Shown today are eight Western tailored shirts sewn from traditional, Japanese cotton cloth, most probably sewn some time around 1950 or 1960.  The cloth of some of the shirts is older, and each of these small garments is unused.

Judging from their small size, bright colors and patterns, and the way the buttons fasten, most of the shirts shown here were intended for women and girls.  The shirt shown bottom, center in the photo above seems to have been for a man.

The shirt, above, closes with metal snaps.  The shirt, below, closes with white, plastic buttons.  Each of these eight shirts is machine stitched.The shirts shown above and the two below are sewn from kasuri or ikat woven cotton.

These shirts are an interesting illustration of Western fashion infiltrating Japanese daily life, a trend that began in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan moved from being an insular, feudal society toward a more international, modern one.   20th century shirts such as the last one pictured (below), the shirt with the “Henley collar,” were often worn by male workers under a traditional noragi or hanten as they worked the fields.The man’s shirt, below, fastens with white, plastic buttons–and the fabric is a wonderful, hand loomed indigo dyed cotton.  The shirt is partially lined.

This is a really delightful group of garments from old Japan–and if you are small enough, they’d be great fun to wear.