wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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From tan to kimono

One of my customers, Ms Walker, bought some tan (bolts of textile specifically woven for kimonos, also called tanmomo) and had a kimono maker tailor them up for her. Her kimonos are beautiful and I am very grateful that she allowed me to post photos of them here.

The first shows a grey one,  a wool kimono, very simple and elegant. I like her choice of obi, with its broad, black band, echoing the bands on the kimono.

The second shows a wonderful ichimatsu kimono. Ms Walker looks absolutely stunning. Her obi is a lovely choiceof both colour and design to go with the bold, geometric design of the kimono.

Ichimatsu is a popular design on traditional Japanese clothing; it is a checkerboard pattern, named after the kabuki actor, Ichimatsu Sanogawa, from the Edo era. When he wore hakama with thchecked design, it quickly became a fashionable pattern. It then became his trademark pattern. There is a type of doll named after Ichimatsu too, they were originally dolls that looked like him but eventually evolved into dolls of children, so we no longer think of an ichimatsu doll being one that is modelled on that actor.
Many patterns that became fashionable among the general public came from kabuki actors.
The photo below shows one of the  geisha’s obi from my www.wafuku.co.uk website, with black and silver ichimatsu pattern.

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This spectacular kimono, with forest and mountain design, is a wonderful example of Japanese textile art.

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Talking of Japanese textile art

Check out this amazing bolt of silk, with huge fish (perhaps red snapper) on it. Woven to make a naga- juban, underwear kimono.

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Skate Booties

My daughter bought herself some of these Jeffrey Campbell skate booties, which are particularly popular in Japan.

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You can also check out my www.wafuku.co.uk website, providing vintage & antique Japanese kimonos & collectables.

wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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Ichimatsu dolls

Ichimatsu dolls represent little girls or boys, usually with glass eyes and flesh-colored skin, originally made of gofun, a smooth, porcelain like substance made from ground oyster shell. The original Ichimatsu were named after an 18th-century Kabuki actor (who also had a checkerboard pattern named after him, as he wore it a lot), and must have represented an adult man, but since the late 19th century the term has applied to child dolls, usually made to hold in the arms, dress, and pose (usually with elaborately made joints or with floppy cloth upper arms and thighs). Baby boy dolls with mischievous expressions were most popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, but in 1927 a Friendship Doll exchange involved the creation of fifty eight 32 inch tall dolls, representing little girls, to be sent as a gift from Japan to the United States, and the aesthetic of these fifty eight dolls influenced dollmakers to emulate this type of a solemn, gentle-looking little girl in elaborate kimono, so, since then, many ichimatsu were made to look more like those Friendship Dolls. The exchange of dolls began when, few years after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 in Japan, American children sent 12,000 blue-eyed dolls to Japanese children. After that, the 58 highly ornate, beautifully crafted Japanese “Friendship Dolls” were sent by Japanese children to America. Many childrens wrote letters to be sent along with the dolls. These dolls toured all over America and were later distributed among museums and libraries all over the country.

When noting the difference in the number of dolls, remember that the America is and was much, much larger and richer than Japan. The Japanese dolls were also much more ornate and had more craftsmanship and were sent with large amounts of accessories. There is more about those Friendship Dolls, further down this post, after the photos of my own dolls.

Vintage ichimatsu are popular with collectors, even if their kimonos are rather faded. Some are quite simple, some have very elaborate costumes.

My largest and favourite ichimatsu doll. 

She is in particularly good condition, about 14 inches tall and very much in the style of the 1927 ichimatsu friendship dolls that were gifted to the US.

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Chubby face and flowers in her hair .

Looking a little taken aback.

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Faded but still cute.

She looks a bit worried.

You can see that her clothes are faded when you move her kimono sleeve to reveal some deeper colour. Many vintage icchimatus dolls are faded, as they are old and the fabrics used are prone to fading if displayed in sunlight for long periods.

She has a little brother too.

They each have a little, red zabuton; a Japanese pillow that is especially for sitting/kneeling on, on the floor.

I need to clean his face, though it is not actually as mucky as it looks in the next photo.

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Another cute pair

This time it is a Japanese girl with her Chinese friend. He is chinese, complete with plait in his hair, but is a Japanese doll.

The sweet little boy is her Chinese friend.

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 This one is very little, about 5 inches tall, and not really an ichimatsu doll, in that she is more a dress up doll than one children could cuddle. I just came across her when I looked out the other dolls to photograph them.

She comes with three wigs to go over her short hair.

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This last one is rather more modern, around 40 years old.

She has glass eyes and her face, hands and feet are porcelain. I will probably keep this one too. At the moment, that is undecided.

My daughter has a sweet, little one too. I have a few other Japanese dolls but not all are ichimatsu ones.

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The Original Friendship Dolls

Here you can see some of the original Friendship Dolls from Japan, there is also a link to sites showing more. The whereabouts of all but one seems to be known, though the people handling their delivery in the US in 1927 seem to have been very inept and they mixed up some of the dolls (each from a different place, with a name reflecting it, so those had the wrong names and places connected to them for a while) and they mixed up many of the accessories that came with them, so lots of the dolls now have a mix of accessories made specifically for them and those made for the other dolls.

