The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 31 (2020)
Copyright © 2020 Michiyo Kitawaki. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with thisnotice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may be distributed,
electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission from the author.

The Making of Western Dressmaking Culture in the
Hawai‘i Nikkei Community before World War II

Michiyo KITAWAKI*

INTRODUCTION
In 1939, the Nippu Jiji, a Japanese vernacular newspaper in the Territoryof Hawai‘i, sponsored an “amateur dressmaking contest” in the Nikkei
community.1 The contestants submitted dresses that they had made, anddressmaking teachers evaluated them and bestowed prizes. The culminating
event, to celebrate the prizewinners and share their designs with a large
audience, was a fashion show held at a school auditorium. Models presented
the prize-winning dresses, including street dresses and evening dresses, on
the auditorium stage.2 This fashion show was the most spectacular andgorgeous moment of the event.
This event also highlights the degree to which Western dressmaking
culture had been cultivated among the Nikkei community in Hawai‘i. Most
Japanese immigrants to Hawai‘i initially worked on sugar plantations, andwomen had to make their own work clothes as well as clothes for theirfamily members. Barbara Kawakami describes how immigrant women madework jackets out of fabric and clothing they had brought with them fromJapan, such as clothing made of kasuri, an ikat-type fabric.3 Once they
became accustomed to plantation life, some women learned to sew work
clothing from women of other ethnic groups. For instance, they learned how
to make skirt-type clothing from Portuguese and Spanish women. At the*Associate Professor, Nihon University

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MICHIYO KITAWAKI

same time, they also started using American fabric in addition to kasuri.4
The living and working conditions in Hawai‘i led them to eventuallycultivate a rich sewing culture in their community. The foundation of sewing
culture encouraged many women to engage in Western dressmaking.
In this article I explore the significance of Western dressmaking in the
Nikkei community in Hawai‘i during the years before World War II, paying
particular attention to Western dressmaking schools in the community. In theplantation work camps, Japanese immigrants and their children were likely
to still wear Japanese clothing, such as the cotton yukata, in their daily lives,
but sewing shops for Western clothing, based on apprenticeship training, hadappeared in Honolulu beginning in the 1890s, and the number ofdressmaking schools dramatically increased by the late 1930s.5
As the late Yoshitami “Jack” Tasaka, a Kibei-Nisei who recounted prewar
life in Hawai‘i, also pointed out in an interview conducted by Kei Suzuki,
Japanese sewing schools have received little scholarly attention, although
there were many schools in the prewar Nikkei community.6 In 1939,
sociologist Yukiko Kimura conducted intensive research about Nikkei
dressmakers in Honolulu, but this work has not been followed up on.7 Evenin her collective research on Japanese immigrants, Kimura hardly touches
on Nikkei dressmakers.8 The role of Western dressmaking schools andWestern dressmakers in the Nikkei community has been neglected in thehistoriography.
In this article I delve into how and why Nikkei women learned Western
dressmaking in the prewar years and the significance of the dressmaking
contest and fashion show for the Nikkei community at the time. In a 2010
book, Shiho Imai delineates Western dressmaking as a leisure activity in thedevelopment of consumer culture among urban Nikkei women.9 From an
educational perspective, Hiromi Monobe also touches on sewing education,
including Japanese kimono sewing and Western dressmaking, in her
examination of prewar education for Nisei women in Hawai‘i.10 Regarding
clothing itself in Hawai‘i, Barbara Kawakami elaborately examines whatkinds of clothing Nikkei people wore on diverse occasions, such as forwork, funerals, and weddings during the prewar years, but she does notnecessarily focus on Western dressmaking schools, although her analysis
greatly takes advantage of her personal background as a professional
dressmaker.11 Based on these preceding studies, I would like to scrutinize thesignificance of Western dressmaking in the Nikkei community in Hawai‘i
before World War II, paying close attention to the role of Western
dressmaking schools and dressmaking shops.

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THE TRANSFERRING OF WESTERN DRESSMAKING SKILLS
After the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907–8, which resulted in theJapanese government stopping issuing passports to laborers and eventuallyencouraged Japanese male immigrants to build their families in Hawai‘i,
many Japanese women immigrated to Hawai‘i as picture brides, most ofwhom began their new life as sugar plantation workers with their husbands.
In their newly started married lives, women’s burdens included not only
laboring on the plantation but engaging in domestic chores such as cooking
and laundering. Furthermore, women were also responsible for making andmending clothing.12
Since most female Japanese immigrants did not have the opportunity tolearn Western dressmaking skills before leaving Japan, they had to acquirethem in Hawai‘i. Although there were some educational institutions where
women could learn Western dressmaking in Japan, the access to sucheducation was still largely limited to women from affluent families who
lived in urban areas.13 Therefore, almost all immigrant women, who were
mostly from rural areas such as Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, andFukuoka Prefectures, did not know how to use sewing machines or how tomake Western dresses, though they were already familiar with how to sew
kimono in Japan.14 For instance, Tei Saito, an immigrant from Fukushima
Prefecture, recollected in an interview with Barbara Kawakami that she had
not even seen a sewing machine in Japan. Kawakami recounts that “hernewfound friends taught her how to use the sewing machine, and she figuredout how to sew her children’s clothing by borrowing patterns and learningby trial and error.”15 Women had to handle whatever they faced in their new
lives, helping each one another and transferring their skills to others.
Susan Mack, who has conducted research on training in dressmaking andmillinery from the mid-nineteen century to 1920 in the US mainland and has
examined various sites for training, including self-study, apprenticeships,
public schools, private schools, colleges, and community education, argues
that historically, women had various opportunities to learn dressmaking.16 In
American society, the dominant idea of domesticity prescribed women’sroles, and women were expected to make and mend clothing for theirfamilies and themselves. As historian Sarah A. Gordon states, indicating thevariety of sewing education opportunities for girls, “Despite economic andsocial changes, however, girls from all backgrounds were encouraged tosew.”17 It was no wonder that Nikkei women were exhorted to sew as wellafter coming to the United States and Hawai‘i.

