FURICLE- for japanese kimono and yukata fan

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Miko’s Costume

Miko’s costume consists of Byakue/ Hakui and Hibakama, and they generally wear white tabi and Zori as footwear, and wear a ponytail in the back of your head. It may vary a little between shrines, but they are mostly the same.

Byakui is explained as “white Kosode”, but it can be simply described as short white kimono.
When wearing, you do not pull the backside (emon), and let the front of your kimono overlap tightly up to your neck (don’t wear them loosely).

Hibakama means “hakama with the color Hiiro”, and Hiiro is a type of red color. They are generally Andonbakama which is easy to move along in your daily life, but when dancing Kagura-dance, Jouba-bakama (Horseriding -bakama) are sometimes worn to let your legs move freely. You don’t tie obi underneath, so the backside does not plump out that much. In formal places, you wear a jacket called Chihaya over these clothing. There is a similar thing called Suikan, but to explain it roughly, the front is open for Chihaya but closed for Suikan. It is defined that present Miko should wear Chihaya, but Suikan were also previously used, so if you are designing them for costumes, it is not a mistake to match Suikan with them.

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Hakama

Hakama is men’s formal wear, but in the Heian era it is said that both men and women wore them. After that period, women’s hakama were omitted, but in the Meiji era its easiness to move was recognized, and people started to wear them again. Nowadays, it is common to wear them in graduation ceremonies.

There are Andonbakamas which is like a skirt, and Umanoribakama which is like pants, but the original hakama is umanoribakama. Andonbakama is a simplified hakama to make it easy to wear, but nowadays these two are regarded as equal in class, and there is no difference in formality. When wearing hakama, you wear your kimono a little short in length, and men wear Tunoobi and tie them in Ichimoji style, and women wear Hanhaba-obi and tie them in Bunko style. The knot of the obi goes underneath the hakama, and thus becomes the foundation. When you put your leg in the hakama, you lift your front side, and you adjust your hakama so your obi shows a little from the top; then you pull the string to the backside of your body, then to your front, and finally to your back again and tie it. Next, you lift the back part up above your obi, and bring the string to your front, then to your back, and finally tie it in your front. There is a formal way to tie it, but when wearing them in daily occasions (not formal occasions), bow knot is just fine.

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Tamoto, it is a part look like bag under the sleeves of Kimono. It’s part of the sleeves, so there is not component that it’s called Tamoto. Tamoto like bag, so we can put something inside but it is not useful as a pocket because it is easy to fall something that we put inside because of shape of Kimono for women. The part which the side of the sleeves, Furi is open. It is good enough to handkerchief or pocket tissue. There is no Furi and inside of the sleeves are closed, some people put a wallet in Kimono for Men. Sometimes undershirt goes out of Furi, to prevent it, it is good to pin the undershirt’s sleeves with Tamoto from the inside.

There is a expression “separating the Tamoto”. it means breaking relationship. There are many theories, but no one explain the meaning clearly. Also ther is a expression “put together Tamoto”. It means doing same action and share own fortunes as a comrade.

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Okumi

The okumi is a thin piece of fabric worn in front of the kimono at slightly lower than the waist. Although a whole long square cloth called “Tanmono” is used for making a kimono, it is cut in half for making the okumi and collar. As you reform a kimono, do not forget that there is a thin piece of fabric coming out at that part, so you won’t waist any clothes. This kimono is open in front, so the front fabric has to be wider for the overlap than the back fabric. The additional fabric for the overlap is the okumi. The okumi by itself doesn’t have a specific meaning. As for the origin of the word, the former style of the kariginu, which are informal clothes worn by the nobility from the Heian period onwards, was called ‘Ookubi’. Then it’s said that it was changed into “Okumi”.

The stitches between the okumi and the main part of kimono is called “okumi-sen” (meaning okumi-line). This term is sometimes used for wearing a kimono. Standing straight up and placing the left okumi-sen at the middle of your right foot and leg, then the kimono position is the proper way of wearing a kimono.
Moreover, if the okumi-sen of Ohashori and the lower okumi-sen are lined straight, it will make your kimono look more beautiful. It is okay if you can’t make them a perfect line, but if there are too much gap between those two lines, you may want to fix it because some part could be loosen or a edge of a piece of fabric could be stuck in a string.

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Miyatsukuchi (side slit of kimono)

It referes to the small opening in the side of traditional Japanese clothing for women and children (e.g. kimono and yukata) located where the sleeve meets the bodice, below the armpit. We aren’t so aware of it usually, but say sometimes to explain how to wear the kimono like “pull the side slits” or “get your hand in the side slit to fix the kimono.”

The kimonos for men don’t have the side slit. It isn’t known clearly why the kimonos of women and children have this miyatsukuchi slits; they say that children wore their kimonos putting a piece of string through the slits in the old days. As for the kimonos for women, it is thought that it might have been put to facilitate the movement in the times when the obi became wider. It isn’t inconvenient at all usually if without it but would become necessary when you set ohawhori; the established theory is that it was born at the same time as the ohashori was thought of. When the side slits are left open, the singlet whichi is an underwear will be visible. Pull the underarm sides of the kimono right and left, smoothing out the wrinkles, so that they come just to the side slits. You can narrow the gap as much, even though not closing it.

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Shijira weave

Shijira weave is a type of grained cloth, which is wrinkled on purpose by using the difference of thread’s tension or the thickness. Or, it describes the type of texture.

The most famous production area is Awa (now Tokushima prefecture), and is said to be originated in the beginning of Meiji era.
It is said that a woman living in Awa invented it, and according to the story, a cotton cloth became wet in the rain, and when she dried it under the sun, she saw interesting grains forming by the shrinking of the cloth; inspired by this, she made some improvement resulting this type of weave. Because of its origin, Awa-shijira is basically made of cotton. They are flat woven, but some warps are consisted of several threads, and by this unbalance the grain is formed. In other regions, shijira is woven with various materials , and for example, Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture is famous for cotton/hemp shijira. Shijira weave is suitable for summer kimonos, for the contact area with your skin is small, and it doesn’t cling damply on you by your sweat. Moreover, inexpensive mass production items are also made, and are used in bed sheets, etc.