Miss Mie

In July 2009, the 83-year-old friendship doll, named Miss Mie (see her below), was escorted to her original home in Mie Prefecture, Japan, by museum collections assistant Susan Curtis to undergo expert conservation, followed by various homecoming celebrations and exhibitions in 10 cities across the region. More than 30,000 people attended the exhibitions before Miss Mie’s return to Nebraska in late May. She will remain a part of the museum’s permanent anthropology collections.

Below, you can see that Japanese school children brought their dolls to bid farewell to Miss Mie before she departed for America in 1927. (University of Nebraska State Museum Archives).

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Japanese children with the friendship doll exchange dolls received from America.

Here are some more of the original friendship dolls.

Miss Yamaguchi

When Miss Yamaguchi arrived in the United States, her first home was Chicago, Illinois, in the Children’s Museum at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has lived at the Museum of International Folk Art since Chicago native, Florence Dibell Bartlett, founded it in 1953.

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Miss Iwate

The children of Iwate Prefecture, Japan and the children of Birmingham, Alabama participated in a friendship project. The Committee on World Friendship Among Children sponsored this project. The children of Birmingham sent several dolls to the children in Iwate Prefecture, Japan.

Miss Iwate was the doll that was sent to Birmingham and placed in the Birmingham Public Library. The Japanese children sent thousands of letters with Miss Iwate. The letters explained that in Japan there is a festival each year called the Feast of Dolls which is held in honor of their favorite toy. Dolls were precious in Japan with some being centuries old and handed down from mother to daughter.

Miss Iwate, who is actually life sized, arrived in a black trunk with an extra trunk for her furniture. She has a chest of drawers, a sewing table, a complete tea service, two lanterns and two small dolls to keep her company. Over the years Miss Iwate has been on display at the Library for various functions. She was on exhibit during the Festival of Arts salute to Japan in 1967. Miss Iwate is available by appointment only. She cannot be held or touched.

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Miss Kasumi Tsukuba

Miss Kasumi Tsukuba is the doll representing Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture. Her name reflects two major geographic features of Ibaraki Prefecture: Lake Kasumigaura (Japan’s 2nd largest freshwater lake) and Mount Tsukuba (Japan’s 3rd highest mountain)

By the time Miss Kasumi Tsukuba got to Milwaukee in 1928 she was already a well travelled little lady, showing signs of the wear and tear constant parties and travel could have on a small frame. The American handlers confounded matters a little too, often confusing the chests, toys and identity papers of Miss Tsukuba and her sister dolls. By the time they were distributed to their permanent American homes, some dolls had mix of others’ effects, and in the case Miss Tsukuba, even a new name.

Miss Kasumi Tsukuba’s accessories carry two differing symbols, the peony and the mountain cherry blossom. The objects marked with the peony are appropriate to Miss Tsukuba. Her parasol is that of Miss Nagasaki. Letters written by Japanese children for Miss Ibaraki and the original doll stand were sent to Nebraska and reside with the doll known as Miss Mie. The symbols on the MPM doll’s kimono are representative of Tochigi Prefecture leading doll scholars to believe Miss Tsukuba may really be Miss Tochigi, Sachiko Nikko.

For over 80 years, however, she has been known as Miss Kasumi Tsukuba or “Miss Ibaraki”.

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Miss Akita

In the Children’s Museum, Detroit (Michigan)

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Miss Osaka

She’s tall, with mahogany hair, a luminescent complexion and a pedigree that would raise a discreet eyebrow on the most well-bred face. She’s Miss Osaka Prefecture, one of 58 “Doll Ambassadors of Good Will” sent to the United States by the Japanese in 1927. She’s been part of the OHS collections since 1929.

the Society’s understanding of the Miss Osaka Prefecture grew when Keiko Tanaka visited the Ohio Historical Center on behalf of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in Hanford, Calif. Tanaka exchanged records information with OHS Collections staff and photographed the doll and its accessories. During her visit she shed light on some longstanding questions. Tanaka revealed that the diminutive stateswoman is distinguished among her peers as one of the early creations of Hirata Goyo, the first Japanese doll maker designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1955. His works enthrall many with their outstanding artistry and beauty.
About 33 inches tall, Miss Osaka Prefecture represents a Japanese girl about 7 years of age. She has a thick mane and eyelashes made of human hair and porcelain-like skin made of paulawnia wood powder, wheat gluten and powdered oyster shells. Goyo’s dolls had more life-like features than most of the doll ambassadors.

 More information can be found about the dolls here

wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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So many kimonos I had forgotten I had.

