Purple Geiko Hikizuri

Thanks everyone who responded about the blog sale! I was able to match almost every item I had for sale up with a loving home. So glad to know that they’ll be going to people who will take care of them.

So, I have a confession to make….one of my resolutions this year was to not buy any more kimono. For the same reasons that I held the sale, actually…no room, and needing to start saving money. Well, as it turns out, as soon as I got the money in from the sale, this gorgeous hikizuri I had been watching (but never planned to buy) went down in price by over half. I told myself I would not buy it even at that price, but made the seller an offer just for fun. They counter-offered, and it just so happened that it was about the amount I had made from the sale, so….I bought it. Looking at the pictures, I think you can tell why:

I mean, how could I say no to a royal purple geiko hikizuri with a double padded hem and golden wave motif for practically free?

I must say though, that I’m having some trouble dating it. The seller said that her mother collected kimono in Kyoto during the 1930s, and that she kept adding to the collection until about 2005. She gave an estimated date of 1932 for the hiki. Now, I don’t know about you, but to me this looks waaaayyyy younger than that! It’s in really good condition. There’s some red staining from the momi (red cloth worn under the obi) would have been on the back, and I’ve seen a little bit of foxing on the inside lining, but nothing too noticeable or signs of wear like you’d expect an older hiki to have. It does have a bit of small kinkoma embroidery on some of the waves, and one part of it is hanging off, but other than that, it’s in pretty good shape. So, what do you guys think?

Above, you can see that part of the inside lining on the left side has been replaced/repaired with red silk.

There is a particular shade of royal purple that always photographs blue or purple/blue, and this hikizuri is that color. The above photo shows the true colors. It’s a rich and deep purple that is simply gorgeous against the white and gold waves.

It has a lovely rinzu damask design of swastika and what looks like sunflowers or maybe daisies? You can see some of the kinkoma embroidery on the top left wave.

This hiki has one crest in the back, and it’s chou-chou (butterfly). It’s my favorite crest, so I was so happy to see that this is what it was! I had a suspicion when I saw the auction photos, but they were too blurry to tell. This crest also happens to belong to three okiya (geisha houses) in Gion Kobu, including the one where my favorite geiko, Koyou, is from. So who knows, maybe this beauty is from one of those okiya?

It has a double-layer padded hem, which means that it is meant for winter. Both the top layer and bottom layer are heavily padded. The outer layer is really thick and heavy due to the waves painted on it. In fact, it’s really stiff and not very bendable, which should mean that it will hold open beautifully when worn.

The inside layer has a pattern of metallic squares and pine needles on a softer silk.

I just felt like being artistic with this shot, but I love how it came out!

The sleeves also have a false layer which is padded on the bottom, with a lining of red silk inside.

So there you go! Sorry for the larger photos, but I think this beauty deserves to be seen up close. If anyone has an idea about the time frame for this hikizuri, I would love to hear from you! I plan on getting a geiko katsura and dressing up in this beauty someday…so look out for geiko henshin photos sometime in the future!

Edit: It just so happens that a geiko katsura came up for sale the other day…and I won it! Now I just need the oshiroi makeup and a susoyoke and hadajuban, and I’ll be set!

Here’s a photo. It needs some TLC, but I think after I’ve combed it and re-set some of the runaway hair, it’ll look really good!

Blog Sale

Part of my New Year’s resolution for 2012 includes whittling down my kimono collection. I simply have too much stuff to keep it all in the limited storage that I have! Therefore, I will be listing some of my collection for sale on ebay in the upcoming months. However, before I do, you can have an “early bird” chance at getting some items by contacting me via flickr.

In terms of pricing, things will probably range no more than the $5-25 USD price. I’m more interested in giving these items to people who will give them good homes than I am with making money. Most things will have at least minimal staining…they are vintage pieces, after all. I’m not going to be selling anything museum-quality here, and the prices will of course, be dependent upon the item’s condition. I can also bundle items to save on shipping, If you are so inclined.