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In the Nikkei community in Hawai‘i, as the example of Tei Saito shows,many immigrant women studied Western dressmaking on their own time,
mostly because they were too busy to take any formal lessons. Soto Kimura,an immigrant woman from Yamaguchi Prefecture whom Kawakami alsointerviewed, similarly recalled that the first time she saw a sewing machine
was in Hawai‘i.18 Her new husband and his friends had bought it for her inadvance of their marriage, demonstrating the high expectations placed onher to use the machine in her role as a wife. Kimura managed to sew her
work clothes, kappa or raincoat, and casual clothing for herself and herfamily, acquiring some necessary information from other women on theplantation, since her busy life kept her from receiving formal dressmaking
training. Kimura finally took sewing lessons after her retirement. She
recounts that “the clothes I sewed a long time ago for my children must havelooked very funny.”19Japanese immigrant women also sewed holoku, Hawaiian-style long
dresses (a sort of fancy muumuu with a train). Kimura actually made holoku
out of several kasuri kimono that she had brought from Japan. She explainedthat “when I came in 1911, the Issei women were already wearing holoku. . . for home and for special occasions.”20 Nevertheless, not all Japaneseimmigrants abandoned Japanese clothing. As mentioned earlier, according to
Barbara Kawakami, in plantation life, Japanese immigrants tended tocontinue wearing yukata at home and in their neighborhoods. In Japan,
yukata were casual clothing for summer, but the warm climate in Hawai‘iallowed Nikkei people to wear these garments year round.21
Japanese immigrants’ persistence in maintaining a so-called Japanese wayof life was of concern to those who actively promoted the Americanizationof all Nikkei. As earlier studies show, the Americanization movement surgedin Hawai‘i, especially after World War I, following its peak in the US
mainland. In the Nikkei community in Hawai‘i, the crusade started in thelate 1900s, and Issei leaders, including Takie Okumura, Yemyō Imamura,and Yasutarō Sōga, made strenuous efforts to “Americanize” those who had
immigrated from Japan, sometimes collaborating with leaders in Japan, suchas the financier Eiichi Shibusawa.22 Japanese immigrants and their children
made up more than 40 percent of the total population of Hawai‘i by thistime, so white elites, especially those who promoted statehood for Hawai‘i,were apprehensive of the “Japanization” of Hawai‘i, which also incited Issei
leaders to “Americanize” the Nikkei community.23
In the field of education, the enactment of the Smith-Hughes Act in the
US mainland in 1917, which promoted public vocational education,

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49

including homemaking courses, started affecting the Territory of Hawai‘i in
1924.24 Since women could learn American ways of living through thesecourses, vocational education was in a sense a project of “Americanizing”
immigrant children, although homemaking education was likely to direct thefemale students toward work as domestic servants.25 Vocational education
was closely associated with Americanization in those days.
It was during such an era of Americanization that Nikkei dressmaking
teacher Nobuko Ogawa was invited to Hawai‘i. Ogawa, who had been asewing teacher in Tokyo, moved to Chicago in 1910 and became a licensed
instructor in a Western dressmaking method called the Keister system.26 The
sewing system was invented by J. A. Keister, who founded a school 1891 in
Missouri, and through a formal licensing system, he authorized his students
to spread his system to other regions. The number of Keister system schools
reached five hundred and produced approximately forty thousand graduatesby 1915.27 With its popularity, in 1918, Ogawa opened the Southern
California Sewing School in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles
and taught the Keister system to Nikkei women.28 The school’s steady
growth—it accepted nearly one hundred students during the 1920s—led
Ogawa to become a notable figure in the Nikkei community.29 Then, in
1925, after temporarily visiting Japan, she stayed in Honolulu for a couple
of weeks to teach the Keister system to Nikkei women before returning to
Los Angeles.30
A newspaper article, meant to encourage Nikkei women to participate in
Ogawa’s workshop, explained that the “new sewing system” Ogawa would
demonstrate was the easiest and the simplest method of Western
dressmaking.31 The main feature of the Keister system was the use of an
original ruler to measure body size, which enabled dressmakers to easily cut
fabric and draft patterns.32 Ogawa’s two-week workshop in Hawai‘i received
favorable recognition. According to a newspaper article, approximately forty
Nikkei women, including some professional dressmakers, took her lessons
and mainly learned how to cut fabric, and some woman even started
planning to study more in Los Angeles.33
The favorable outcome of the first workshop brought about a second one
the following year. In 1926, when Ogawa decided to go back to Japan,
leaving the operation of the sewing school in Los Angeles to another
woman, she stopped over in Hawai‘i again.34 This second visit allowed her
to stay in Honolulu for about two months. Because of her longer stay andthe popularity of the previous workshop, the second one was divided into
four courses: one for those who had taken the first workshop, one for

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beginners, one for professional dressmakers, and one for busy learners. The
newspaper article emphasized the point that people would not need to go to
the mainland United States to learn dressmaking skills.35 In other words,
information on Western dressmaking was still scarce in the Nikkei
community in Hawai‘i. Thus, the transferring of Western dressmaking skills
from the US mainland was very much appreciated by Nikkei women in
Hawai‘i.
Although the Japanese immigrants’ Hawai‘i-born daughters, or Nisei,
could usually learn some dressmaking skills at school as a part of their home
economics curriculum, it was not easy to systematically and inclusively
learn Western dressmaking during the early 1920s. Thus, when women
hoped to become professional dressmakers or seamstresses to make a living,
their choice was likely to be restricted to serving an apprenticeship, or onthe-job training, in dressmaking shops. Yukiko Kimura, who carried out
research about dressmakers in 1939, defines the shops as places where “themajor purpose of the trade is to get the orders from the customers but at thesame time they teach the girls, charging a monthly fee of $5 to $10 for fulltime students and from $3 to $5 for the part time students.”36 In this setting,the pace of learning depended on the shop proprietors, since the handling oforders was the first priority for the “teachers.”
The success of Ogawa’s workshops directly led to a dramatic change in
how dressmaking was learned and taught in the Nikkei community,
including the founding of the first dressmaking school, Keister System,
Hawaii Ladies’ Tailoring College, in Honolulu in 1926. Ogawa must haveconnected Nikkei people in Hawai‘i with J. A. Keister, making it possible
for them to gain the required license from him and successfully open a
Keister school to impart this popular modern sewing system to Nikkei
women.37 In August 18, 1926, the new school opened with eleven students.38
The principal was Shigeko Murata, and the vice-principal was Chikayo
Kobayashi, both of whom used to be dressmakers at their own dressmaking
shops. Their husbands, Ryūichi Murata and Masaichi Kobayashi, also
helped to operate the school.39
More significantly, Ogawa’s workshops and the subsequent founding of
the new dressmaking school were built on the concept of Americanization.
On the tenth anniversary of the school’s founding, the administrator Ryūichi
Murata explained that many Nikkei leaders, including Yemyō Imamura andKusaka Haga, supported the establishment of the dressmaking school.40 He
recalled that the Japanese Consul General of Honolulu, Rokurō Moroi, tried
to promote the Dress Improvement Movement in 1917 encouraging Nikkei