When I first started buying kimonos, not realising that I was going to get addicted and buy so many, I didn’t think to keep all the information about each one, such as measurements, age, if that information was known, how much it cost me etc. I didn’t keep any information about the first few hundred garments I bought but eventually it dawned on me that I should, so I started to do it from 2006. Stupidly, I had been saving the information for some months before it then dawned on me that I should also keep the photos provided by the kimono seller.  It took me even longer to think of also printing the information for each and putting it in beside the kimono or whatever it was and yet longer to think to add one of the photos to that printed slip, so I could see what was in the bag without having remove it and unfold it to see that or try to remember what it looked like from just the text description. This means that, on my computer, I have a folder for each year, each containing 12 folders for the months, each containing a folder for virtually every days of the month, each containing numerous folders with information about a garments I bought on that day.  There are thousands of these folders now.

I was searching through those folders recently, way back in the 2006 and 2007 ones, trying to find something specific. Idon’t think I did track it down but I did see many kimonos that I had long forgotten I bought that have been packed away in boxes upstairs since I got them. I have no idea which boxes they are in, sop no idea when I might come across the actual kimonos and add them to my website.

Here are a few of the ones that caught my eye as I searched through those folders.

Colourful Peacock Tomesode Kimono

Close up detail

He may actually be a phoenix but, judging by his body feathers, I think he is a peacock. They tend to be very similarly drawn, with long tail feathers with the ‘eye’ on them.

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Gold & Silver Peacock Tomesode Kimono

Detail of the embroidered peacock. The areas that look blue are actually silver.

This one is definitely a peacock

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Spectacular Ships Tomesode Kimono

Detail of the ship

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Cute Print Kimono

This next kimono is not in the boxes, it is one I gave my daughter, but I came across these pictures during my search. It is a kimono in a colour and pattern I have never managed to find again. The pattern, which, at a glance, I initially thought was stylised bunnies, is actually pokkuri (high soled, wooden geta shoes worn by girls and maiko, sometimes called okobo or koppori). The only other time I saw this same design it was on a light blue backgound and on a kimono worn by a maiko (trainee geisha). This is one of my daughter’s and my favourite kimonos. It is a lovely silk crepe.

Detail of the design

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I also found these pictures of a baby boy’s kimono, from the 1950s, that I have kept for myself. It has a very American theme, which was popular in Japan back then, with a cute Wild West design, with Cowboys & Indians (nowadays called Native Americans). It is quite a collectable one.

Details of the design

The back of the kimono

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Shimizu No Jirocho Hanten

This next item isn’t one of mine. I couldn’t afford this one. It is a hanten jacket but what makes it unusual is the design on it is that of  Shimizu No Jirocho (1830 – 1893), who was a Japanese gangster (Yakuza). Born in Shizuoka, the adopted son of his uncle Jirohachi Yamamoto, who was a komedonya (middleman-merchant dealing in rice). Although his real name was Chogoro Yamamoto, he was called Jirocho,which was short for Jirohachi’s Chogoro. He took over the komedonya after his uncle’s death but soon turned into a gambler. He built up his following and extended his influence, fighting over territories relating to the Fuji River and maritime transport. In the first year of the Meiji Era (1868), he was appointed Dochutansakugata by the Government-General of the Eastern Expedition. In the same year, the warship Kanrin-maru, of the old Edo Shogunate, was attacked by new government troops while lying at anchor in the Shimizu harbor. Jirocho treated and buried the dead with sincere condolence and became acquainted with Tetsutaro Yamaoka, Takeaki Enomoto and others. After the Meiji Restoration, he engaged in development around the foot of Mt. Fuji and marine transportation business.

The birds on it are chidori (plovers), which tend to flock over the seashore and river beds, and the mon (crests) are katabami (wood sorrel). Below the text there are rolling waves.

A photogtaph of Shimizu No Jirocho

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I like all sorts of vintage things, not just Japanese ones, and I recently went through old clothes of mine with my daughter. Things I used to wear 20 years ago. She went home with the last of my 1950s dresses, having got most of my other vintage clothes some time back, and among them I found a 1980s dress I used to wear that I had put vintage buttons on. Neither of us wanted the dress, so I removed the buttons; I have no idea what they will be put on next. They are made of painted wood, with metal loops on the back, and are in the shape of black gloves with a light blue edge to the cuffs. They used to be my mother’s when she was young (she’s now 91) but she can’t recall where or when she got them. They always made me think of Schiaparelli (1890–1973) and her Surrealists inspired designs. I think Schiaparelli used glove shaped buttons. I particularly remember her fabulous shoe shaped hat and her Lobster Dress, with the lobster on the sash painted by Dali. Here is a photo of my buttons.

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A television show I particularly like is The Big Bang Theory. Every so often I have noticed that the character Penny wears trousers that look as though they have been made from vintage kimonos. I spent absolutely ages trying to get a screenshot of her wearing some. The best I could manage was the one below.

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In Japan, it ‘s considered very rude to talk on a phone, play noisy digital games, eat or drink on public transport. It is also considered very rude to so those first two things in a cafe or restaurant and very ill mannered to talk on a mobile phone or to eat or drink when walking in the street. The Japanese are very well mannered and considerate people and abide by this public etiquette. There are exceptions to the no eating rule, though; on long distance trains one can eat and the stations even sell special bento box meals for these journeys. The sign below shows two examples of what not to do – play a noisy game or eat.

