By the end of the Meiji period, a new category of kimono bridging the gap between everyday clothing and ceremonial wear had come into existence, known as (). Kimono categorised as , which were patterned silk kimono, could be worn to any situation in which a woman needed to make a public, social appearance for which informal wear would be inappropriate. Additionally, following calls in the 1890s towards a return to nativism, some sectors of society had switched from wearing Western-style uniform back to kimono; the uniforms of grade-school girls, for instance, reverted to that of kimono once again.