If you are interested, you can see what I have for sale on my flickr. Additionally, feel free to make me an offer on some of the other pieces in my collection which may not show up in my “For Sale” set. I can’t guarantee that I’ll sell it, but we can certainly negotiate and see where that leads.

2011: A Year in Kimono

Last New Year’s Eve, I made a resolution to wear kimono at least once a month. So now, at the end of  2011, I can proudly say that I have indeed worn kimono 12 times this past year! Practicing even just once a month, I feel that I have made leaps and bounds in gaining greater skill in dressing and coordination. Oftentimes, we abandon our resolutions by March, but I am proud to say that for once, I stuck with it!

Below, you can see a gallery of the kimono coordinations I’ve worn this past year. So, here’s to 2012, and even more kimono ensembles! What are some resolutions that you’ve completed successfully?

Christmas Peacock

I recently bought myself a new camera, in preparation for several photography/graphic art courses I’ll be taking in the next semesters, which require more than my little point-and-shoot was able to give. It’s a Canon Rebel XS, and I love it to death! I tried it out today, and I definitely will be using it for kitsuke pictures from now on!

Anyways, this outfit is an early Christmas kitsuke…since once again, I am working during the holidays. Oh well, that means I’ll have more money to buy Christmas gifts with!

I adore this kimono…when I first saw it for sale, I immediately fell in love. It’s meisen, checkered, red, and has turquoise peacock feathers. I mean…what’s not to love?!

This obi is made from what’s called shusu silk, which is soft but thick and luxurious. It has a motif of various camellia flowers. Technically, camellia is more of a February/March motif…but it worked so well with this kimono, I had to use it!

This is the same fascinator I wore with the outfit I auctioned off. If only there were more occasions to wear headwear like this!

Me with my new baby <3

And I had to include this shot…it’s the very first time I’ve been able to tie the obijime right and photograph it!  (Damn thing always twists around and looks weird in photos)

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Deconstructing the Maiko Look

Within the course of this year, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to purchase two maiko wigs, as well as a maiko haneri collar. Now it’s my turn to pass on what I have learned to you guys!

Maiko haneri can be very expensive. However, if you’re good at embroidery (or have a nice sewing machine or dedicated embroidery machine), it’s much cheaper to make your own. All you need is a heavily embroidered white design on a piece of chirimen (crepe) red silk, and flecks of golden thread woven beneath. However, even if you do this, you still need an “easy collar” to hold the haneri in place on your neck, or else it’s just a piece of very pretty floppy fabric. In case anyone is interested in creating their own maiko collar, or for those of you just interested in its construction, I have gone through and taken pictures and measurements. I covered everything I could think of, but if you don’t see something that you want, please feel free to contact me, and I’ll be more than happy to take pictures or provide additional measurements.

Here you can see the haneri already attached to the easy collar. The thin white pieces of fabric on the sides are for tying the collar to your chest; you simply wrap them around yourself and tie. They also help keep the collar stable on your neck and prevent it from flopping about everywhere under your kimono. Note that there is also a piece of white fabric under the haneri on each side….I have turned these up in the first photo, as my particular haneri is very stained in that area, and does not make for a nice picture.

The topside of the haneri:

The underside:

Close-up of the chikara-nuno stitched to the back of the collar, from the underside. This piece of cloth allows the collar to hold a very low v-shaped dip on the back of the neck, which is achieved by taking the two white strips attached to the sides and wrapping them around your body before tying them off in the front.

Detail of how the chikara nuno and haneri are attached to each other, as well as to the stiffener underneath:

Underside of the collar, showing how the haneri is folded over, and the placement of the stiffener and cotton covering:

Detail view of cotton covering and stiffener:

And here is two photos showing how it looks when worn. Normally, a kimono would be on top of this piece, and cover all but a wide strip of the collar in the front, which gradually tapers towards the back. (Please forgive my lack of padding here, I threw it on before heading out the door to work one day)

As you can see, the collar dips quite low in the back:

I am also in the process of collecting the rest of what I need to finish off the maiko wig sets….all I need now are hana-kanzashi for the wareshinbou style (left), and plastic faux-bekko kanzashi as well as a crane-and pine  kanazashi for the sakkou style (right).

