What exactly is a ‘cambay’?


I am editing a text in English that doesn’t really have anything to do with
Japan, but with India. In it, there is a letter from 1798 (translated from the
original Danish) which contains the following:

> The bearer of this [letter] is Madam Gauttier, the widow of a French
> Lieutenant Colonel Gauttier, a man whom I held in the greatest esteem. My
> dear Brother has formerly known her as Madam Clausman. The lady has shown
> the goodness to bring to my dear Brother **a Japanese mandarin’s cambay,
> which is the winter gown of a distinguished Japanese**. I have been promised
> the undergarment for this dress and will send it as soon as I get it. It
> deserves to be preserved because of its rarity.

I’ve never heard of anything that may be termed a _cambay_ before, so
naturally I took to Google—with dismal results.

Cambay is of course the name of an erstwhile [Indian
state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambay_State), indeed one that had a
thriving textile sector, but the letter specifically says that a cambay is a
Japanese type of garment, so textile from Cambay in India doesn’t seem to be
what is referred to here.

Sadly, I can find absolutely no hints or references to any kind of Japanese
garment called any variation of _cambay_ that I can come up with ( _cambey_ ,
_kambai_ , _kanbai_ , _kambei_ , _cambi_ , etc.—the last one is apparently a
fashion designer), so I’m no further.

A rather wild guess on my part is that the first part of _cambay_ may be
寒{かん}, since it is described as being a **winter** gown (and if _cambay_ is
some ad-hoc transliteration of a Japanese word, it does look like _onyomi_ ).
Or perhaps, if it is important that it is specifically a mandarin’s garment,
官{かん}.

But what is _bay_ , then? Some old word for ‘clothes’? Perhaps something like
被{ひ} or 披{ひ} ‘cover’ (in somewhat bizarre transliteration)?

In short: **what is a _cambay_?** Is it any kind of Japanese anything, or was
the writer of the letter (who was, after all, a Dane stationed in India, and
probably knew little or nothing about Japan) simply mistaken?




Looking at your original question summary:

> In short: **what is a _cambay_?** Is it any kind of Japanese anything, or
> was the writer of the letter (who was, after all, a Dane stationed in India,
> and probably knew little or nothing about Japan) simply mistaken?

  * A "cambay" is a kimono.
  * The term does indeed come from the name of an Indian place where textiles were a major industry.

Digging around, I stumbled across an explanation in Google Books, in the 2018
title [_Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern
Asia_](https://books.google.com/books?id=ivZ0DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA311&ots=frIn5khoEA&dq=japanese%20cambay&pg=PA311#v=onepage&q=cambay&f=false).
That link should take you right to the relevant page 311, with this text
(emphasis mine):

> In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, **the kimono, taken to Europe by
> the Dutch, became a favored garment of the new elites** and these robes were
> made with Indian textiles in the Western Indian port of Khambhat or Cambay.
> **Variously called "the Japan", Cambay robe,** or banyan (a word originally
> used in the mid-fifteenth century to designate all Hindu traders and
> brokers, that is men of substance), it became a marker of status and
> distinction, and **India became the source of the Japanese robe.**

* * *

Please post if the above does not address your question and I can edit to
update.




Looking at your original question summary:

> In short: **what is a _cambay_?** Is it any kind of Japanese anything, or
> was the writer of the letter (who was, after all, a Dane stationed in India,
> and probably knew little or nothing about Japan) simply mistaken?

  * A "cambay" is a kimono.
  * The term does indeed come from the name of an Indian place where textiles were a major industry.

Digging around, I stumbled across an explanation in Google Books, in the 2018
title [_Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern
Asia_](https://books.google.com/books?id=ivZ0DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA311&ots=frIn5khoEA&dq=japanese%20cambay&pg=PA311#v=onepage&q=cambay&f=false).
That link should take you right to the relevant page 311, with this text
(emphasis mine):

> In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, **the kimono, taken to Europe by
> the Dutch, became a favored garment of the new elites** and these robes were
> made with Indian textiles in the Western Indian port of Khambhat or Cambay.
> **Variously called "the Japan", Cambay robe,** or banyan (a word originally
> used in the mid-fifteenth century to designate all Hindu traders and
> brokers, that is men of substance), it became a marker of status and
> distinction, and **India became the source of the Japanese robe.**

* * *

Please post if the above does not address your question and I can edit to
update.

