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Description
If the "Mirror of the Ages" series is viewed chronologically, perhaps in an album format, the costumes prior to the Tenna era are quite elaborately decorated with various colors, patterns and techniques, which make the 2 images representing the Tenna era seem visually conservative. Tastes were changing, but so were sumptuary laws regarding who could wear what colors and styles. The fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) issued regulations in 1683 that banned "new and unusual weaving and dying" in an effort to control the flamboyant clothing of merchant class men and women, especially in Kyoto and Edo. This newly enriched social group, who were benefiting from the rebuilding of the country in a period of peace, was loaning money at high rates of interest to the increasingly unemployed and impoverished samurai class, and merchants often were able to dress better than their social superiors. According to Monica Bethe, the kimono makers and sellers quickly found ways to skirt or flaunt the sumptuary laws, so that within a few years (or even days) of new laws being issued about clothing, their patrons could still look fashionable.
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