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My daughter owns  zillions of kimonos but only had one Japanese haori, the long, kimono sleeved jackets. She recently wore it to a party and got so many compliments that she decided she wanted another. She chose a load to try on and went home with 13 of them. If she finds that there are any she hasn’t worn within the next couple of years, she’ll give me those ones back for the website.

We took some photos, mainly to let her see what they looked like, as sometimes it helps to see yourself in a photo as well as in a mirror (that’s a handy tip if you are ever choosing new spectacle frames, take a photo and look at yourself in that) and it made it easier for her to see the backs. In these photos she wears them slightly open at the front and pleated or gathered at the back, with them fastened with a deep belt, though the Japanese do not wear them belted, they wear them loose. Sometimes she wears the fronts closed and slightly overlapped, then they lie smooth at the back, but she particularly likes them worn with the fronts parted as you see in the photos.

You can see some of those photos below. Most of the haori in the photos are ones she kept for herself but there are a few there that she didn’t, so those are still available on my website. The photos weren’t actually taken for public display, so her expression isn’t as smiley as it could be and she is wearing her specs, which she wouldn’t normally do when modelling, as she doesn’t need them all the time, but I decided, nonetheless, to put some of the photos here on my blog, to let you see some more haoris being worn. The shoes she is wearing came from Japan, she has wanted some of those for a long time and managed to get herself a red pair and a black pair.

This is one of my favourites, with a most unusual design of staircases and cherry blossom. I was surprised it wasn’t snapped up when available on my site but it’s too late now, my daughter has nabbed it.

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She struggled to not keep all the haori she tried on and this is one of the few she didn’t keep, only because the pink didn’t go with her scarlet hair.

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This is a 1930s haori, in lovely soft silk, with chirashi design. You can see the back of it in the photo below.

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This dark red one is from the 1920s. Notice how long it is, these 1920s and 30s ones are often extra long and tend to be made of very soft silk.

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This one has oultines of clouds. This one is still available on the website. Back view below.

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This haori has a magnificent spider chrysanthemum on it. Front view below.

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This haori is her favourite and is also her fiancé’s favourite of the ones she took home. It’s a synthetic textile.

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A long, Meisen silk haori, with ume (plum blossom) branches design. I can’t remember if she kept this one. Meisen silk is a bit like silk taffeta.

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My daughter had reservations about trying this one on then loved it when she did, so this is another she kept

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This haori has a lovely abstract folding fans design, on silk satin. I don’t think she kept this one but I may be wrong. You can see the back view below.

Notice the way she wears it, with pleats folded into the back and held in place with the belt. This is because she has it belted with a gap between the front edges, so the excess material that creates is at the back. When she wears them with the fronts overlapped, there is no need to pleat or gather the back, as they lie smoothly since some of that fabric is then pulled to the front. Sometimes, when wearing them with the fronts parted,  she pleats them at the back like this one and sometimes she wears them lying in little folds that are evenly spread across the back.

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This one has especially deep sleeves and fabulous leafy vines on it. There are some little foxing spots on the light parts of the pattern but they don’t spoil it and she doesn’t mind them at all. See the back in the photo below, where you can see that it has a round, gold, embroidered mon (crest) at the centre of the shoulders.

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This one is my favourite, with stylised waves. It is very soft silk. Three more views of this one below

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This one is a very slightly peachy cream silk, with a traditional, stylised pampas grass design. This is one that is still available on my http://www.wafuku.co.uk website

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Orizuru design haori. Orizuru are origami cranes. This was her fiancé’s second favourite of the 13 she took home

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Japanese haori are long jackets, with deep, kimono style sleeves, designed to be worn on top of a kimono, though they are fabulous when worn over western world style clothes, like jeans or dresses. Women’s haori can be particularly beautiful, often with fabulous, Japanese textile art on them. They are not worn with an obi, though they do look great when cinched in with a belt or sash. They are usually fastened very loosely with a pair of ties called a himo, which is normally bought separately from the haori. Men’s himo are usually hooked onto the haori and unhooked to  open it, rather than untied, though one can just untie the himo instead. Women’s himo are usually looped onto the haori and tied each time it is worn. Below you can see some examples of haori and, above those, instructions showing how to tie women’s himo, then how to tie men’s himo, as each gender ties theirs differently.

How to tie a woman’s haori himo

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How to tie a man’s haori himo

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Now some examples of women’s and men’s haori from my www.wafuku.co.uk website, where you can also see hundreds more

Women’s

1920s red haori

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Geometric  design haori, worn with a sash, with western world clothes

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Lacy print haori

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Fabulous bird design haori

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All hand done shibori (intricate tie dye) haori

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1920s purple haori

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Butterflies galore haori

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Pink haori with chrysanthemums

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Examples of haori worn with western world clothing

Men’s haori

Men’s haori differ from women’s; the sleeves are attached to the body either all the way down the inner edge or all but an inch or so down. This is to match their kimonos. The sleeves of men’s kimonos are the same, whereas women’s kimono and haori sleeves swing loose and unattached at the body edge for a lot of their depth, this is because women wear very deep obis, so the sleeves have to be able to hang over them, whereas men wear much narrower obis and wear them lower down, so their sleeves do not get in the way and can be attached to the body of their garments all the way down.