Here is a side-by-side comparision from the back:

That’s it for this update! I plan on dressing in kimono sometime next week for the holiday season!

November Thanks

I wanted to dress in kimono for Thanksgiving…but since all my relatives are coming down here this week, I knew I would probably be too busy. So I decided to dress a little early!

If you remember from IG Holiday Swap Gifts, IG forum member azusa was the “Secret Santa” who gave me several gifts to be used in a 1920s/Taisho outfit. I finally got the chance to wear them…I can only hope that I’ve lived up to expectations!

I also finally got to wear one of my favorite obi, which has a “53 Stations of the Tokaido” motif. The pictures on here are all of the 12th station Numazu, from the Hoeido, Gyosho and Reisho editions of the series.

I also bought a meisen haori to go with this outfit, which-by a stroke of luck- matches the color of the cloche hat which azusa gave me! (Unfortunately, the haori collar flipped out while taking photos without me noticing….oh well!)

Kikyou Knot Mon Part 4

It just keeps on popping up! Thanks to Jaki-san on IG, I now have even more photos of the “Musubi Kikyou” kamon in use!

I actually lost this 1985 “Kyo Maiko” book to Jaki in a bidding war on YJA….thankfully, she won it and was awesome enough to post the scans for me!

You can view the complete set of scans from the bookhere.

From this book, we have several sightings. The first is another shot of the Kanikakuni-san ceremony outfit seen in the 1975 book shown in the entry Darari Mystery Mon 3.0.

The next sighting is on a black obi:

Then, most excitingly, this next photo provides the first confirmed name of a maiko from this okiya….Mamekazu!

She also appears wearing the kikyo mon again in this book. She is the middle maiko in the picture below. It appears from her rice and dove kanzashi that this is a New year’s celebration, probably held at the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo:

This discovery opened the door to finding more pictures of her wearing this mon in the Miyako Odori programs.

According to the programs and other photos, Mamekazu became a maiko sometime between 1982-1987, turned geiko between 1987 and 1990, and retired between the 1993 and 1994 odori. This means that she was still working after her okiya closed, and Tama okiya took over the mon. Tamakazu, the founder of Tama okiya, opened her yakata in 1987, only two years after this book was published. In fact, there is a photo below of Mamekazu as a senior maiko in 1987, so one wonders how the fact that her okiya closed that year affected her career.

I wonder if her erikae ceremony to become geiko was pushed up because of her okiya closing, or if perhaps they were waiting for her to graduate before closing their doors. She may very well have been the last maiko and/or geiko from the okiya which owned this mon! Looking at the odori programs, I have not been able to find any other maiko during those years with this mon, although I shall certainly keep trying. I suppose we will have to wait until the rest of the 1980s odori programs are scanned to find out!

Another interesting theory, proposed by Vatemia on flickr, is that there is also a connection between Tama’s and this mystery okiya’s naming tradition for their girls. Both the unknown okiya and Tama use the “Mame-” prefix as a naming tradition, it would seem, with Tama using both the kana and kanji, while we have only seen the kanji for the unknown okiya so far. This is only speculation, but it is true that Tama’s founder, Tamakazu 玉一 named her okiya Tama 多麻 although it has a different meaning and kanji. So perhaps, she adopted the previous okiya’s naming system for her own? (By the way, in case you were wondering, Tamakazu was originally from an entirely separate okiya, as we have photos of her as a maiko wearing a three–oak-leaf mon. You can see it clearly on the shoulder of her hikizurihere.)

Here is mamekazu in the 1986 Miyako Odori:

You can see her as a geiko in the 1990 program:

In the 1992 program:

As well as the 1993 program:

Mamekazu does no appear in the 1994 program however, so we know that she retired between the 1993 and 1994 odori seasons.