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51

people to keep their appearance tidy and respectable in order to alleviate
anti-Japanese sentiment, which made him think that it would not be possible
to Westernize the clothing of Nikkei people in Hawai‘i without knowledgeof Western dressmaking.41 As his comment shows, Western dressmaking
schools assumed the role of Americanizing people’s appearance in the
Nikkei community.
In a newspaper article celebrating the school’s tenth anniversary, many
graduates of the school placed advertisements expressing theircongratulations. These advertisements clearly show that the graduates had
spread throughout Hawai‘i from Waialae, Kakaako, and Waipahu in Oahu tothe islands of Maui and Kauai.42 Barbara Kawakami was also one of thegraduates. She states that she first started learning the Keister system in
Waipahu, near her house on a plantation. After she finished the basic course,
she continued learning an advanced level of dressmaking skills at Hawaii
Ladies’ Tailoring College in Honolulu and then became a professional
dressmaker.43 The Keister system steadily permeated the Nikkei community
in Hawai‘i, which meant that the number of Nikkei women who could makeWestern clothing was gradually increasing.
THE FLOURISHING OF WESTERN DRESSMAKING SCHOOLS
After the establishment of the Hawaii Ladies’ Tailoring College, thenumber of Western dressmaking schools increased in the Nikkei community.
Hisayo Fukuda’s school was another successful sewing school. Fukuda wasborn in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1891, and she immigrated to Hawai‘i with hermother to join her father in Honolulu when she was eight.44 After attending
Chūō Gakuin, a Japanese-language school, Fukuda was fortunate to have achance to go to Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary boarding school, where she
was able to acquire Western dressmaking skills as well as otherhomemaking skills.45 She subsequently worked as a nursemaid for a wealthy
white family and, after marrying, became a sewing teacher in night classes
at high schools, including McKinley High School in Honolulu, which had alarge Nikkei student population. Although the Great Depression eventually
forced her to leave her teaching job, after working as a sewing instructor at
White Sewing Machine Company, Fukuda finally founded her own
dressmaking school, called Fukuda Kōtō Saihō Gakuin, or Fashion
Academy, in 1935.46 Fukuda did not rely on a sewing system from the US
mainland, such as Keister’s, but she appealed instead to Nikkei women bymentioning that her school adopted the same textbook as the one used in the

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homemaking course at Columbia University in New York.47 Advertisingsomething from the mainland seemed to be one of the essential factors for
dressmaking schools to succeed in the Nikkei community.
In founding the school, Fukuda particularly counted on the increasing
number of Nisei girls as a business opportunity, speculating that Issei
women would want their daughters to become “good wives.”48 Encouraging
young women to become “good wives” was an underlying motivation in the
promotion of dressmaking schools. The ability to sew was intertwined withthe concept of womanhood in the Nikkei community as well as in Japan. In
Japan, the ryōsai kenbo, or “good wife, wise mother,” ideology exhorted
women to cultivate domestic skills, including sewing skills, at school aswell as at home.49 Since Japanese immigrants usually continued to embrace
the concept of “Japanese” womanhood after coming to Hawai‘i, the ideal of“good wife, wise mother” was likely to be transplanted into the Nikkei
community in Hawai‘i. In particular, Issei attempted to mold their daughters
into “good wives, wise mothers” and thus urged young Nisei women to takesewing lessons. Especially, in the case of dressmaking schools in thecommunity, Nisei women could learn Japanese dressmaking skills as well as
Western dressmaking skills, which satisfied Issei women further. Since
American society also encouraged women to sew, learning Western
dressmaking met both expectations, following the efforts ofAmericanization and retaining the concept of Japanese womanhood.
Husband and wife Keibei and Misa Hamahata also established a new
dressmaking school, recognizing that an enhanced awareness of Western
clothing in the Nikkei community and an increased Nisei populationreflected “the transition of the times.”50 Keibei had found success selling
products made by the Nikkei company Oyama Cosmetics based in
Sacramento, California, while operating an automobile shop and engaging inliterary activity.51 Keibei had participated in the opening ceremony of the
Hawaii Ladies’ Tailoring College, and it is probable that the idea of creating
another school occurred to him as a result of this experience.52 Furthermore,
his wife Misa had owned a dressmaking shop in Honolulu since 1916 after
learning the skills from a white dressmaker. Misa had already taught
approximately one hundred apprentices, so she had considerable teachingexperience.53 These factors made it possible for them to found a new school.
The Hamahatas opened Royal Sewing School in Honolulu in May 1928.54
In order to attract many students, they introduced a different sewing systemfrom the Keister one, called the square system, or sukoa-shiki in Japanese.
As shown in the case of Keister’s school, the Hamahatas also invited a

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53

Nikkei woman, Yasuko Ozaki, from the mainland. Ozaki had administered adressmaking school in Oakland, California, inventing an original sewing
system.55 In February 1928, before the opening of the new school, theHamahatas arranged workshops by Ozaki in Honolulu, announcing thatpeople could learn “the Ozaki system” there. This term, “the Ozaki system,”
was employed for a while after the opening of the Royal Sewing School, but
it was changed to “the square system” the following year.56 It is possible thatthe name change was made to make it sound more “American” in order toappeal to Nikkei women. By publicizing the square system as the “brandnew method of cutting in the United States,” the Royal Sewing School
successfully attracted many Nikkei women (fig. 1).57 The school started with
fourteen students in 1928, and graduates totaled approximately seven

Figure 1. Royal Sewing School
Source: Rōyaru Dōsōkai, Rōyaru Dōsōshi, The Royal Class Mates, 1933 (Honolulu: Taishō,1933).

