When did design of textiles in Japan diverge from Chinese design? Up until the 20th century silk Chinese garments retain symbolic representations (clouds, cranes, &c, and of course the Imperial Dragon motif). Yet Japanese textiles display abstract designs, and while these might retain references to flowers, shells, clouds &c some kimonos and screens I have seen appear to be wholly abstract. What is known about this divergence in design?
Can you show examples?
A lot of kimono are actually not abstract. Men's kimono are almost always abstract (but may have much more decorative linings), and women's casual kimono can often feature repeating abstract/geometric patterns, though they can also feature other designs, like flowers (which hold meaning themselves). Ceremonial or formal kimono for women, though, almost always have designs featuring auspicious symbols, like cranes or pine trees. For example, here is a bridal kimono featuring cranes, pine, bamboo, plum blossoms, fans, and shikishi (small squares of paper) - all auspicious designs and very symbolic.
But small, subtle geometric designs became the norm for the lower classes of Japanese society by the 1720's. Sumptuary laws vastly limited the colours and designs a lower class person could wear.
From Liza Dalby's book, Kimono: Fashioning Culture:
The development of iki reflects two aspects of later Edo society, one political, one stylistic. First, a pervasive aura of governmental and social repression, exemplified in sumptuary edicts, limited ostentatious display by people richer than, but socially inferior to, the samurai class. To see a merchant's wife strutting under the cherry blossoms in gold-stamped, dapple-dyed satins seemed an unbearable affront to the proper Confucian-inspired social order embraced by the ruling class. The other aspect of iki was more purely aesthetic - a reaction in terms of fashion's pendulum, swinging away from the obvious to the subtle, from bright colours to dark, from the jumbo freeform patterns to petite repeats.
So, for example, a man might have a simple dark blue haori (a sort of kimono coat), so as to not break the laws, but the interior might have a beautiful painted design on its lining - here is an example with such a design.
How chic geometric designs are wax and wane depending on what's considered fashionable at the time. Currently, such kimono are actually quite popular amongst kimono enthusiasts and even vintage kimono with large stripes or checkered patterns can fetch higher prices. In the 1880's, geisha made small, repeated designs popular, but by the late Meiji and Taisho Eras, big, bright designs in garish colours were popular again.
Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about Chinese textiles, so hopefully someone can step in about that.