カテゴリー: Knowledge

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In the case of inserting crests in kimonos, those “crests”mean family crests. Family crests are took over through many generations and the common people have come to begin using them since the Edo era.

Traditions of family crests differ from region to region.And after women marry their husbands,whether husbands’ ones will be used for family crests or women’s ones will depends on colors their families have.So if people insert crests in kimonos,they follow their parents’ and parents-in-law’s decisions which ones they should use.

In Japan,especially in Kanto region,you can find the habit of using Onnamon as family crests many times. This is the crest inherited from mother to her daughter; the other region, however, might simply call a parents’ family crest of women as the onnnamon.

Speaking of putting a family crest on kimono, there is no chance for a dress for hire. Moreover, foreigners do not have a family crest in the first place, and there are also people who do not know their family crest for the past prolonged period of time.

In that case, they may use widely used crests called “torimon” (crest not related to a family) or newly designed ones.
These torimon and newly designed crest might be called onnamon.

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Among the kimono patters, there is the so-called “shikunshi”, which represents happiness and auspiciousness. This pattern consists of four types of greenery: orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and plums.

They were especially treasured in China, where it was said that their refined beauty was akin to that of a wise man with wonderful personality (kunshi) and so the combination came to be known as shikunshi, which means “four wise men”. What’s more, orchids represent spring, bamboo represents summer, chrysanthemum – fall, and plums are the symbol of winter.

This pattern isn’t used only in the world of kimonos – there are often drawn together as a set, and the combination is often used as a fundamental topic for practice in ink painting.

Plums, orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemum often appear in kimono patterns independently, and the general rule is that you should wear them during the season the given pattern represents. However, when all of them are included in a pattern, they can be worn all year long.

There are also other patterns that combine motives from different seasons, like chrysanthemum and cherry blossoms, or butterflies and red leaves, to make it possible to wear them all year long.

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Tea ceremony and kimonos are deeply connected to each other. There are many elements of the tea ceremony that assume you are wearing a kimono while performing it – for example, at some point while preparing tea, you take out your fukusa (a small cloth for wiping tea utensils) out of your kimono’s breast pocket and then put it in your obi. That’s why there are many people knowledgeable about kimonos among the tea ceremony experts.

On the other hand, because kimono is not longer something people wear everyday, it wouldn’t be practical to ask people learning tea ceremony to wear it every time. That’s why many changes were introduced to allow people to take part in tea ceremony while wearing western-style clothes.

An representative example would be the so-called “keikogi”, which is shaped like a vest and it looks as if it was made from sleeves detached from a kimono. Those who are thinking about learning tea ceremony should ask their teachers about the specifics and not decide anything on their own, because the rules change from teacher to teacher.

It is also not necessary to wear a kimono if you were asked to participate in a tea ceremony as a guest. The spirit of tea ceremony says to welcome every guest in the same way regardless of their clothes. Of course, if you come to a tea ceremony wearing a kimono, it would surely make the organizers happy, so if it’s possible, we recommend putting one on.

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There are two major footwear, zori (Japanese sandals) and geta (Japanese clogs) when dressed up in kimono. It is unexpectedly hard to define difference between the zori and the geta, but it is general to consider wooden footwear as the geta and others as the zori.

The geta is considered as footwear for daily use, on the other hand, the zori can be widely used for formal occasions to daily use. Though the zori can be divided into for formal use and daily use, it is for the formal occasion if the heel is high and for daily use if it is low. Particularly, those zori having finished base (where foot is on) with rush or bamboo sheath is considered as the footwear in summer.

However, it is not needed to stick to the tradition except formal ceremonies. There are some people who wears standard sandals in wearing yukata, but there is no concern on it if it is matched.It is considered cool for wearing both a bit small zori and geta to let the heels run out of back edge.

Please be careful to choose footwear for kimono because a bit smaller one does not give you feel difficulty in walking but a large one does. It is a distinction of footwear having same shape for both left and right is the traditional one when dressed up in kimono. Regularly swapping of left and right footwear prevent wearing only one side and expand a life span of them.

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Accessory for dressing kimono indicates an auxiliary item which cannot be seen from outside among the accessory used when wearing kimono. Though a variety of items are used according to the style of those who dress kimonos, the necessary items are basically waist strap, Datejime, batten plate and sash pillow, and the other special items are the modification of basic items.

Waist strap is a strap to fix the kimono to the body. One is literally fastened around the waist, the other one is also fastened at the chest not to flutter the collar. The strap fastened at the chest is called Munehimo, which is the same shape as waist strap.

Though waist cord is only for kimono, chest cord is used for both singlet and kimono, and also the cord is used for auxiliary cord when fastening each cord, which means 4 cords are needed in total.

Datejime is cord to fasten above the chest cord, whose role is to keep the collar part from getting out of shape and to cover the knot of chest cord and loosen cloth. Since it is used for both singlet and kimono, 2 cords are needed in total. Cord plate is used to prevent the front of the cord from wrinkling. Sash pillow prevent the cord from getting down by forming a drum base, and it is not used for half-width obi.