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MICHIYO KITAWAKI

hundred by 1935.58
The “new” methods brought from the US mainland likely appealed to
Nikkei women in Hawai‘i. Following the Keister system and the squaresystem, such systems as “the French American system” and “the Blackburn
system” were also imported from the mainland.59 In 1933, recognizing mostof the US sewing systems as theoretical, Misa Hamahata also pointed outthat while women in Hawai‘i had not been able to learn any theoretical or
rational methods of sewing until several years before, Nikkei women in
Hawai‘i were now able to learn theoretical and rational systems such as thesquare system. Suggesting that even women in Japan were getting to learn
theoretical systems, Hamahata insisted that women in Hawai‘i also needed
to keep abreast of the times.60
White dressmakers in the US mainland were also likely to see Hawai‘i asa site for business opportunities. For instance, Ethel Wolfe, who had
administered a school in Los Angeles, opened a costume design school in
Honolulu.61 Although she might not necessarily have targeted Nikkei people,
the advertisements of Wolfe’s school were frequently inserted even in both
the Japanese section and English of the Nippu Jiji.62 Since she had alreadytaught many Nikkei women in Los Angeles, Wolfe must have been confident
about succeeding in her business in Hawai‘i.63 The introduction of mainland
sewing systems and the culture of Western dressmaking flourished among
Nikkei women in Hawai‘i, which led to an increase in the number of Nikkei
dressmakers.
With the rise in the number of dressmakers, the new Hawaii Dressmakers’
Association played an important role in the dressmaking trade in Hawai‘i.
Keibei and Misa Hamahata were among the association’s founding
members. Keibei recollects that they had their first meeting on July 24,
1926, at Misa’s shop, Hayashida Sewing Shop, which she ran before theRoyal Sewing School opened.64 The founding members came from fourteen
dressmaking shops as well as Chikayo Kobayashi and Ryūichi Murata, whowere about to open Hawaii Ladies’ Tailoring College.65 Although most of themembers were the owners of dressmaking shops, they likely remained in theassociation even after opening their schools and closing their own shops.
Yukiko Kimura elucidates that the aim of the association was “to cooperatewith one another in ways of developing the skill in dressmaking and at thesame time in increasing the profit in their trade.”66 The association also set
an examination to make the dressmaking skills of Nikkei women reach acertain level in order to prevent unskilled dressmakers from entering the
dressmaking trade.67 They even held a graduation ceremony for those who

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passed the exam. They also attempted to construct social networks as well as
commercial ties, sometimes holding picnics and providing tours to Japan.68
By 1939, there were forty members in the association not only in Oahu but
also on Maui and Kauai.69 This collaborative alliance backed the flourishingof the dressmaking trade and the cultivation of dressmaking culture in the
Nikkei community, which led to the dressmaking contest and fashion show.
DRESSMAKING CONTEST AND FASHION SHOWThe first Nippu Jiji dressmaking contest and fashion show was held in
1939 and supported by local stores in Honolulu, the Hawaii Dressmakers’
Association, and major Western dressmaking schools.70 The dressmaking
contest was announced on July 25 with a statement in the newspaper that it
would be “Hawaii’s first amateur dressmaking contest.” Applicants were
given until August 31 to submit their pieces, and then eleven dressmaking
teachers judged about 150 pieces and announced the results on September
29.71 The fashion show took place on October 1, accompanied by the singing
of traditional Japanese ballads and a koto performance. In the show, sixty
models walked on the stage, wearing not only prize-winning dresses but also
the designs of dressmaking-school students.72
Although this may have been the first time a dressmaking contest had
taken place in Hawai‘i, the fashion show format itself was already familiar
to the Nikkei community. For instance, in 1933, the Royal Sewing School
started holding a fashion show at the end of its graduation ceremony, with
graduates modeling the dresses they made.73 An announcement for the event
suggested that this was still rare in the Nikkei community.74 In the following
year, the Nippu Jiji included a “style show” with a free “cooking school”
event, in collaboration with the Bon Ton department store.75 Likewise, theFashion Academy, Hisayo Fukuda’s school, followed suit and held a fashion
show at its graduation ceremony.76 Thus, the sponsors for the 1939 event
were already aware that fashion shows could capture people’s attention.
Therefore, when the Nippu Jiji suggested the idea of holding a fashion show,
dressmaking teachers immediately agreed with the proposal.77 As a result,the fashion show successfully drew a large audience, so that some potential
visitors were even refused entrance due to limited capacity.78
According to the Nippu Jiji, the goals of the dressmaking contest were tostimulate the dressmaking trade and to spread home sewing to every
household in the Nikkei community.79 The idea was partly grounded in thefact that many Nikkei women were engaged in the dressmaking trade at the

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time. In 1939, the Nippu Jiji stated that the profession of Western
dressmaking in Hawai‘i was now exclusively occupied by Nikkei women“who were skillful with their fingers.” They hosted the dressmaking contest
and the fashion show in order to promote the development of the
dressmaking trade for Nikkei women.80 In fact, the number of Nikkei
dressmakers had dramatically multiplied. According to human geographer
Kōjirō Iida, in 1920 there were only 33 Japanese dressmakers or
seamstresses in Honolulu, but by 1930, this number had dramaticallyincreased to 168. During the same period, the number of white female
dressmakers dropped from 82 to 55 in 1930, while that of Nikkei
dressmakers jumped nearly fivefold.81 The surge in awareness of Western
clothing and the increase in the number of sites for learning dressmaking
skills boosted the number of Nikkei dressmakers. In this sense, thedressmaking contest was intended to support a valuable career for Nikkei
women. Hisayo Fukuda actually argued for maintaining Nikkei women’s
position in the dressmaking trade for the next generation, partly because thechance of entering other professions, such as medicine and law, was getting
slimmer for Nikkei youth at the time, and partly because the dressmaking
trade had begun to be monopolized by Nikkei women.82
At the same time, the aim of spreading home sewing through the Nikkei
community casts light on other aspects of dressmaking at the time. While
dressmaking teachers and dressmakers regarded their job as a significant
option for Nikkei women, Nisei women, especially those who could receive
higher education, tried to choose other careers. For instance, many Nisei
women became interested in teaching, although it was still hard for them toenter the profession.83 According to a report of Japan’s foreign ministry in
1936, the number of Nikkei women learning dressmaking skills in Honolulu
reached 2,250, approximately 30 percent of whom were estimated to havestarted dressmaking businesses.84 In other words, many of those who went todressmaking schools did not always become professional dressmakers.
Furthermore, the development of ready-made clothing had made it possible
for women to avoid having to sew at home; therefore, if they could afford to,or if they were too busy to find enough time to sew, women, particularly
those living in urban areas, were able to rely on ready-made clothing.
Dressmaking was not necessarily an indispensable skill for every woman
anymore.
This reveals that there were economic disparities and class differencesamong Nikkei women. While some Nikkei women learned Western
dressmaking in order to work as dressmakers for their living or to liveTHE MAKING OF WESTERN DRESSMAKING CULTURE IN THE HAWAI‘I NIKKEI COMMUNITY BEFORE WORLD WAR II

