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.
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.
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.
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 I despised almost everything Japanese as outdated.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.
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.
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…