, and also a mark of nobility and agelessness.

For the obi, a shining water blue, black, silver, and gold pattern of Buddhist wheel motifs in rushing water- the crossing of the river, the turning of Akinosuke's fate, a hint of his decision to come.