57

frugally, others, including young Nikkei high school girls and college
women, learned it as a kind of leisure activity. 85 In the case of the latter,
many attended dressmaking schools during their summer vacations. Thus,
dressmaking schools had to actively recruit women, since the social andeconomic setting did not easily bring students into dressmaking schools.
In this sense, the dressmaking contest and fashion show was a site toadvertise the attractiveness of dressmaking to the Nikkei community and an
unparalleled opportunity for dressmaking schools to publicize their schools.
In addition to presenting dresses that their students made on the stage of the
fashion show, each dressmaking school inserted advertisements containing
messages in the program booklet. Some appealed to women’s beauty
awareness, with such phrases as “female beauty depends on the style ofdress,” but most of them were based on the Nikkei concept of womanhood.
For instance, the advertisement for the Modern Sewing School stated, “Thefeature of this school is to help students cultivate womanhood appropriately
as well as master Western dressmaking skills easily in a homey cozyatmosphere.” Kimata Sewing School delivered a more powerful message:“It is disgraceful that a woman is not capable of sewing.”86 Since, as
mentioned earlier, young Nisei women were usually encouraged to takedressmaking lessons by their mothers, many phrases in the advertisements
seemed to be intended to appeal to immigrant women or the mothers of
Nisei girls and women. For instance, one such advertisement stated, “We
recommend you have your daughter learn at least Western dressmaking andacquire a full-fledged skill.”87 Likewise, the concept of womanhood and thesignificance of sewing were closely intertwined with each other. These
virtues were fostered in the Nikkei community in keeping with the idea of“good wife, wise mother.” Dressmaking schools played an active role inpassing down the values associated with the ideal of womanhood to the next
generation.
While considering how this event benefited the Nikkei community, the
Nippu Jiji also took the larger audience beyond the community into
consideration. The event also functioned as a site to demonstrate theAmericanization of Nikkei people. On the fashion show stage, the models,
including not only Nikkei but also white women, wore fashionable andsophisticated Western dresses. In addition, the dressmaking contest itself
attempted to show Nikkei people’s contribution to the Hawaiian economy.
According to the contest rules, the applicants had to purchase sewing
materials at affiliated stores, such as Liberty House, Fair Department Store,
Musashiya, and Morifuji Silk Shop.88 The stores were not restricted to local

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Nikkei stores. The contest aimed to stimulate consumption and vitalize
business in Honolulu at large as well as the Nikkei community during theDepression years.
It is also noteworthy to mention that the fashion show included “dresses
made of Japanese materials (Tanmono).”89 This segment was actually the
product of an initiative of the Hawaii Dressmakers’ Association. In spring
1939, the association arranged a study tour to Japan, a so-called
kengakudan. During the tour, the Shirakiya department store in Tokyo
requested that the members of the association sew Western dresses made ofmeisen silk, a fabric used to make kimono, and the tour members agreed.
After returning to Hawai‘i, Nisei dressmakers sewed Western dresses withmeisen silk and sent them to the department store in Japan, and the pieces
were eventually introduced in the Japanese women’s magazine, Fujin
Kōron.90 This experience actually gave them the idea of presenting“Oriental”–flavored Western dresses on the stage of the fashion show. To be
sure, one of the reasons might have been that they wanted the Nikkei
audience to see designs and styles of Western dresses made out of kimono
fabric, but they simultaneously targeted a white audience interested in things“Oriental.”91 While trying to show their Americanization by demonstrating
Western dresses, they also took advantage of their “Oriental” background.
Hisayo Fukuda recounted that Western dresses made of kimono fabrics wereactually popular among white tourists to Hawai‘i.92
Regarding the fashion show, the Nippu Jiji reporter Harry Shiramizu
delineated, “Fashion views, reviews and previews spotlighting the latest in
women’s autumnal dresses and gowns made of materials, Oriental and nonOriental, harmonized by beautiful color blends and worn by models,
Caucasian and non-Caucasian, featured The Nippu Jiji’s First‘Fashionade.’”93 This hybrid event, paying attention to the Nikkei
community and the larger society, was a resounding success, and it was
repeated the following year.94 However, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941
and the resulting state of emergency led to the temporary closure of
dressmaking schools and the discontinuation of the contest and fashion
show.95
CONCLUSION
Nikkei women’s bodies and dresses were considered an important site ofcontestation and negotiation in the context of Americanization. With the riseof the Americanization movement in the Territory of Hawai‘i, JapaneseTHE MAKING OF WESTERN DRESSMAKING CULTURE IN THE HAWAI‘I NIKKEI COMMUNITY BEFORE WORLD WAR II

59

immigrant women were expected to dress themselves in Americanized
ways. Western dressmaking became a key factor that supported andpromoted Americanization leaders’ ardent efforts. In this sense, Western
dressmaking schools played a significant role in increasing Western
dressmakers in the Nikkei community and Americanizing Nikkei women.
Dressmaking contests and fashion shows further served as a site of explicitly
demonstrating the outcome of Americanization.
At the same time, dressmaking schools were not simply advocates ofAmericanization in the Nikkei community. They also showed favorable andsometimes nationalistic sentiments toward Japan. For instance, the Royal
Sewing School purchased an advertisement to celebrate the JapaneseImperial Navy’s arrival in Hawai‘i in a Japanese vernacular newspaper.96
The Hawaii Dressmakers’ Association also held a fundraising movie party
for the purpose of donating to the Imperial Army in Japan.97 They evenvisited a navy hospital for sick and wounded soldiers in Yokosuka, Japan,
during their Japanese tour and distributed gifts that they had brought from
Hawai‘i to patients.98 In other words, Western dressmaking circles were also
a site for fostering “immigrant nationalism” that Yuji Ichioka and other
scholars have referred to.99
Furthermore, Western dressmaking circles also recognized the fluidity of
the Nikkei community based on the mobility of Nikkei people. Many Nikkei
did not necessarily permanently live in Hawai‘i and tended to move to otherplaces, ranging from the US mainland to Japan, Taiwan, or Manchuria,
seeking a better life and opportunities.100 Acknowledging the regional ortransnational mobility of Nikkei people, Misa Hamahata also stated in theadvertisement of her Royal Sewing School that after studying at the school“you could become a dressmaking teacher at schools as well as sewing
shops, wherever you are, in other Hawaiian islands or in Japan.”101 Whilethey attempted to cultivate the concept of womanhood based on “good wife,
wise mother” in the Nikkei community, they encouraged Nikkei women to
become autonomous through their acquired skills wherever they were.
On the whole, Nikkei Western dressmaking circles in Hawai‘i tried towork for the advancement of their community and the development of an
ethnic niche in the dressmaking trade. Seeking ways for survival in Hawai‘i,they contributed to fostering Western dressmaking culture in the Nikkei
community.
NOTES
1

