Rakuten Update

Hey everyone,

After years of recommending the Japanese online shopping mall Rakuten to others for free, because I've had a lot of great experiences shopping there and, for my readers, they ship internationally and in English, I will start getting a fixed $1 commission today if someone buys something there through one of my links.

This won't change my policy or honesty in things I find on Rakuten, but I want to be completely transparent. Thanks for reading and your support!

15 Classic Japanese Kimono Motifs

I had a lot of fun making last week's seasonal motif video, so this week's video is 15 classic Japanese motifs that are typically year-round ones.

A Year of Japanese Kimono Motifs

This video was inspired by the month-to-month motif translation project I did for this blog!

Make a cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable, and relax for a six-minute journey through a year's worth of seasonal Japanese kimono and obi motifs, set to the classic piece "Waltz of the Flowers". 

Japanese Kimono and Obi Sewing Details: Part 2

Here is Part 2, the last part, of my video on kimono and obi sewing details, meant to give a quick close up look at general Japanese kimono pieces that most sewers don’t have a chance to look at in real life.

In Part 2 I show authentic examples of men’s and women’s obi, accessories, tabi (socks) and even footwear just to round it all out. Part 1 was men and women’s kimono, looking at sleeves, collars, and seams.

(Apologies for the noise of the AC, but it was too hot out to try to film with it off!)

Video - Kimono and Obi Sewing Details: Part 1

This week's video is up, a popular reader/home sewer/costumer request for a closer look at the details of a kimono and related accessories. Part 1 covers kimono, and Part 2 next week will be obi and accessories. Please pardon our cats playing in the background!

Part 2 of my video for costumers and cosplayers is up! I include sewing advice and general tips for wearing your costume well. Have a great weekend and thanks for all your support on the newly revamped channel!

My First Video! How to Tie a Tateya Knot for Furisode

I've been toying with doing educational videos for some time, and when I volunteered to do this particular one for a friend to show her this knot, I figured it would be a good starting point for doing them for my blog, too. :)

 
The "tateya musubi", or standing-arrow knot, is a popular one used with young women's long-sleeved (furisode) kimono, and resembles a large, tilted bow.

Let me know if you have any questions or requests for future videos! Technically the obi I'm using in this video isn't formal enough, but it was the only "fukuro style" (open the entire length) obi I had around the house.

Great Otaiko Knot How-To Video and Costume Tips

This weekend I had the chance to go to a fantastic Japanese-music concert, more of which I'll post about later.

I wore kimono to the event, and for the first time ever (remember, I've been a kimono collector a lot longer than a wearer!), I was very confident of the crisp and pretty "otaiko" obi knot I tied, and it's all thanks to this awesome instructional video showing two camera angles at the same time. :)



Even if you don't speak Japanese, it's an extremely clear visual step-by-step demo of how to tie the famous and common otaiko knot, the boxy loop knot worn by adult women with just about every type of kimono, and is great for costumers, cosplayers or women like me who wear kimono on occasion.

Make Your Own!

For anyone making a costume that uses a simple otaiko-tied obi (we'll assume the Nagoya type rather than the more formal fukuro type), you don't need all the actual doo-dads in the video to get a decent look. Here's a quick list of cheater materials for everything (I'll toss the obi in just to make it complete):

Nagoya obi (measuring one of my own for this, but there is some variation out there): a heavyweight fabric 130" long by 12" wide, with around 2/3rds of it folded and sewn to be half-width. Nagoya are either patterned all over (more formal), with a pattern on the drum part and/or front panel (less formal) or a solid color (most casual, I believe). Some are hand-painted, so paint away if you want designs!

Koshihimo: In this case, these pink, flat strips of fabric are just used, as you can see, to hold parts of the obi up until everything is in place and are taken away in the end. Any rough fabric will work, or even just a shoelace if nothing else is around.

Obi-ita: This is a flexible cloth-covered plastic board and is the first thing she puts on. It helps keep the front of the obi smooth. A cheap solution is to cut and glue a two-layer thick piece of posterboard in the same shape and long enough to cover your front, and tuck them in between the layers of your obi as you wind it around yourself.

Kimono clips: Binder clips, clothespins, anything that can stand up to that much heavy fabric can do the trick! If you have a real obi with embroidery on it, just be careful not to snag anything.

Obi-makura: It's a little tough to see in the video, but the obi-makura (pillow) is a firm, padded pillow shaped like a giant kidney bean with a string coming off each side that you tie around yourself in the front. It helps keep the otaiko poofed up and is not optional if you're tying that type of knot. You can fake an obi-makura by cutting off a leg of panty hose from a pair, tying a knot slightly off-center, stuffing a ton of newspaper up against the knot, and tying the other end to create your pillow.

Obi-age: The pretty silk scarf used to cover the obi-makura, (mine is around 65" long and 9" wide). In the video hers is white with red flowers. It's a simple rectangle of light silk, but any opaque light fabric can do in a pinch for a costume.

