This is a han juban, or a half length garment which was worn under a kimono.  Its bodice is a dazzling arrangement of recycled silks composed in a regular formation of blocks, some of the blocks are comprised of twenty or more slivers of botanically dyed silk.

In the 19th century wildly colored garments like this were worn under somber colored kimonos as there were governmental edicts outlining the kind of clothing that could be worn by different strata of the population.  By hiding this kind of fanciful undergarment beneath a dark kimono, the 19th century Japanese lady was not “breaking the law.”

Note the profusion of types of silks and the swirling combination of colors, all of which are botanical.  Chief among the dyestuffs are blue (indigo), purple (gromwell root), and orange (safflower).  If you see a lot of juban from this era you will notice that this color scheme is a predominant one, for reasons that these the dyestuffs used for these three colors were easily dyed and widely accessible.

The vertical red piece of cloth, above, is most likely a chemical dye.  In the Meiji Era (1868-1912) German synthetic dyes were introduced to Japan and the red dye was very quickly adopted for everyday use: for centuries the Japanese were not able to achieve this strident red using locally obtainable botanicals, and only those who could afford to buy imported cloth dyed in Indian madder wore a rich, deep, cold red like this one.

Today I am posting images of a very nice example of a boro yogi, or sleeping kimono.   Originally, this yogi would have been stuffed with cotton wadding and would have been quilted: as it is now, the stuffing has been removed, and what we see here is its shell, viewed inside-out because all the gorgeous stitching and patches are best seen on the inside.

Even though this yogi is shaped like an over sized kimono (it measures 51″ x 52″ or 130 cm x 132 cm) it was not worn as a garment: instead, this heavily padded garment-shaped thing would have been used in the same manner as a duvet or a quilt is used, as a cover for a person sleeping underneath it.  Japanese people say that the extra flaps of the arms and the collar areas envelope the body in a good way, trapping much-needed heat around the sleeping person.

Have a look at all the wonderful, small scraps of indigo dyed cotton that are used to create this yogi.  Notice, as well, that a good portion of the stitching is done with hemp thread; I tend to like to see the presence of hemp thread in the stitching of boro items.  To me, it indicates age or suggests the piece is very rural: keep in mind that in the initial phase of making cotton garments from scraps, rural folk had no accessibility to cotton, therefore they did not have cotton thread, so hemp or other bast fiber threads were used for sewing.

This yogi was most likely constructed sometime during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century; the material used in the sewing could be much older.

In most cases, not all, yogis are constructed with a central panel running vertically down the center of the back as can be seen in the photo above: this is a kind of gusset that adds width and area to the piece.