This kimono has been passed down for four generations
The photo by Author
This kimono is the shortest I ever had, and the hardest to wear properly. Still this is the kimono I cherish most. Because my great grandmother wove the fabric.
This is the first kimono that my mother got when she came of age, maybe 18 or 19 years old. Using one role of kimono fabric that my great grandmother had woven, my grandmother made this kimono for my mother.
Before World War II, many farmers in the countryside of Japan used to be pretty much self-sufficient. My mother’s village in Tokushima Prefecture was no exception. My mother remembers the sound of handlooms in the neighborhood.
Where my great grandmother lived was further deep in the mountains, and it’s no wonder to guess that my great grandmother used to grow her own mulberry trees, grow silkworm, get silk threads, and weave the fabric by hand at home. Such home-made silk fabric is called jiginu 地絹.
When my mother was born in 1938, my great grandmother was already dead. My grandmother was born 1903. I can’t trace back when my great grandmother was born, but it’s safe to say that this kimono fabric is well 100 years old.
If you touch this fabric, you feel slight unevenness. Far from the perfect smoothness you can get from the fabric woven by a skilled craft person in Kyoto. But you know, no other kimono can win my soul as much as this one.
The design of the kimono is different from when it was originally made. My mother had it redyed to much subtler colors years later. Being able to redye is another secret to wear kimono for a long time.
I’m trying to get more kimonos to support those skilled crafts people. But how beautiful they may be, my favorite kimono will always be this short, uneven kimono. Great grandma, thank you so much for making it!