Obi-jime: The cord that ultimately holds up the tail of the otaiko (mine are around 65" long and 1/3-1/2" wide). In the video, hers is yellow. There are different types, but any basic round curtain cord or flat-weave cord can stand in.

Polyvore Design Inspiration #2: Brown Obi

Tonight's post is another inspiration board using an obi and Polyvore.com to pick and choose decor items in the same color scheme (I wouldn't actually hang the obi on the brown wallpaper unless I had it matted with white or cream behind it). I don't usually like browns and beiges, but I like the pop the red gives.

What Do You Call...? - The Box Knot

Whether in anime, movies or real life, you've probably seen kimono-wearing women who have their obi tied in what looks like a squarish box in the back. This is the most popular style of knot overall, used with Nagoya or fukuro obi for (outside of yukata) both casual and dressy kimono, and is called the "otaiko musubi"お太鼓結び, or "drum knot".

Women in komon kimono with otaiko knots.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

In an interesting bit of history, the drum knot gets its name not from its shape but the fact long ago a group of geisha invented the knot to wear to the opening of a bridge named Taiko (Taikobashi). Townswomen began copying them and the otaiko spread from there into standard kimono fashion.

Western Motif Finds: Cinderella Carriage Obi

Every now and then you'll see distinctly Western-style items on Japanese textiles, and after looking at tons and tons of sakura, cranes and fans they really jump out at you. They are also, I have heard, more "friendly" to foreign wearers as, well, they're foreign and so are you. ;) Seriously! That's what I was told once when I went yukata shopping: the staff picked out a hanhaba obi with Western-style roses and told me that Westerners looked better in foreign themes than Japanese did.

(I ended up getting it and still have it: it's a pretty red with white on the other side, and if you've been to my panels or seen photos you've seen me use it for my yukata demo.)

Today's Western find is from Ichiroya (other than letting me use their photos, I have no deal of any kind with them, to be clear ^_^;), and is a beautiful fukuro (formal) obi featuring a decidedly Western carriage.

What Do You Call...? - Obi Cord Jewelry

If you look at enough pictures of women in kimono you'll start noticing that occasionally they'll have a bead or ornament of some kind on the cord tied around the middle of the obi.

This is called an "obi-dome" 帯留 and isn't usually worn with a summer yukata, though I believe you can find it on just about every other level of kimono formality. They can be very traditional or cute and funky (Mamechiyo Modern has acorns, flowers and a spaceship one), the size ranging from small to fairly big.

Coincidentally enough, while looking through Onihide's photostream for images, as he's given me permission to use his (thank you again! :) ), I ran across a perfect example with the obidome highlighted on a full kimono outfit: mouse over this photo to see a box appear around the maiko's obidome.

Kimono Coordination: Working with Black Obi

(A quick note before I start this post: solid black women's obi, or black-on-black patterned women's obi, are for funeral wear only. The black obi I'm referring to this evening means a black obi plus a color image or color pattern.)

Black obi can be intimidating to some at first because of the natural boldness of black matched with others colors, but they can actually be quite versatile once you find the look that's right for you. For visual examples of a few ideas, we'll turn to maiko (apprentice geisha), some of the most stylish kimono wearers out there.

-An elegant combination is pale pastel kimono and black obi.

"Kamogawa Maiko". Photo by Chris Gladis (Wikimedia).

"Tsurui Shikomi Luna-chan and Maiko Sayaka-chan". Photo by Onihide and used with permission.

-Bright colors can work as well in a striking way, as long as the kimono and obi don't both have really busy patterns. Below is what I feel is a nice balance between each item's patterns.

"Maiko Fukuhina ふく雛". Photo by Onihide and used with permission.

On a final note (I couldn't find a maiko looking bad, so no photo for this one ;) ), avoid dark-colored kimono unless the pattern is so bold and bright you feel it overcomes the "sameness" of the tones of kimono and obi.

Kimono Coordination: Complementary Colors

First of all, a big thank you to my lovely friend and reader "pony_parade" over on LiveJournal.com! She made a syndicated feed for this blog, so if you're on LJ and would like to get automatic updates when I post, please check out the feed over here.

She also requested a post on kimono color coordination, which is something I'd like to make a regular part of the blog as there's so much you can do with it. :) So today we'll kick that series off with a simple introduction to "complementary colors" in color theory.

You might remember the color wheel from art class. The simplest color wheels usually feature red, yellow, and blue (your primary colors that can't be broken down any further), and orange, green, and purple (secondary colors, ones made from primary colors).

If you look directly across the color wheel from one color to another, that opposite color is called the complementary color. Those two colors, when used next to each other, will always pop visually. For example, blue and orange, green and red, and purple and yellow.

When it comes to kimono, contrast or "pop" is considered very important in putting together a good look. You can play with colors to create different feelings, just as you can with Western clothing, but the idea of contrast will be in there somewhere. You're not likely to see a blue kimono with the same color blue obi, obiage scarf, and obijime cord. It's boring just reading about it!