Another difference with men’s kimonos and haoris is that they tend to be very subdued in pattern and colour. A long, long time back, the nobles and samurai got somewhat annoyed that so many rich merchants of lower class were able to afford and wear very ornate, ostentatious clothing, showing up the poorer of the samurai and upper classes and not allowing the richer ones to stand out, so a law was passed banning men who were neither samurai nor noblemen from wearing ornate clothing. This led the lower classes to adopt what was known as hidden beauty, putting fabulous textile designs on the linings of their haoris and on their naga-juban underwear kimonos. In time this made them feel superior and more classy, as their beautiful textiles were less flaunted but still there. You can see examples of that hidden beauty on the linings of some of the men’s haori below

3 geisha lining, men’s haori

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Galloping horse lining, men’s haori

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Airy ro silk men’s summer haori, with bamboo mon (crests)

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Shunga (traditional Japanese erotic art) lining, men’s haori

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Japanese woman lining, men’s haori

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Beautiful scenes lining, men’s haori

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Simi-e (ink and wash art) lining, men’s haori

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Woman with scroll lining, men’s haori

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Another shunga (traditional Japanese erotic art) lining, men’s haori

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 Fabulous scenery, on donsu lining, men’s haori.

Donsu linings have the design woven into the silk and haori with them are known as donpa haori

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Here’s  Jotaro Saito’s 2011 collection of kimonos and obis. I particularly like the men’s kimonos and some of the women’s obis are made from fabulous textiles.

This video has the designer talking (with English subtitles) and shows some of the obit textiles close up,  and the video below it has the actual fashion show

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Here’s a girl in Harajuko (2012) looking lovely in a kimono, with an old fashioned, crocheted shawl and very contemporary hair colour and giraffe bag.  Note how her feet hang over the outer side of her zori shoes; which is standard with traditional zori and geta, as the toe post that goes between the big toe and second toe, is in the centre of the sole and not offset the way it is on western flip-flops. Nowadays some zir are made with the offset toe post but it’s much more usual for it to be central and the foot to hang slightly off the outer side of the shoe.

The photo is from Tokyo Fashon, a site I love.

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Now, I don’t know if this shop in Osaka, Japan didn’t know the English translation or if they didn’t care and went for shock tactics but this is a sign you certainly wouldn’t find during the sales here in UK (via japansubculture.com)

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This next photo shows a woman in USA, photographed walking through a park on her way to a wedding, wearing a man’s montsuki kimono and looking very good in it. I would have chosen a wider, stiffer belt/sash but I think she looks great in her men’s kimono. Her kimono has fuji (wisteria) mon (crests). The photo is from a blog site I love and one of my daughter’s favourite sites, called Advanced Style, showing older women with a sense of style, who, unlike many of the older generation, have not given up making an effort in their appearance, though I have to admit that some have not given up their favourite eras either and have stuck to the clothing of the era they liked best and said to hell with whether they are considered a tad out of date.  They will soon be retro anyway and that is always interesting and good.

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Interested in Japanese ghosts, goblins and ghouls? Check out this post on Weird Asia News

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Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu – A Very Happy New Year

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We’ve had incredible winds here of over 100 miles per hour as Hurricane Katia reaches us here in Scotland. I hear there is even worse to come, so we’ll see. It’s frequently wet and windy in Scotland but it has been much wetter and windier than usual this year. I don’t know if it is anything to do with global warming or simply a natural cycle that happens every generation or whatever but the grey skies that have been close to constant since late summer have become depressing and make one reluctant to go outside. Scotland does not have great weather at the best of times but this has been much more severe than usual.

Below is a photograph, from http://www.sott.net, of a wind turbine in Ardrossan, not so very far from where I am, which burst into flames because of the force of the winds making it spin in the wrong direction.

Still, there has been relatively little damage, despite the roaring winds; the hut is in a bad way, a small amount of tile repair required on the roof, a huge tree came down in our adjacent little field and about 6 foot or so was blown off the tops of a few of the pines growing further down the field, where there is a small wood entirely of very tall pine trees. There are smallish branches, from the old trees surrounding the house, littering the place, the plant covered metal mesh arches have blown over, etc. but no drastic damage. An acquaintance’s car, in a tiny village about 3 miles from here, was flattened when a large tree fell on it but it was empty and parked outside his home when it happened.

There’s been some flooding in the town, which is in a valley, but my home is on a hill on the edge of the countryside, so is never going to flood.

When I think of Japan’s tsunami and other natural disasters around the world, I do admit we have been let off lightly.

