Category: Kimono

Enjoy various combinations of Kimono and Obi!

What differentiates Kimono most from any other clothing is its rather standard shape.

 An open front, a long, narrow collar, a straight body, and long sleeves.   The length of the sleeves might vary, but even the shortest ones are still considerably longer, or I should say wider, than any Western clothing.

With such a standard shape lacking varieties, you may think Kimono coordination is quite boring.  Far from it!

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Kimono is always accompanied by a sash called Obi, a long cloth.  After you wear Kimono, you wrap Obi around your waist, normally twice.  Obi is long enough so that you can tie both ends and create different patterns.  The square shape you see on my back is called Otaiko, the most popular pattern to tie Obi. 

Even in the same shape, Kimono comes in so many different colors and designs.  So does Obi. By mixing and matching Kimono and Obi, you can enjoy a variety of combinations.  The same Kimono looks different by pairing different Obi.  Likewise, the same Obi has a renewed look when matched with different Kimono.

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You can purely play with the colors of Kimono and Obi.  You want to give a strong impression?  Use high color contrast.  Or do you want to create a softer impression? Choose similar colors.  If you use high-contrast colors, you may want to choose a transitioning color for Obiage, the soft-fabric cloth you tie to show only slightly between Kimono and Obi.

You may want to choose the design of Kimono and Obi to match the season.  Wearing in the spring?  Match the cherry blossom design on Kimono and a butterfuly on Obi.  In the fall?  Match the yellow color Kimono to reflect the color of turning leaves, and Obi with the chestnut design. 

If you want to impress people with your sophistication, why not combining Kimono with the plum flower and Obi that has a nightingale on its design.  Plum flowers and a nightingale, such a popular theme of classic Waka poetry. 

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Here are some examples of Kimono and Obi pairings.  Enjoy!

The same kimono, different obis

The same obi, different kimonos

For no reason, I woke up in the morning and told myself, “I will spend the whole day wearing kimono!” And I actually did!

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Before Japan opened its doors to the Western world about 150 years ago, everybody in Japan was wearing it.  My grandmother used to wear it every day.  It was not something she wore only for special occasions.

By the time I grew up, people’s perceptions changed.  For me, for the longest time, it became something archaic, not cool, not hip, a thing of the past. 

If you visit Japan now, what percentage of Japanese people are wearing kimono? Maybe most people walking in kimono in Kyoto are foreign tourists? Is it OK?  If it’s not OK, how come I don’t wear it more often?  Can I walk the talk? 

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It took me more or less thirty minutes to put on this kimono.  Once I wore it, I sat on the desk most of the day, I cooked, I cleaned the house, and I even took for a walk in the neighborhood. 

I didn’t have much inconvenience doing all that.  When I did the house chores, I wrapped around the sleeves with a rope in the shape of the number eight (or infinity?).  It is called “tasuki gake.”  With tasuki gake, my sleeves were never in the way. 

The obi (the sash around the waist) was not too tight.  I didn’t have any problem breathing or eating.  With the obi, I could keep my back not hunching.  A great support for a good posture!

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I’m beginning to realize more benefits of wearing kimono.  Let me do it more often…

What a sustainable life!

Kimono 着物 literally means “a thing to wear” in Japanese.  Until Japan opened its country to the Western world in 1868, everybody in Japan wore kimono.

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I grew up dispising kimono as outdated when I was in Japan.  Only after I moved to the US, I became more interested in and more attached to this unique form of dressing. 

In the tea ceremony, the rules for each movement of the body are based on the assumption that the practitioner is dressed in kimono.  For example… With the long sleeves of kimono, how would you move your arms so that you would look most graceful when pouring hot water into the tea bowl? 

When I started practicing tea ceremony 13 or 14 years ago, I thought wearing kimono for every practice would be the fastest to improve my practice.    Or maybe the other way around.  I might have decided to practice tea ceremony so that I can wear kimono more often.

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Since then, whenever I went back to Japan, I would bring back my mother’s old kimono.  She is shorter than I am, but kimono is made longer so that the length can be adjusted depending on the height of the person.  One crucial point is the length of the arms.  Luckily my mother has long arms for her height, about the same length as mine.