In this article, the term “Nikkei” refers to people of Japanese ancestry, such as the “Issei,”

60

MICHIYO KITAWAKI“Nisei,” and “Kibei.” “Kibei” is the term for an American-born person of Japanese ancestry
who is sent to be educated in Japan in childhood and then returns to the United States.
“Nikkei” also includes those who temporarily lived in the United States and later went backto Japan.
2“Ryūkō Zuresuten [Fashion show],” Nippu Jiji, September 30, 1939; “Fujin Ryūkōten no
Seikyō [The success of the fashion show],” Nippu Jiji, October 2, 1939; “Fashion Show
Attracts Throng,” Nippu Jiji, October 2, 1939.
3
Barbara F. Kawakami, Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii, 1885–1941 (Honolulu:
University of Hawai‘i Press, 1993), 92.
4Ibid., 98, 202.
5
The advertisements for sewing shops can be found in Japanese-language newspapers
during the 1880s. See, e. g., Yamato Shinbun, February 4, 1899.
6
Shigehiko Shiramizu and Kei Suzuki, Hawaii Nikkeishakai Monogatari: Aru Kibei Nisei
Jānarisuto no Shōgen [A history of Hawai‘i’s Japanese narrated by a Kibei–Nisei] (Tokyo:
Ochanomizu Shobō, 2016), 36–37.
7
Yukiko Kimura, “A Study of the Japanese Dressmakers in Honolulu,” July 1939, in the
Romanzo Adams Social Research Laboratory (RASRL) Collection, Student Papers, series A,
box A-3, Hamilton Library, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
8
Yukiko Kimura, Issei: Japanese Immigrants in Hawaii (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1992).
9
Shiho Imai, Creating the Nisei Market: Race and Citizenship in Hawai‘i’s JapaneseAmerican Consumer Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010), 95–102.
10
Hiromi Monobe, “Senkanki Hawainiokeru Nikkei Nisei Joshi Kyōiku: Nihongo Gakkōkara Ryōrikōshūkai made [From Japanese-language school to cooking classes: Education ofJapanese American Nisei women in interwar Hawai‘i],” Ritsumeikan Studies in Language
and Culture 20, no. 1 (2008): 193, 197–8.
11
Kawakami, Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii. Her 2016 book also clearly shows
her viewpoint from the side of a dressmaker. Barbara F. Kawakami, Picture Bride Stories(Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016).
12
The Nikkei population in Hawai‘i steadily increased. In 1920, its population reached
109,274, which comprised 42.7 % of the total in Hawai‘i. Then, the number of Nikkei
women rose to 46,630, which had more than tripled that in 1900, 13,603, and alleviated theimbalanced sex ratio. Romanzo Adams, “Some Statistics on the Japanese in Hawaii,”
Foreign Affairs 2, no. 2 (1923): 311–12. See also Ronald Takaki, Pau Hana: Plantation Lifeand Labor in Hawaii, 1835–1920 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1983), 122–23;
Gail M. Nomura, “Issei Working Women in Hawaii,” in Making Waves: An Anthology of
Writings by and about Asian American Women, ed. Asian Women United of California(Boston: Beacon Press, 1989), 135–48; Alice Yun Chai, “Picture Brides: Feminist Analysis ofLife Histories of Hawai‘i’s Early Immigrant Women from Japan, Okinawa, and Korea,” inSeeking Common Ground: Multidisciplinary Studies of Immigrant Women in the UnitedStates, ed. Donna Gabaccia (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), 125–31; Mei Nakano, JapaneseAmerican Women: Three Generations, 1890–1990 (Berkeley, CA: Mina Press, 1990), 24–29;
Yuji Ichioka, The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885–1924(New York: The Free Press, 1988), 164–69; Yujin Yaguchi, Hawaino Rekishi to Bunka[History and culture of Hawai‘i] (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 2002), 12–54.
13
Yoko Yoshimoto, “Hanahiraku Yōsaigakkō [The blossoming of Western dressmaking
schools],” in Yōsai no Jidai [The era of Western dressmaking], ed. Kazuko Koizumi (Tokyo:
OM Shuppan, 2004), 23–29; Yoko Kuromura, “Nōson no Yōfukuka [The spread of Western
clothing in agricultural villages],” in Koizumi, Yōsai no Jidai, 74; Andrew Gordon,
Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of

