Sunday Kimono - The Finale

Two halves, two different kimono styles modern and traditional, spring and autumn, peonies and chrysanthemums, social and formal, both divine. Kimono style and kimono love!!

Sunday Kimono 29- A myriad of kimonos

Back in pre-social distancing times when I visited Kawagoe (old Edo) so many young girls were dressed in colourful kimono.  It was graduation season, so  not sure if this was normal or part of  special celebrations. 

Sunday Kimono 28 - Kimono and Facemask

This photo of a lady wearing a face mask with a fabulous green kimono is timely.  Everyone in Tokyo is wearing a face mask at the moment, but many like this woman wore them as a matter of course in non COVID times.

Sunday Kimono 27- Wedding Guests

More wedding guest in kimono at Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji-Sengen shrine. Taken during my visit in March. Love the gold handbag, shoes/thongs (zori? ) and obi.

Sunday Kimono 26 Shiromuku Wedding Kimono

 When visiting a shrine near Mt Fuji last month I was lucky enough to witness the arrival of bride and her wedding party.  The white kimono was beautiful. The fabric had an intricate crane pattern.  See below for an explanation of white bridal kimonos.

Shiromuku is a wedding kimono originally worn at weddings in samurai families, the shiromuku has become one type of wedding kimono worn by brides in Japan. White has symbolized the sun’s rays since ancient times, and from the Heian period, pure white bridal kimonos became prized. The shiromuku stands out due to all its parts — over-robe, under-robe, obi sashi, etc.. — being pure white. Brides at the wedding in shrines always wear white clothes. Why Japanese brides have such custom to be covered with only white things on a day of wedding ceremony? It’s because “white” has been regarded by Japanese people as a symbol of pureness, cleanness or virginity. “White” can be dyed with any color, so shiromuku means that brides are ready to be dyed with color of groom. “White” has also been regarded as a sacred color for many years, so Japanese people have believed shiromuku to be suitable for the wedding ceremony held at sacred and religous places.

Sunday Kimono 25 Kimono and Coffee

Kimonos in a coffee shop in Kawagoe. The old world  and the new.

Sunday Kimono 24 Social Isolation in a Kimono

 This kimono wearing young lady was walking her fluffy white dog along the Naka-Meguro canal, social isolation in Japanese style.

Sunday Kimono 23 - Sakura and Kimono

Graduation photos with family in front of Sakura are happening in parks and gardens around Tokyo.  The young woman are wearing this unusual style of kimono - a cropped jacket over a very high waisted pleated type skirt.  A woman I asked said it was "fashion". The tree they were been photographed with was huge and beautiful.

Sunday Kimono 22 - Rental Kimono in Kawagoe

Kawagoe is known as Little Edo. It has many old buildings  - kurakuzkuri - warehouses with clay walls and steep tiled roofs.  Its a popular place to rent kimonos and explore the streets and eat local treats.  Sweet potato was popular when I visited last month, both in ice cream and as thin slices as fried chips.

Sunday Kimono. 21 Wedding Guests

Sunday Kimono 20 - Mauve

A stylish older woman in a mauve kimono strolling through the gardens at Nezu Museum when I visited in the winter.

Sunday Kimono 19 - Gingko and Kimono

A photo from late autumn.  This may be a wedding photo shoot for a young couple at the shrine in Todoroki gorge.  Her kimono is intricate, but also many layered and heavy.

This shrine is the place with the winter gingkos from the post on Monday.

Sunday Kimono 18 - Wedding Photos

 Wedding photo time in the fall at a shrine in Todoroki gorge. Uchikake are colourful outer garments, usually in bright colours, red or orange like this and worn for photos and after the wedding ceremony at the reception.

Sunday Kimono 17 - River of Fabric

Another photo of kimono fabric in the River Gallery at Nakai at the Some no Komichi festival.  Stencils are used to design the concrete river banks.

Shibori

Shibori is a Japanese form of tie dyeing that  I love for its intricacy and because it is often used with indigo.  The Shibori section of the Some no Komochi festival last week,  along the Myoshoji River were my favourite.

Sunday Kimono 16- Some no Komichi

Last Sunday I visited the Nakai neighbourhood for the Some no Komichi festival
which highlights the art of art dyeing and screen printing in the Nakai area of Shinjuku where traditionally kimono cloth was draped across the river to dry.  The 50-60m lengths of fabric draped over the river on a sunny Sunday were spectacular and I loved the kimonos these two ladies were wearing as they wandered the streets and stopped on the bridges to admire the colourful spectacle.

Sunday Kimono 15 - Waiting for the Train

After a Sunday of shopping these ladies in their kimonos are heading home on the train.

Sunday Kimono 14 - At the Art Gallery

The Nezu Museum is one of my favourite places in Tokyo.  The last exhibition "Paintings Created as Sets" featured a wonderful 6 panel screen with maple leafs on a gold background, paired with a another 6 panel screen of white cherry blossoms - both my obsessions in two pieces of art.

Next to these was another screen with summer flowers on a gold background.  I loved it that this lady in her kimono with a floral themed obi was enraptured with the beautiful art works as I was.

Sunday Kimono 13 - Admiring Peonies

Stylish kimono wearing ladies out looking at the Peonies at Ueno Park in January.

Sunday Kimono 12

I came across this beautiful exhibition of kimonos from hand woven silk in a side street of Ginza on Thursday night.  The colours were sublime and silk absolutely beautiful. I couldn't understand the hostess, I thought they said it was from Kyoto, but maybe it was meant to be Koyama??  Google translate  didn't help either.  However I could read the price tag on some of them 450000- 500000 Yen - that is nearly $AUD 7000. Divine but expensive - now I want to visit a silk weaving village - just like in Laos.