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Seijin-no-Hi

January 10th was Seijin-no-Hi in Japan. Seijin-no-Hi is the Coming of Age Day when people who will have their 20th birthday in the present year all celebrate. The celebration begins by going to local government office, then to a shrine with their parents, then partying the rest of the day away with friends. Young women usually dress up in wafuku (traditional Japanese clothing) for the day, which means wearing a furisode kimono, which has exceedingly deep sleeves and beautiful patterns on it. Young men may wear wafuku too, with an ensemble of kimono, hakama and haori, though most seem to choose to wear yofuku (clothing that is not traditional Japanese clothing), usually a standard suit. Of those young men who do wear wafuku, some wear the more usual, formal ensembles, comprising montsuki kimono and haori in black and hakama with black and white or grey stripes, but some turn it up a notch and wear even more striking versions, with brightly coloured kimono and haori and hakama of bold patterns and gold brocade, sometimes seen with very contemporary hairstyles, such as spikey blonde styles etc. I love both the more sedate versions and these more gaudy ones and the mix of traditional and contemporary.

Tokyo Fashion as a blog post about Seijin-n-Hi in Tokyo so, as I’ve written about it before on this blog, you may want to visit theirs, as they have lots of lovely photos such as the one below.

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You can see more photos here on Akakusa Diary, which has, amongst others, the picture below, with young men in both contemporary and traditional clothes and both colourful (front left) and serene (front right) versions of the traditional outfit.

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Now for just a few of the furisode kimonos on my Wafuku.co.uk website…

Floral Bands

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Rainbow Peacocks with Rhinestones

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Bouquets on Purple

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Soft yellow with Fabulous Flowers

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Bright Peacocks & Rhinestone Details

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Detail on Bright Peacocks & Rhinestone Details

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Furisode Kimonos

Furisode means ‘swinging sleeves’ and there are three styles of furisode kimono, all only worn by young, umarried women:

type 1 – Ko-Furisode: the shortest sleeved furisode, with sleeves that are around 85cm in length, one might wear a ko furisode, for example, with hakama for a graduation ceremony

type 2 – Chu-Furisode: a furisode with sleeves that are around 100cm in length. “Chu” means “medium”.

Type 3 – Oh-Furisode: “oh” means big, therefore oh-furisode means big, swinging sleeves, with the longest sleeves of all the furisode type kimonos. Oh-furisode have sleeves of 114 – 115cm. This is the type that would be worn for Seijin-no-Hi. all the kimonos shown above are oh-furisode.

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3D paintings

Check out the 3D paintings by Riusuke Fukahori; he paints a layer, pours on thick layer clear lacquer, paints on that and repeats the process  until done. You can see pictures of his work here on the www.thisiscolossal.com design website, as well as a short film of him doing the work.

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Snow Monsters

It is worth having a look at these trees covered in snow and rime ice in Japan, known as “snow monsters”. You can see one photo below and lots more here on the Pink Tentacle website.

Japan’s Snow Monsters

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I really like this photograph from tokyotimes.org 

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wishing you all the best for 2012

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wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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Anime Eyes - wide eyed appeal
In my last blog post I included a video clip showing the appplication of a fluid, presumably something like latex adhesive, that makes the single Japanese eyelid fold when opened, giving the appearance of a double eyelid, more like western world eyes. This is popular, whether done with a liquid or tape application or with more drastic cosmetic surgery, because it makes the eyes look bigger. A current trend in Japan is anime/manga style eyes, which are achieved by combining the added crease with contact lenses that make the iris and pupil much bigger, giving the larger than life, cartoon like eyes. I have to admit that some of them scare me a little, the eyes look inordinately large for the face, but I also find it an interesting look that can suit the Japanese face, though I do not like it so much if the eye enlargement involved surgery rather than the more temporary options.

photo via inventorspot

You can get the anime eye contact lenses here, by Geo…

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Anime Eyes For Fancy Dress
If you flike the idea of going out in fancy dress as a manga or anime character, this video shows you how to apply anime make up, with the huge cartoon eyes and tiny lips. In case you are unsure, manga is Japanese comic book illustrations and anime is motion cartoons, both of the same style.

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And now for something even weirder
Now, if you want to go even further and have really freaky eyes, check out the contact lenses in the photos below, and many more very weird ones, here. I really like lots of those and wish I was young enough to carry them off.

Check out those and many more here

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Tokyo Fashion
A site I really like is TokyoFashion.com, where you can see masses of photos of street fashion in Tokyo, with a lot of focus on Harajuku fashion (trends from Harajuku, in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo). You will see a lot of girls with anime eyes in those photos too. On that site, you find photos of people in the street in fabulous, creative outfits, many a mix of western fashion, vintage fashion and contemporary versions of traditional Japanese styles. There is also some Tokyo fashion show news. I like the people on the street stuff best. The fashion shows have mostly western women modelling, many of whom have legs so thin that it looks as though their thighs would snap like twigs, whichI find repellant; I thought the days of concentration camp-like models were coming to an end but it seems it is not. I also get a touch creeped out by the fashion that makes girls look like very young children, practically toddlers. It’s cute but slightly disturbing. I do, however, love most of the quirky fashion in Japan.

