Professor Yuniya (Yuni) Kawamura, Sociology, was an invited guest speaker at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida in late April. Her presentation, titled “Cultural Appropriation and Appreciation of Kimono in Western Fashion and Art,” examined the boundary between appreciation and appropriation, comparing and contrasting the differing viewpoints of Japanese Americans and native Japanese people who were born and raised in Japan.
The event took place in conjunction with the exhibition Kimono: The Triumph of Japanese Dress, which features over 100 kimonos dating back to the late Edo period (1603–1867) through the Shōwa era (1926–1989). The exhibition, which runs through June 8, was curated by Stanton Thomas, the museum’s chief curator, and Jason Wyatt, director of collections management.