This 1950s meisen silk haori displays a bold, dynamic pattern that evokes the energy and visual language of Western Pop Art and Art Deco movements. The design is composed of overlapping, cloud-like shapes in muted yellows, reds, and blues, sharply outlined in broad, dark lines that recall both the comic-inspired “Ben-Day dots” of Roy Lichtenstein and the streamlined curves of Art Deco aesthetics. The dotted background—a common Pop Art technique—further enhances this association by mimicking commercial printing processes, lending the textile a graphic, almost mechanical feel. In Japanese symbolism, cloud motifs (kumo) often represent transition, change, or the ethereal beauty of nature, sometimes suggesting the flow of time or moments of ephemerality. The combination of traditional symbolic motifs and avant-garde, modernist styling on this haori speaks to the postwar period’s embrace of innovation and cultural exchange

Dimensions: 50-inch (127 cm) from sleeve-end to sleeve-end and 36-inch (91 cm) in height.

This artwork is featured on page 371 of Art Kimono: Aesthetic Revelations of Japan, 1905-1960. This book, published by Yorke Antique Textiles, can be previewed or purchased on our website here.

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