I especially like these zip tights

and these tattoo tights. There are lots of great tights and socks in the photos on that site.

I love this checked dog backpack

and this Vivienne Westwood watch

and the weirdness of these Jeffrey Campbell shoes

and these very pokkuri/okobo-like shoes, a style that is very popular in Japan just now and that you will see numerous girls wearing in Tokyo. I really like their big nod to traditional Japanese footwear, making it live on in contemporary fashion.

Then there’s the Harajuku Fashion Walk

To see much more like this, check out TokyoFashion.com, which is where I found those pictures.

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Fun Stuff For Winter
I have just bought one of these fun hats for winter; I find the extreme cold of winter is a good way to get away with wearing something silly and quirky, even at my age. I have bought the wolf hat and am considering the racoon hat too.

I’m also considering this cute Elmo hat. My daughter and I love this Iron Man ski mask, which I think would be great for her fiancé, who cycles to work.

I also want just bought this pair of perfect winter boots that I found but I can’t yet afford am still reeling a bit at the £140 £112 (approx. $221 $181) I paid (I got a 20% discount voucher), as I still really can’t afford them. I actually bought them at full price but, when I went back to look at them shortly after my purchase, I noticed there was a discount voucher code, available for the next three days, that I’d overlooked, so I cancelled the order and bought them again with the discount applied. Feeling 20% less guilty now. They have a cozy fleece lining and are waterproof and, best of all, are very long; it is so hard to find warm, waterproof, winter boots that go right up to the knee. They’re a mix of waterproofed leather and waterproof nylon. I already have two great pairs of equally expensive winter boots, which are also furry lined and waterproof but they only go up to just above mid calf and, although I love them, I would love them so much more if they kept my entire calf warm by going all the way up to the knee. One pair is black and the other is white; they are a mix of thick, plain leather with patent leather straps and round the toes (you can see me wearing the white ones in the photo of me building a snow Kid Robot, below the grey boots) but otherwise both the pairs I have are the same; all three pairs are Timberland boots, the two shorter pairs are called Timberland Mukluk Barometer. I think of the white ones as my Storm Trooper boots and the black ones as my Vader boots and, no matter how cold it gets in winter or how long I spend out in the snow, they keep my feet toasty. Now I really, really want have bought these long pink ones too.

I’ve just discovered that the mauve and black boots are actually grey and black, the site with them just had a badly coloured photo but I found them on the Timberland site. Now buying those too, while the discount is still available so I can get the 20% off them too, then I can choose one pair when I see them and return the other…. probably. Rats, can already feel myself wanting both but I really can’t keep both. The grey ones can be seen below the pink ones.

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Can teeth be too perfect?
Another thing I discovered was a place that offers to make perfect teeth look more crooked. Apparently some Japanese people are intimidated by perfection, so some folk are having their perfect teeth made to took slightly imperfect, in the hope that they will become more appealing to those who were intimidated by their previous perfection. Ah, Japan… full of surprises. While I dislike those absurdly white, almost strobing teeth that so many in the USA seem to admire and I don’t balk at slight, natural imperfections in the lie of the teeth, which they seem to abhor, I do find it odd to dislike and remove natural perfection. I think the are clip-on, so no actual harm done. You can see a site offering imperfection creation for teeth here.

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wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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Japanese Furoshiki – the multifunctional cloth
Furoshiki are Japanese wrapping cloths. Typically, the Japanese tie these cloths in a variety of very clever ways to wrap gifts and make bags and suitcases. When it comes to folding and tying, no one does it better than the Japanese.

The 2 pictures below are from an instructional video clip here

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You can see how to tie a bag like the one below in the Kakefuda Kyoto Famous Furoshiki Store’s  instructional video clip here

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Got a laptop like the one below to wrap or something the same shape? Check out the instructional video clip here

You can find those clips and more here.

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For printed instructions, check  out the following pictures. Click them for enlargements, which open in a new window…

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Here are some of my furoshiki

Two large, silk furoshiki

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Fukusa

Another item the Japanese use to cover gifts is the fukusa, like the ones shown below. Fukusa are also used at tea ceremonies. Traditionally in Japan, gifts were placed in a box or on a wooden or lacquered tray, over which a fukusa was draped. The choice of a fukusa appropriate to the occasion was an important part of the gift-giving ritual. The practice of covering a gift became widespread during the Edo or Tokugawa period (1615–1867).

Fukusa, unlike furoshiki, do not get tied, they are just laid over the item. The one above, on the left, is woven from gold lacquer coated thread, with a design of oshidori (madarin ducks) and ume (plum blossom) and the tassels are in the form of minokame (turtles with a trail of algae behind them). The type on the right is often given with wedding gifts; the kanji on it, called kotobuki, can be translated both as congratulations and as longevity.

The antique silk fukusa above has fabulous, deeply couched, golden embroidery in the centre, in the form of a mon (crest); this mon is sasa (bamboo). This will have been an extremely expensive fukusa when new.

