In a word, this book is a story. Nonetheless, it is a true story,
even though it is not a textbook.
It was told by one who drank it from his own roots and knew it as he knew
himself. It has been written by one who prefers to paint pictures, warmly, rather than to ferret out facts, coldly, and who believes that a picture painted in broad strokes of color can convey an impression more faithful, more vivid, and more enduring than that conveyed by a carefully annotated and accurately measured diagram.
The picture I would like to paint is not just the history of Japanese costume
but the panoramic human background against which that history is traced. It
should be, then, a history of taste rather than of tailoring.
This is my viewpoint and my perspective. My desire is to pass on to other
Westerners a warmer understanding and appreciation of the history of the Japanese people as it has been woven and dyed in the bright silken fabrics that they have always produced so superlatively and worn so handsomely—and loved so
well.