THE MAKING OF WESTERN DRESSMAKING CULTURE IN THE HAWAI‘I NIKKEI COMMUNITY BEFORE WORLD WAR II

61

California Press, 2012), 21–26, 40–45.
14Michiyo Kitawaki, “Nihonjin Imin to Saihō: Iminshakai niokeru Saihō Gakkō woChūshin toshite [Japanese immigrant women and sewing: Dressmaking schools in theJapanese American community],” in Esunikku Amerika wo Tou:“Ta karanaru Hitotsu”eno
Takakuteki Apurōchi [Searching ethnic America: Multiple approaches to “E Pluribus Unum”],
ed. Migration and America Research Project (Tokyo: Sairyūsha, 2015), 71–76.
15
Kawakami, Picture Bride Stories, 97.
16
Susan Mack, “Gifts to be Cultivated: Training in Dressmaking and Millinery, 1860–
1920,” (PhD diss., University of St. Thomas, 2011), 8.
17
Sarah A. Gordon, “Making It Yourself”: Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890–1930(New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 47.
18
Kawakami, Picture Bride Stories, 62.
19
Ibid., 63.
20
Ibid., 62. Kawakami suggests that Issei women she interviewed were likely to use theterms “holoku” and “muumuu” interchangeably. See Kawakami, Japanese Immigrant
Clothing in Hawaii, 152.
21
Kawakami, Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii, 136–46.
22
Eileen H. Tamura, Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei
Generation in Hawaii (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1994), 45–88; Hiromi
Monobe, “Americanizing Hawai‘i’s Japanese: A Transnational Partnership and the Politics ofRacial Harmony during the 1920s,” in Hawai‘i at the Crossroads of the US and Japan before
the Pacific War, ed. Jon Thares Davidann (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008),
119–45; Noriko Shimada, “Social, Cultural, and Spiritual Struggles of the Japanese in
Hawai‘i: The Case of Okumura Takie and Imamura Yemyo and Americanization,” inDavidann, Hawai‘i at the Crossroads, 146–70; Mariko Takagi-Kitayama, “In the Strong
Wind of the Americanization Movement: The Japanese-Language School Litigation
Controversy and Okumura’s Educational Campaign,” in Davidann, Hawai‘i at the
Crossroads, 217–39.
23
Tamura, Nisei Generation, 56–65.
24
Ibid., 135–37.
25
Monobe also points out the aim of “Americanizing” immigrant students lurking in
vocational education at the time. See Hiromi Monobe, “Shaping an Ethnic Leadership: Takie
Okumura and the ‘Americanization’ of the Nisei in Hawai’i, 1919–1945,” (PhD diss.,
University of Hawai‘i, 2004), 140–43.
26Michiyo Kitawaki, “Senzen no Josei no Ekkyō to Yōsai Gijutsu no Iten: Nichibei de Yōsai
wo Oshieta Ogawa Nobuko no Jireikara [Women’s transnational mobility and the transfer ofWestern dressmaking skills before World War II: Nobuko Ogawa and her teaching experiencein the US and Japan],” Journal of the Japanese Overseas Migration Museum, JICA
Yokohama 13 (2019): 33–37; “Shinshiki Yōfuku no Saihō Kōshūkai [Sewing workshop on
new Western dressmaking],” Nippu Jiji, October 20, 1925.
27“Women May Learn Dressmaking by Easy Method,” Salt Lake Telegram, August 19,
1915.
28“Kaimei Kōkoku [Advertisement for a change of name],” Nichibei, November 1, 1918.
29
Kitawaki, “Women’s Transnational Mobility,” 36.
30
Nippu Jiji, October 20, 1925.
31
Ibid.
32
Salt Lake Telegram, August 19, 1915. The textbook that Nobuko Ogawa published inJapan also shows what the Keister system is. See Nobuko Ogawa, Saishin Kīsutā–shiki Fujin
Kodomo Yōfuku no Tachikata [The Keister system cutting method for women’s and children’s
clothing] (Tokyo: Tokyo Kasei Senshugakko, 1927).

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MICHIYO KITAWAKI

33“Ogawajoshi Saihō Owari Kibei [Mrs. Ogawa returns to US mainland],” Nippu Jiji,
Novermber 10, 1925.
34
Kitawaki, “Women’s Transnational Mobility,” 37–38.
35“Kīsutā Saihō Kōshūkai [Keister Sewing Workshop],” Nippu Jiji, June 14, 1926.
36
Kimura, “Japanese Dressmakers in Honolulu,” 7.
37
Ryūichi Murata, “Hawai niokeru Nihonjin no Yōsō [Western dress styles of Japanese in
Hawaii],” Nippu Jiji, August 19, 1936.
38“Kīsutā Saihō Gakkō Kaikō [The inauguration of Keister’s Sewing School],” Nippu Jiji,
August 18, 1926.
39
Advertisements show that Murata mainly handled baby clothing. See Nippu Jiji, March 9,
1926.
40
Murata, Nippu Jiji, August 19, 1936; Ryūichi Murata, “Jūnen no Kaiko [Recollections of
the decade],” Hawaii Hochi, August 18, 1936.
41
Murata, Nippu Jiji, August 19, 1936; Murata, Hawaii Hochi, August 18, 1936. Moroi
actively tried to improve the appearance of Nikkei people in the late 1910s. See Nippu Jiji,
November 17, 1917; November 20, 1917; and November 22, 1917.
42
Advertisements, Nippu Jiji, August 19, 1936; and Hawaii Hochi, August 18, 1936.
43
Barbara Kawakami, interview with the author, February 28, 2019. See also Kawakami,
Picture Bride Stories, xiv.
44
Hisayo Fukuda, “Autobiography,” in Collection of Tokioka Heritage Resource Center,
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, 1. Fukuda wrote this autobiography when she waseighty-five.
45
Fukuda, “Autobiography,” 3–15. Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary was a girls’ missionary
boarding school that promoted industrial education such as dressmaking, ironing, washing,and nursing. See Carl Kalani Beyer, “Female Seminaries in America and Hawai‘i during the
19th Century,” Hawaiian Journal of History 37 (2007): 106–9.
46
Fukuda explained that the reason why she left the job lay in her status as an alien. Fukuda,“Autobiography,” 33.
47
Advertisement, Hawai Hochi, June 1, 1938.
48
Fukuda, “Autobiography,” 34.
49
Shizuko Koyama, Ryōsai Kenbo toiu Kihan [The ideology of Ryōsai Kenbo] (Tokyo:
Keiso Shobo, 1991), 41–92.
50
Mr. and Mrs. K. Hamahata, Royal Square System of Cutting (Tokyo: Herald Press, 1935),
51.
51
Kenkichi Hamahata, Bokkemon Hashiru [Bokkemon runs] (Tokyo: Nihon Hoso Shuppan
Kyokai, 1995), 150–58. This book is a biography of Keibei Hamahata written by his son.
52
“Hawaini Hajimeteno Saihōsenmon Jogakkō [The first dressmaking school in Hawai‘i],”
Nippu Jiji, August 30, 1926.
53
Rōyaru Dōsōkai, Rōyaru Dōsōshi, The Royal Class Mates, 1933 [Royal sewing school
alumni bulletin] (Honolulu: Taishō, 1933), 33.
54
Ibid., 31.
55
Advertisement, Nichibei, November 8, 1924.
56
Advertisements, Hawai Hochi, February 5, 1928; and Hawai Hochi, February 15, 1929.
57
Advertisement, Jitsugyo no Hawaii, September 1, 1932
58
Hamahata, Royal Square System, preface.
59“Aratani Saihōgakkō Setsuritsu [New dressmaking school will be founded],” Nippu Jiji,
March 29, 1927.
60
Rōyaru Dōsōkai, Rōyaru Dōsōshi, The Royal Class Mates, 20–21.
61“Worufu Ishōgakkō Fōtogai ni Hirakaru [Wolfe’s School will start at Fort Street],” Nippu
Jiji, May 28, 1937; “Wolfe School to Open Officially on Monday,” Nippu Jiji, June 17, 1937.