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The fukusa above has flying cranes, which represent longevity and loyalty.

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These fukusa are in the form of wallets, the grey one is given to someone in mouring and the golden one would be given as a wedding gift. They would be given with money in them.

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You also get fukusa like the one shown in the picture above, with a little bone or plastic button, which often come complete with a lacquered tray inside. You sometimes see these ones with Buddhist scripture all over them.

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Oriental Eyes

I absolutely love the Japanese eyes, with their lovely almond shape and single eyelid but many Japanese people prefer the oxidental eyes with the double eyelid. They feel it makes the eyes look bigger. Sadly, this has led to many having cosmetic surgery to give them double eyelids that crease in the middle like oxidental ones, which also tends to reduce the lovely almond shape. A less drastic solution is the one you see below in the video clip, showing some fluid that is applied to the lower part of the eyelid, making it slightly rigid when it dries, forcing it to crease when the eye opens and therefore look like double eyelids. It gives the folding eyelid without destroying the lovely almond shape and it is not permanent. Assuming the stuff being applied is harmless, I hope this catches on more than cosmetic surgery, as it means they don’t lose their beautiful oriental eyes and can choose to go back to their natural look at any time. I’m not anti cosmetic surgery at all, I just love oriental eyes and envy those with them and I hate to think of anyone with them permanently destroying their own natural eye appearance.

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wafuku – noun: traditional Japanese clothing

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The Japanese Moon Rabbit
Tsukiyo no Usagi; the rabbit in the moon. The Moon rabbit in Japanese folklore is a rabbit that lives on the moon, based on pareidolia (the phenomenon of seeing images that seem significant, like clouds in the shape of objects, faces in foodstuffs etc) that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit (sometimes said to be a hare). The story exists in many cultures, particularly in East Asian folklore, where the rabbit is seen pounding in a mortar and pestle. In Japanese versions it is pounding the ingredients for mochi (rice cake/dumplings).

In the Japanese anthology, Konjaku Monogatarishu (lit. Anthology of Tales from the Past; a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period of 794-1185), a long, long time ago in a far distant land there lived a rabbit, a fox and a monkey who believed that they had sinned in their former lives. Thus, as punishment, they are reincarnated as animals. Determined to compensate for their former sins, they gathered one day and promised to each other to be good and love each other as brothers.

From heaven, Taishakuten, a deity in the Land of Gods, looked upon them in disbelief. “Impossible! The present world is filled with hatred! Even siblings will go as far as to hate, rob or even kill each other. These humans have no compassion and regret anymore, you are telling me that you ANIMALS have it?” he thought to himself. As a test of their true faith, Taishakuten transformed himself into a weak, old man, and descended to the sinful world where the three animals lived. He laid himself down on a path, pretending to be in severe sickness, great pain and nearing death.
Soon enough the three animals passed by this seemingly dying old man. “Salvation… please, help this old man. I have an unfinished journey in front of me, but I have been overcome by hunger and thirst… Anyone, anything, please offer this old man his salvation…” He begged to the three animals in a frail voice.
Seeing this as the perfect chance to prove their determination to be good, the monkey ran off into the forest and brought back fruits and vegetables; the fox went to the graveyard and brought back offerings to the dead that people have left behind; rice cakes, fish, beverages and such.

Rabbit Netsuke

Being small and weak and used only to collecting grass for food, the rabbit was not able to find anything to save the dying man. In great shame, he went back to the old man. “I am so sorry but I have not yet found anything; I will search elsewhere. Please make a fire and await my return”,  the rabbit requested.
Standing by the old man, the smug fox and monkey were getting impatient, “The rabbit brought back nothing and now he tells us to make a fire and wait for him? Useless!” exclaimed the fox and the monkey in disgust. Moments later the rabbit returned, still with nothing. He stared into the fire, then jumped into its flames, making himself food for the old man.
Taishakuten, was so very impressed and touched by such a self-sacrificing act that he proclaimed that the rabbit would be ascended to the moon, so that humans will remember the rabbit and his selfless act forever.

In Japanese art it is sometimes depicted as two rabbits on the moon.

The night of the 15th of September, or ‘Jugo-ya’ (Fifteenth night), is a time when the Japanese go out and appreciate the beauty of the mid-autumn full moon. Such activity is known as ‘O-tsuki-mi’ (moon viewing). ‘Mochi’ (rice dumplings), watermelons, chestnuts and numerous autumn fruits are offered to the bright, full moon. Such offerings are arranged on small, decorative stands and are placed near the windows of Japanese homes.

Rabbits are a popular motif on Japanese fans and textiles and all sorts of other items, like in the images of a Japanese textile and tabi shown above. Examples of rabbits depicted in Japanese antiques are this fabulous netsuke…

and this spectacular antique kimono…

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On a change of topic, I discovered this extremely expensive wallpaper the other day. I wouldn’t want it on my walls but it was interesting to see.

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Recently I saw this lovely furisode kimono in a Paris Vogue from Novemeber 2010…

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