Unit 2: Exhibitions

 Cultural Appropriation, MFA Boston's "#Kimono Wednesdays"

Replica of the Kimono from "La Japonaise." Photo from 


Hey everybody,

    In 2015, MFA Boston decided to have an event called Kimono Wednesdays on location. Visitors to the museum would be able to wear a kimono that was a replica from a piece by Monet. The piece by Monet in question is "La Japonaise," a painting in which the artist's wife is in a kimono and is the center of debate. 

    The exhibition the event was a part of, "Claude Monet: Flirting with the Exotic," could have been named something that didn't implicate exoticism or yellow-face, but that isn't the part that I would like to focus on.

    In the articles I was able to read, Boston Chronicle requires a subscription, Japanese and Japanese Americans were not asked for their opinions. The council that condemned the event, didn't have a Japanese or Japanese American person on it. A kimono is not a religious practice, nor a closed cultural practice. As long as it's worn with respect, most Japanese Americans wouldn't have a problem with it. The panel that called it yellow-face and exoticism doesn't have the right to do so.

An example of Yellow-face.

 

    It's unfair to treat this as an "Asian American" problem because Asian Americans aren't inherently a single entity. 

    Asia is a continent with many different countries on it. Japan is one of them, along with China, Thailand, India, Tibet, Mongolia, Half of Russia, and many others. Descendants of immigrants from these countries are all considered Asian Americans. 

    Yet, the kimono is an article of clothing from only one of these places. Specifically, it's a piece of clothing from Japan, cut from fabric in a specific pattern, sewn in a specific way, and are, for the most part, one size fits all. If it were a Hanfu, a piece of formal Chinese clothing, I would allow the panel to say it was exoticism because the panel included a Chinese person to make that call. Similarly, a Japanese or Japanese American person would have to be included on the panel in order to call the activity or event exoticism.

    In general, I feel it's more respectful to follow the lead of the culture with a stake in the argument.

Ever the slacker,

Andrew Horiuchi

Decolonize Our Museums, Official Response to the MFA Panel “Kimono Wednesdays, A Conversation,”         Tumbler, May 31, 2016, http://decolonizeourmuseums.tumblr.com/post/145203939609/official-response-to-mfa-panel-kimono-wednesdays

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