us-005578-irn564043-irn564915
title: Formal, patterned kimono and shibori obi owned by a Lithuanian Jewish refugee in the Shanghai Ghetto
biographical history: Sara Kupinski (later Cohen, 1932- ?) was born in Vilna (Wilno), Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Eliasz (Eli, 1897-?) and Slawa (1902-?) Tsigelnitsky (Cegelnicki) Kupinski. Sara’s younger brother, Hirsz (b. 1933, later Hirsh Kupinsky), was born in Lida, Poland (now Belarus). Eli was born in Lida to Nathan and Lotte Kupinski, and had a brother named Samuel (1906-?.) Slawa was born to Pesach Tsigelnitsky and his first wife, who died shortly after Slawa’s birth. Slawa had an older brother, Chaim. Pesach later married Malka, his wife’s sister, and they had a son, Manya. The family lived in Vilna, and Pesach worked as a harness maker and saddler supplying Polish Cavalry units. Slawa completed her schooling and graduated from the local university. Later, Slawa married Eli. In March 1935, Eli, Samuel, and Jakob Radunski bought a large tract of land outside of Lida so they could ship lumber to England. They also sold milk and cheese to the Polish Air Force. When Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, in September 1939, the Kupinski family was living on Eli’s land. Though Vilna was returned to Lithuania, Lida and the surrounding area fell under Soviet control, becoming part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. As landowners, Eli and Samuel, were classified as wealthy capitalists and had to flee just after the invasion. They went to live with Slawa’s parents, Pesach and Malka, in Vilna. Later that fall, Slawa, Sara, and Hirsz were smuggled across the border and joined Eli and Samuel in Vilna. On June 15, 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania, and later annexed it. Soviet exit visas were now required to escape from Europe via the eastern route to Asia, one of the two remaining ways for Jews to leave. In order to acquire an exit visa from Soviet-controlled Lithuania, Sara’s family needed two visas: a Japanese transit visa, and a visa for another country, money, and transport to continue on to that country. In summer 1940, Samuel and Eli travelled to Kovno (…
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn564043-irn564915/acquisitions/1
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn564043-irn564915/alternateIDs/1
identifier: irn564915
archival history: The kimono and obi were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Lynda Cohen, the daughter of Sara Kupinski Cohen.
type: RecordSet
physical characteristics and technical requirements: a. Long, black silk kimono with a colorful fan design hand-dyed (yūzen) on the lower half of the T-shaped body with a high, multi-part collar and long, trailing rectangular sleeves that are open along the inner seams. Several individual panels are sewn together along straight seams and the open front would be fastened closed with a wide waist sash (obi). Painted across the upper portion, there are five small circular, white crests (mon) with a stylized bamboo leaf pattern: two on the front and three on the back. The large, open folding fans (ougi) are painted around the lower half of the body, along the padded hem, and on the bottom of the sleeves. Each fan bears stylized, traditional decorative elements and overlaps with others across a red-orange lattice pattern (koushi) on a tan background with scalloped edges resembling clouds. Many flowers are scattered across the design, including cherry and plum blossoms, peonies, chrysanthemums, and paulowina. The fans also feature a crane, a phoenix, two drums, and three imperial carts (goshohur) as well as clouds, bamboo leaves, pine trees, pine needle bunches, and crashing waves. These elements are mixed in with repeating geometric patterns: hexagons mimicking tortoise shells, overlapping circular waves (seigaiha), and repeating circles representing seven jewels (shippo). On the interior, red silk lines the sleeves and upper body and the lower portion is black silk with a tan, curved, and scalloped band running across the width and a flowered fan at each end. The seams are pulling apart at the shoulders. b. Long, rectangular obi or sash consisting of a single length of white silk fabric dyed red with patterns created using traditional Japanese resist dyeing (shibori) techniques. Along the full length of the sash is a wide, center band which has a red and white three-dimensional pattern formed by tying the cloth in small peaked bunches before dyeing (kanoko technique). Within the wide band, there is a scrollwork vine of so…
scope and content: Patterned kimono and obi acquired by Sara Kupinski’s (later Cohen) family in Kobe, Japan, where her family fled using Japanese and Dutch transit visas supplied by diplomats in Soviet-occupied Kovno, (Kaunas), Lithuania. Sara lived outside of Lida, Poland (now Belarus) with her parents, Eliasz and Slawa, brother, Hirsz, and uncle, Samuel. Following Germany and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, Eli and Samuel fled to Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) because they were considered wealthy landowners. Slawa, Hirsz, and Sara later joined them. Having obtained their transit visas in August 1940, Sara’s family left later that year, traveling on the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostock. In early 1941, they took a boat to Kobe, Japan. That fall, they were forced to go to Japanese-controlled Shanghai. Samuel and Eli found work at a Jewish import and export company, and Sara and Hirsz attended the Jewish school. In early 1943, Japanese authorities ordered that all stateless refugees must live within a designated area, which came to be known as the Shanghai or Hongkew ghetto. In the summer of 1945, following the German surrender in May, US forces bombed Shanghai heavily. On August 14, Japan surrendered to the US. The Kupinski family learned that Slawa’s brothers had survived in France, but that her parents were killed in the Vilna ghetto in 1942 or 1943. Eli’s parents likely died in Siberia. In 1949, the family settled in Toronto, Canada.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
has or had holder: us-005578
is or was included in: us-005578-irn564043
has record set type: Item
date: 1941 February-1941 October
record resource extent: a: Height: 63.750 inches (161.925 cm) | Width: 23.500 inches (59.69 cm) b: Height: 106.500 inches (270.51 cm) | Width: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm)
conditions of use: No restrictions on use