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The photo above is my mother’s most casual kimono.  The fabric is silk pongee, called tsumugi 紬 in Japanese. 

I remember her doing laundry wearing this kimono.  I must have been 3 years old.  It’s now hard to believe that she did such house chores in kimono.  But over half a century ago, kimono was more prevalent in Japan.  Kimono was the default wardrobe in my grandmother’s days!

This kimono is a more formal one.  Also made of silk, but the texture of the fabric is smoother and softer than the first one.  The small crescent pattern is spread all over. This type of design is called komon 小紋.   

I remember she wore this kimono when she came to kindergarten to pick me up after my first overnight trip. 

This black kimono with arabesque pattern has a distinct texture.  The fabric is thin and light, unique characteristics of Oshima Tsumugi 大島紬. 

This was my mother’s spring kimono.  The pattern is cherry blossoms, and I always wear this for tea gatherings in the spring. 

Can you believe the kimono my mother was wearing (the photo on the right) and the one I’m wearing (the photo on the left) are the same kimono?

My mother’s kimono used to have quite a light greenish color.  Over time stains appeared and she got tired of the color.  No, she didn’t throw it away. Rather, my mother took it to a professional whose speciality is to redye kimono. He redyed it to golden yellow.  With this color, the old stain disappeared!

Now I wear this kimono in the autumn.

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Silk fabrics are amazingly durable.  With the way kimono is structured, people in different sizes can wear the same kimono, like my mother and I.  By redying, an old kimono is reborn with a totally new look!

The era of mass production and mass consumption is over.  By enjoying my mother’s kimono in daily life, I’m ever more appreciating what kimono teaches me: The value of a sustainable life.    

And I wish you could see me cherish it

Kimono 着物 literally means “a thing to wear” in Japanese.  Until Japan opened its country to the Western world in 1868, everybody in Japan wore kimono.

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When I was growing up in the ’60s, my mother was wearing kimonos quite often.  I remember her doing laundry in her casual working kimono.  She wore a little fancy kimono when she came to kindergarten to pick me up after my first overnight trip. 

One of our neighbors in downtown Osaka was a kimono cleaning shop.  In front of the entrance, they would hang a long fabric (a disassembled kimono) spread out using bamboo sticks, to dry it.

Back then, the kimono was still pretty much a part of daily life for Japanese people. 

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The photo above is me when I was 14.  The small print at the edge of the photo says it was 1976.    I’m leaning against my father’s car. (Was it Toyota Mark II?)  I’m wearing the first kimono that my father bought me.  Obviously, I’m not in a good mood. 

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Together with the rapid economic growth in the ‘60s and ‘70s, people in Japan were hurried “modernizing,” which meant “westernizing,” their lifestyle.

At the age of 14, I was already quite well “modernized.”  I despised almost everything Japanese as outdated.   The kimono was no exception.  I remember very well cursing my father what a waste of money to buy me such an expensive, useless piece of cloth. 

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Who would have imagined that almost half a century later I’m cherishing the same piece of cloth? 

Only after I moved to the US, I started wearing the kimono more often.  First for such occasions like a company Christmas party.  Being Japanese, I’m short. My body is not curvy.  No evening dress would look stunning on me.  But my kimono! 

None of my co-workers nor their spouses would be dressed the same as me.  Everybody at the party would say, “How beautiful you are!”  Their words of admiration were the biggest incentive for me to wear a kimono in the US.

In the beginning, it was a struggle to wear it.  It used to take me two hours to get dressed. But gradually I got better at it, and now I can pretty much finish putting on my kimono within 30 minutes. 

Maybe I could make it a little shorter, but I enjoy the whole process of putting it on and experiencing the change in my posture, my range of movement, and even my breathing speed.  I need about thirty minutes of transcending time from Akemi in jeans to Akemi in kimono.

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This is another kimono my father bought me.  I wore it for my college graduation.

During the pandemic, I dressed myself in the same kimono to celebrate my birthday.  It’s been 19 years since my father passed away. 

Sorry, Father, for not realizing this much earlier.  The kimonos you bought for me are beautiful.  I now cherish them.  I should have asked you to buy me more while you were still alive!  I’m hoping you can still see me in these kimonos from where you are now…