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The juban is worn just under a kimono, but the undershirts for the upper part and the lower part respectively are worn under the juban: for the upper part of body called hadajuban, the lower part of the body called a koshimaki or a waist cloth.

These undershirts are aimed to protect a juban from staining and against the cold. For this reason, it can be omitted to wear these undershirts if wearing washable juban during hot season, but it gives you feel being secured to wear the undershirts for absorbing the sweat as much as possible in considering oozing the stain from the sweat through kimono

Any clothes can be used for the purpose of the hadajuban and the koshimaki because they are never seen from the outside. Because it is difficult to wear the split undershirts for the upper and lower parts of body if not used to, there is also an underslip for kimono for a kimono on the market.

It doesn’t matter to wear undershirts for ordinary clothes; it is, however, better to wear the one of which style allows to absorb the sweat in armpits.

In addition, please be careful to select the one which has low neck as much as possible in consideration of being seen the back resulting from pulling down the collar of kimono.

To wear traditional undershirts for kimono, wear the koshimaki prior to wearing the hadajuban.
In general, the hadajuban has no straps or buttons to fix the front. Wear the juban while overlapping the front of the hadajuban and hold it by tying the straps of the juban.

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When wearing a kimono, the back portion of collar shall be “pulled down”, but if it is not properly pulled down, somebody may say “your back collar is “pulled up”. Though the back collar is properly pull down upon completing the dress up in kimono, it might be pulled up towards the neck due to the weight of kimono etc.

In that case, the pulled up collar causes to make sides and front of kimono loosened and which makes overall appearance in kimono deteriorated. To prevent the pulled up back collar, a caution shall be taken when wearing the juban.

When wearing the juban, pull it down the back until the back collar is pulled down to a proper position, and then, hold it using a thin fabric belt. It is also convenient if a long, narrow strip of cloth is stitched at the back of collar: this cloth is called “imonnuki” or “a cloth for properly position the back collar”.

Nevertheless, the back collar is pulled up, it might not be pulled down to a proper position and it will be pulled up in a short while. If it is a case, please go to a place to shun the eyes of others such as in a comfort room, and daringly pull up the hem of kimono, and then, pull down the back of juban. If the imonnuki or a long, narrow strip of cloth is stitched at the back of collar, the pulled up collar can be pulled down to a proper position by pulling it down.

When the collar of juban is properly positioned, the collar of kimono is also properly positioned along with it. When it is done, please adjust the peeped out haneri.

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It has been said that the current pattern of the Kimono was from the Edo era. The Twelve-layered ceremonial kimono is an item from an older era. And there are differences when comparing this to the current Kimonos.

The late Edo era is a peaceful era and it is known that various cultures evolved during this time. It is believed that the Kimono culture was developed and established during this time.

Western clothes were trending during the Meiji era so these were worn during this time. Despite that, Japanese clothing has been a norm for the masses and it can be said that the Kimono culture was born and established during the Edo era.

The Taisho Era is the era which is painted in “Haikara san ga tooru” (Here comes ‘Miss Modern’). The kimonos were influenced by the Western style and there were created gorgeous things. The most popular antique kimonos were in general those from this Era.

Actually, we are not talking about such old times, as the second half of Showa Era, when the Western style clothing started spreading and the kimonos began to be worn only on special occasions. People thought once that the kimonos were out of fashion, but it was reconsidered as a fashion item, and recently, the number of people wearing kimonos increased.

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Kimono and obi, which can be used for a long time, will get so dirty and worn that you can’t wear them. Even if you inherit a lot of kimonos, sometimes you don’t know what to do with them because your lifestyle has changed.

Beautiful kimono which is too small to wear can be used as interior articles. It is easy to use as a tapestry with a bar in its sleeves.

In the case you don’t know where to decorate with it or it is not worth decorating, you can use it as a remake material. Many people may hesitate to cut a kimono. However, people in the old days remade old kimonos again and again until the end.

It may be good for a kimono to be remade into a modern article and be cherished, instead of being put away.

A kimono in a good condition can be remade into a dress. If it has a lot of worn areas, you can cut out the unworn area to use for a patchwork. If the unworn area is quite large, it can be used for a bag, a pouch and a cushion.

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When we try to study about kimonos, most of them are for women. It may be because it is “not masculine” for a man to get interested in fashion such as kimonos. Of course, however, there are some men’s kimonos and many men like kimonos.

You can fashion after a rakugo performer wearing kimono. The formal style is a haori coat and a hakama skirt with five crests, which can be seen in Announcement of a newly-assumed name. In a more relaxed performance, you can see various kinds of kimonos from casual to formal style.

The biggest difference between women’s kimono and men’s kimono is that men’s kimono doesn’t have “ohashori”. Men’s kimono can be put on easily because you don’t have to fix ohashori. Men’s obi is thinner than women’s obi. It is tied as kainokuchi (shell’s mouth) and ichimonji (straight line), whose knots are not so big.

There is a custom of printing eraborate patterns in the backing cloth of haori (haura) and juban (kimono slip) because men’s kimono is simple.
Some of women’s haura and juban are gorgeous. But many of men’s haura and juban have such a tremendous impact that there are collectors of those.