What’s interesting is that Mamekazu was a contemporary of another lady I’ve been researching…Katsuyoshi. In fact, Katsuyoshi also appears in this book, although that’s another blog post

Here is a picture of Mamekazu in the same 1987 Bacchus magazine that shows Katsuyoshi wearing my maiko hikizuri. I’m slowly but surely attempting to translate the text below her. If anyone can help out with that, it would be most appreciated!

So, to summarize, we have more sightings, and finally the name and picture of a maiko who belonged to this mysterious okiya! Hopefully, this will open new doors to finally figuring out the name of her okiya, as well as the circumstances surrounding its closing and Tama’s use of its mon. The mystery continues!

Previous Entries in this series:
Dude, It’s A Darari!
Mystery Mon…Kind of Solved?
Darari Mystery Mon 3.0

Michiyuki Dress

I wore this on campus today, and got a great response. So, I thought I’d share!

This is a mix of kimono and Western clothing, which is great for when you want to mix up your look a little, or if you feel like wearing kimono, but don’t have enough time to dress in the full outfit!

I got the idea from a post someone made about wanting to wear michiyuki with a belt and leggings (it might have been on Facebook…) I liked the idea so much, I decided I’d give it a try! (I replaced the leggings with jeans though, and added a long sleeved-shirt underneath…since it’s been like, 30F this whole week! Brrr!) This michiyuki is a Taisho-era piece with one of my favorite patterns, hana-ikada!

I kept pulling the collar back during class though lol….it felt so weird having it up against the back of my neck! Plus, because there was no kimono collar to hold it up, the front came down really low. I want to wear this michiyuki again with kimono, probably sometime in the spring.

It was super-fast to put on, and easy to wear…plus, I was even able to use the belt as a tasuki to tie back my sleeves when I had my sewing class! I got a lot of compliments on it. I think next time I will buy a shorter michiyuki though, and wear leggings with ankle boots. (I really gotta stop coming up with reasons to buy things lol!)

Happy (Early) Halloween

Well, since I’m working tomorrow and won’t have time to dress up….here is some early Halloween kitsuke! I’m taking a bit of artistic liberty and going as a lady Tengu.

Please forgive the night photos…I didn’t get home from work till after the sun had gone to sleep.

The hikizuri is one I bought a while ago…I plan on wearing it again, since the lighting really does this beauty no justice, and the lovely colors and pattern kind of gets lost beneath the hagoromo on top. By the way, if I ever get married, this is the hagoromo I plan on wearing on top of my furisode.<3

Happy Halloween, ghoulies!

Bye Bye, Birthday!

So I turned 21 this September. I had originally planned to wear this outfit on my birthday, but I was going drinking later…so I ended up going in something I wouldn’t have to worry about too much if I got it dirty. September turned out to be the busiest month I’ve had this year though, so this kitsuke kept getting pushed back and back until it was…October. O.o Ah well, I can pretend it’s still okay to wear ro in my head lol!

My collars kept on separating in the back, even though I clipped them together so they wouldn’t move. I think it’s because this kimono is a sha weave, and therefore light and kind of slippery. I am in love with this obi though, it’s so retro and bold!

I bought this kimono as a birthday present to myself. The only thing is that it was all wrinkled, so today was the first time I tried to iron a kimono! I was hesitant to try it at first…because I was so scared that I’d ruin it! But it turned out pretty well, even if I did have to use the cotton steam setting instead of the silk one.

This outfit is too much “springy” feeling for wearing in October, but it’s more of a last-ditch effort to hold onto the brightness of the warmer months before the cold winter kicks in, than an attempt to stay in season. I was going for more of a “I miss you spring” than an “It’s October so I shall wear MUMS” look, haha! (Not that I have anything against mums. They’re just so…predictable for people to wear in Autumn.)

Another detail of the front, this time showing my pink lace gloves.

This is my Shih-Tzu named Molly. She’s been complaining about not being in my kitsuke pictures lately! <3