Ladies Sewing (Kijo saihō no zu)

Adachi Ginkō

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sewing machine is the featured attraction in this print of upper-class women making and ironing clothing. Sewing machines were a novelty in Japan in the 1870s, but by the mid-1880s, when Western dress was enforced for many government employees, seamstresses and tailors started to use Singer machines in preference to hand machines. The sewing machine was among the efficiency-improving devices that carried Western ideas concerning gender roles, progress, and technology into Japan. The Meiji empress supported imported fashions with caution but at the same time was an advocate for the development of the domestic textile industry. However, around the 1880s only the upper classes could afford expensive Western garments.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art