So let's see in practice how you can use complementary colors in putting together kimono and obi: I've borrowed photos of a single kimono and obi and done some crude hue shifting in Photoshop to show the basic principle. (I also used the same one over again so as to focus on the colors alone rather than individual kimono or obi.)

Do you have to always put blue with orange, or red with green? Nope! There are a lot of other ways you can go about matching kimono and obi, but, especially for beginners, the simple relationship of complementary colors can be a good, foolproof way to narrow down choices and put together workable combinations.

Top image copyright Wikipedia, all others copyright Ichiroya and used with permission.

Kimono Secret Arsenal: The Tsukuri Obi

Traditionally, a casual hanhaba (half-width) obi knot is secured with nothing but itself. Through careful tying, it will hold itself and the knot together. Wider and more complicated obi and knots use a few other items, but the idea is basically the same.

If you're just getting into kimono, taking a strip of fabric over ten feet long and wrestling it into a good obi look can seem pretty intimidating. But not all hope is lost! The tsukuri obi (作り帯) is ideal for beginners, kimono-for-a-day costume cosplay folks, or more experienced wearers who just want to simplify getting their outfits together.

A tsukuri obi (also known as a kantan obi 簡単帯 or tsuke obi 付け帯) is pre-tied: it comes in two separate parts, one the back knot already tied, and the other the long strip that goes around you. You secure everything with hidden cotton cords.

For yukata, summer cotton kimono, I'm not a fan of hanhaba tsukuri obi because the bow is usually fairly stiff, making them easy to spot. However, I saw plenty of young women in Japan using them so it's not considered "cheating": to each their own!

You can also find tsukuri obi for more formal looks and knots. If you're curious, try searching "pre-tied obi", "tsuke obi" or "tsukuri obi" over on Ebay or at online dealers.

Image copyright Pitke and used with permission.

Saints Fan Kitsuke

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for their win in the Superbowl!

Should any kimono fans reading be Saints fans, allow me to recommend a way to show your team spirit:

You're welcome. ;)

On a more serious kitsuke (kimono wearing) note, when looking through casual "hanhaba" 半幅 (half-width) obi, keep in mind that metallic obi like this are most often used for dance and not daily wear.

Image copyright Ichiroya and used with permission.

Kimono Sewing Patterns

First of all, thanks for y'all's input! I'll keep it in mind as I write this month's entries. :)

Tonight I'd like to mention some kimono patterns for my fellow sewers out there, or folks with really nice friends/family who sew, anyway ;).  Making your own kimono can be a good idea if you're after a very specific color or pattern for a costume, if you're too small or big for most vintage kimono or as a hands-on way of learning more about them.

Recommended:
Japanese Kimono Pattern: Folkwear 113(shown on right here)
Simplicity Sewing Pattern 4080 (I've seen some people complain about fine details of the accuracy of this one, but it's a big step above the next two if you can't get ahold of the Folkwear one)

Not recommended, as construction is sort of in the right ballpark but missing major features like proper seams that would come from a narrow bolt of fabric, obi are wonky, weird fabric choices, etc.:
McCall's M4953
Butterick B6698

As a note, beyond the question of accuracy I don't actually recommend sewing kimono as a way to save money on them in general. For example, if you make a cotton yukata (summer kimono), by the time you buy the yardage in a decent quality cotton and spend the time making it, you might as well buy a real one off of the Net as your cost is going to end up about the same.

Kimono Secret Arsenal: The Obi-Ita

For folks who are new to wearing kimono, whether you're a cosplayer or designer researching a historical look or just someone who enjoys wearing them, I'm happy to report there are a lot of hidden tricks and tips for getting that perfect, effortless look.

One of them is the humble "obi ita" or "obi board 帯板", said "oh bee eat uh". If you've ever tried to put on an obi and wondered why it looked creased, wrinkled, or messy in the front after ten minutes, it's because there's no hard support underneath it.The obi-ita, usually a stiff piece of plastic or cloth-covered cardboard, takes care of this. You put it on either under the entire obi (if it has elastic ties) or under the final layer wrapped around yourself if it's the simple type shown here. This is a standard part of kimono "underwear" accessories and isn't considered cheating, though it may feel like it!

If you're on a budget or only need one for a day, you can get by with a mock obi-ita made out of any stiff, smooth poster board, the kind you find in a grocery store school supplies aisle. Cut out two pieces long enough to cover the obi's entire front section (one may not be stiff enough) and place them under the final layer as you tie it around yourself.

Don't worry about the obi-ita showing, whatever kind you use. If you tie your obi tight enough, the obi-ita should remain where it is with no or minimal shifting.

These handy little boards can be found at several online dealers and on Ebay, though you may want to try different variations on the word: obiita, obi ita, or obi-ita.

Image courtesy of and copyright Ichiro Wada.