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63

62“Worufijoshi Keiei no Ishōzuangakkō [“Wolfe’s School of Professional Costume
Design”], Nippu Jiji, August 26, 1937; “Wolfe School of Costume Design,” Nippu Jiji, March
22, 1939.
63
Some Nikkei women in Los Angeles opened dressmaking schools after learning from
Wolfe. See “Kinkoku [Announcement],” Rafu Shimpo, April 8, 1927.
64
Hayashida was Misa’s maiden name. Hamahata, Bokkemon Hashiru, 159; “Zuresumēkā
Kumiai Soshiki [The organizing of the Dressmakers’ Association],” Nippu Jiji, July 21, 1926.
65“Kinkoku [Announcement],” Nippu Jiji, July 26, 1926.
66
Kimura, “Japanese Dressmakers in Honolulu,” 7.
67
Ibid., 7–8.
68
“Pikunikku Kōkoku [Advertisement for picnic],” Nippu Jiji, August 14, 1937; “Nihon
Kankō Kengakudan [Sightseeing tour to Japan],” Nippu Jiji, January 1, 1939.
69
Kimura, “Japanese Dressmakers in Honolulu,”1.
70“Dressmaking Contest: Open to All Women and Girls of Honolulu and Rural Oahu,”
Nippu Jiji, July 25, 1939.
71
The judges included Hisayo Fukuda, Misa Hamahata, and Chikayo Kobayashi, whom thisarticle has touched on. See “Kinou Shinsa wo Shūryō [The judging was completed
yesterday],” Nippu Jiji, September 11, 1939; “60 Models to Feature Nippu Jiji Fashion Show
Tomorrow,” Nippu Jiji, September 30, 1939.
72“60 Models,” Nippu Jiji, September 30, 1939.
73
Rōyaru Dōsōkai, Rōyaru Dōsōshi, The Royal Class Mates, 32–33; “Sukoa-shiki Roiyaru
Saihōgakkō Sotsugyō-shiki [Square system graduation ceremony at Royal Sewing School],”
Nippu Jiji, August 17, 1933.
74“Fasshon-shō wo Kaisai [The holding of fashion shows],” Nippu Jiji, August 17, 1933.
The follow-up article refers to the fashion show as the first one in the Nikkei community. See“Dairokkai Sotsugyō-shiki Daiseikyō [The big success of sixth graduation ceremony], Nippu
Jiji, August 21, 1933.
75“Cooking School Crowded Again,” Nippu Jiji, June 22, 1934.
76“Fukuda Saihōgakuin Ryūkōten Myōban Kaisaisu [Fashion show by Fashion Academy
will take place tomorrow evening],” Nippu Jiji, May 28, 1937; “Fukuda Yōsaigakuin
Ryūkōten Daiseikō [The big success of fashion show by Fashion Academy],” Nippu Jiji, May
31, 1937.
77“Yōsai Zadankai (3) [A roundtable on Western dressmaking (3)],” Nippu Jiji, August 21,
1939.
78“Sukecchi [Sketch],” Nippu Jiji, October 2, 1939.
79
Nippu Jiji, Fashion Review 1940 (Honolulu: Nippu Jiji, 1940), 1.
80“Yōsai Zadankai (1) [A roundtable on Western dressmaking (1)],” Nippu Jiji, August 18,
1939.
81
Kōjirō Iida, Honoruru Nikkeijin no Rekishichiri [Historical geography in the Honolulu
Nikkei community] (Tokyo: Nakanishiya, 2013), 10–17. Of white dressmakers, Portuguese
were the majority. According to research conducted by Jane Dranga, there were thirty
Portuguese female dressmakers, while there were twenty-five “other Caucasians” in 1930.
See Jane Dranga, “Racial Facts in the Employment of Women,” Social Process in Hawaii 2(May 1936): 14.
82“Yōsai Zadankai (5) [A roundtable on Western dressmaking (5)],” Nippu Jiji, August 23,
1939.
83
Tamura, Nisei Generation, 211–34.
84
Hokubei Nikkei Shimin Gaikyō [Overview of Japanese Americans in North America](Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Bureau of America, First Section, 1936), 98–
101.

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85
Historian Shiho Imai points out that, during the Depression years, young people wereencouraged to engage in hobbies partly because it was likely to prevent juvenile delinquency.
Dressmaking was considered as a hobby or a healthy pastime. See Imai, Nisei Market, 95–
102.
86
Nippu Jiji, Fashion Review 1940 (Honolulu: Nippu Jiji, 1940), 11, 15, 24.
87
Ibid., 12.
88“Dressmaking Contest,” Nippu Jiji, July 25, 1939.
89“Fashion Show Attracts Throng,” Nippu Jiji, October 2, 1939.
90“Fujin Kōron ni Shōkaino Hawai no Zuresu [Western dresses introduced in Fujin
Koron],” Nippu Jiji, March 2, 1939.
91
They seemed to use other kimono fabric than meisen silk, because the designs of meisenobtained in Hawai‘i were not good for the price. See “Yōsai Zadankai (4) [A roundtable onWestern dressmaking (4)],” Nippu Jiji, August 22, 1939.
92
Ibid.
93
Harry Shiramizu, “Nippu Jiji’s ‘Fahionade’ of Models, Materials and Dresses Attracts
Admirers,” Nippu Jiji, October 2, 1939.
94
Nippu Jiji, December 2, 1940.
95
Dressmaking schools reopened afterward. For instance, the Fashion Academy resumed on
October 1, 1942. See “Seito Boshū [New students invited],” Nippu Jiji, September 30, 1942.
96
Advertisements, Nippu Jiji, June 13, 1933.
97
Advertisement, Hawaii Hochi, July 2, 1940.
98“Yokosuka Kaigunbyōin Hakui Yūshi Kansha [Soldiers at Yokosuka Navy Hospital
express their appreciation],” Nippu Jiji, April 24, 1939.
99
Yuji Ichioka, “Japanese Immigrant Nationalism: The Issei and the Sino-Japanese War,
1937–1941,” California History 69, no. 3 (1990): 260–75, 310–11; Azuma Eiichiro, Between
Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnational in Japanese America (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005), 163–86; Fuminori Minamikawa, “Nikkei Amerikajin” noRekishishakaigaku: Esunishiti, Jinshu, Nashonarizumu [The historical sociology of“Japanese Americans”: Ethnicity, race, and nationalism] (Tokyo, Sairyūsha, 2007), 133–64.
100
In his 2019 book, Azuma elaborates the history of these transmigrants. Eiichiro Azuma, In
Search of Our Frontier: Japanese America and Settler Colonialism in the Construction ofJapan’s Borderless Empire (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019).
101
Advertisement, Hawaii Hochi, April 10, 1933.