shiozawa hitoe and wool obi

I've had this kimono for a while and only recently learned that the way the silk is weaved comes from Shiozawa, hence it's called Shiozawa style kimono. It's hitoe and comes from a lot of three that I bought last year from Yahoo Japan. Cream background and weaving is with black and wine red.

The heat outside made me think to downgrade it a bit, by pairing it with a pink-ish wool obi, a maroon indian shawl-turned obiage/heko obi - still thinking about it - and a white home- crochetted, flat obijime, tied in a kai-no-kuchi style.

I am still contemplating whether to wear my tsuke eri or simply wear it as a yukata - maybe a BIG NO-NO but I find the idea at least interesting.

Plus, I have this furoshiki and a pair of geta (got them as trades with a fellow Immortal Geisha Forum members) planned to accessorize the entire ensemble.

I am really excited to wear this tonight. I'll post pics of the final outfit probably somtime tomorrow.

This is the "sometime tomorrow" part; I ended up wearing it as hitoe kimono with the tsuke eri and no juban. It was quite cool.

New flowers... after a long break

Well, yesterday, after a long break, I couldn't keep myself from not buying this pretty cool ensemble from Yahoo Japan Auctions:





It consists of a Michiyuki - my very first one, and what find for a first: bingata - and a sky blue iromuji.

And to top it all, I only paid JPY500, as in USD 5.30.. How could I resist? Of course, add to that the Japan Auction Center commissions and fees + shipping and it doesn't sound as cheap anylonger, but still, if I were in Japan, this would have cost me under 10 bucks.

Now I do have another 2 iromuji, but they are the common pink you can find on ebay and even though those are very nice, I don't think I can compare the color. It's completely different. You know those little girls that squeal when they find or get something they really like..? That's how I feel right now, and I am already planning coordination looking in my obi drawers. Which reminds me... I have to take a picture of all my flowers one of these days.


*Squeal some more*

First post... first thoughts

Thus begins my first typing in Japanese. I have been struggling for a while to put it all together and up and working, but I am so proud of myself!! I spent almost 2 hours with Google translating for me back and forth English/Japanese and the other way around.. and still I am not sure I found the correct form of what I wanted to say so, just to make sure, I put it in English as well.

So why Tansu Flowers..? For all those not knowing, a "tansu" is a traditional Japanese chest of drawers aka wardrobe, apparently the best way to keep kimono and all things made of silk. And flowers... I kind of think of all my kimono as fragile flowers.

I've always been fascinated by Japan, and like any other ignorant, lived happily with the idea that geisha are high class prostitutes - shame on me... that is until I saw the infamous Memoirs of A Geisha and got mesmerized by all the kimono the ladies wore. That was the first thing that changed my mind, and for that I will forever be in thankful. I know now, looking back, that it wasn't a very good movie, but I still like it, and still watch it from time to time. A lot of people think it's a crap movie, that it doesn't do justice to kitsuke and to Japanese culture, but for me, it was THE thing that started my hunger for more. So, at least for that, this movie has my appreciation.

From February 2008 and up until now I've started buying kimono and all necessities, ending up now with over 20 kimono and about 30 obi which I love to bits.

Learning to put it all up correctly was a whole other story. After seeing the movie, the first thing that came to my mind was that I NEEDED a kimono. So I went on and searched patterns for sewing one. I will look for some pictures.. hopefully I still have at least one somewhere.

*To be continued*