What Do You Call... That Alcove Thingie in a Room?

Japanese-style rooms will at times feature a recessed alcove where flowers, hanging scrolls, bonsai, or other items are displayed.

The alcove is called a "tokonoma" 床の間. A common misunderstanding is that it's a sacred altar of some kind, but it's actually for displaying anything beautiful or nice. I was told by a Japanese friend that, traditionally, the tokonoma of the house usually incorporated the main support pillar of the house into one of its corners. In my apartment in Sendai, I had a small tokonoma in my tatami-floor bedroom complete with a wooden mock pillar.

If the room is used for entertaining, protocol also states that the most honored guest will be seated in front of the tokonoma or near it, with his back to it. He doesn't get to see it himself, but every time anyone else looks at him he'll be nicely framed by the tokonoma and whatever is displayed there.

What Do You Call... Those Drawstring Bag Purses?

Today's entry is about the small little purses you'll sometimes see people carrying with casual kimono like summer yukata. Sometimes seen with a square or circular woven basket bottom, the top of the bag is cloth closed with drawstrings and is worn held at the side or dangling from the wrist.

 

Girl wearing yukata in Kyoto, with kinchaku at her side. Image courtesy Paul Vlaar, from Wikimedia.

These little purses are called "kinchaku" (keen chah koo) 巾着. As these are traditional bags, you'll sometimes see geisha and their apprentices maiko carrying larger versions of kinchaku as part of their normal wardrobe.

Geiko (Kyoto geisha) Kimika, carrying the large style held in one's arms. Image courtesy Onihide and used with permission.

What Do You Call... Fans for Dancing?

A beautiful art form and often seen at geisha performances, fans used in dance are called "mai ougi" 舞扇 (my oh gee), "dance-(folding) fan". If you're curious, the "mai" is the same one used in "maiko". :)

Mai-ougi are bigger and more lavishly decorated than the average fan, but can be found on places like Ebay relatively cheap.

One of the most famous yearly geiko (Kyoto geisha) dance events, the Gion Odori. Photo copyright Onihide and used with permission.

What Do You Call...? - Those (Usually White) Circles

If you look through vintage kimono, you'll run across more than one that has small circles dyed or occasionally embroidered up along the top. They're family crests, called "kamon" 家紋, or "mon" for short. Mon can feature abstract shapes, manmade objects, or flora/fauna, and are always set in a circle or designed so that they would fit into the basic area of one. They add formality to a garment, in this order:

- No mon
- 1, middle of back
- 3, 1 middle of back and 2 on each side of chest in front
- 5, 1 middle of back, 2 on each side of back, 2 on each side of front

Once heavily restricted, in modern times mon have become a free-for-all where any family can take on any crest, so you can't really use them to trace a kimono's ownership.

Above, crests on the back of a kimono. Below, a different crest. Images courtesy Ichiroya and Wikimedia, respectively.

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.

What Do You Call...? - Sandal Straps

Tonight's entry is short and sweet:

When you look at either geta or zori sandals (the first is casual, the second more formal), they always have V-shaped straps, and these straps are called hanao 花緒.

Examples of geta and zori. Images copyright Ichiroya and used with permission.

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.

What Do You Call...? - Hair Ornaments

While chopsticks are never worn in the hair in Japan, a great many beautiful hair ornaments can be worn with kimono. What are they called?

In general, they're called "kanzashi" 簪 and today the nicest ones are most often worn by geisha and oiran-actors (oiran were courtesan prostitutes and were outlawed a long time ago, so today you only see re-enactors).

If you're looking for the ones maiko, apprentice geisha, wear with dangling bits of silver that look almost like wind chimes, you want "bira bira" (sparkle sparkle) kanzashi. びらびら簪

The pretty tortoiseshell (or look alike) combs are called kushi 櫛 and are usually paired with thick hair sticks called kogai 笄, as seen in the photo above, and the ones with flowers made of folded squares of silk are called "tsumami" kanzashi つまみ簪.

Pimpin' it really old school: a classical oiran, the biggest and boldest wearers of kanzashi in Japanese history. Photo by Gene Jackson.

An example of the waterfall-like "hana (flower) kanzashi 花簪" style worn by maiko, showing the tsumami folding technique. Photo by Pitke.

What Do You Call...? - Geisha Whiteface

One of the trickiest parts of shopping for something or just looking up more information about it is knowing the exact name of what you're after. Every now and then I'll do a "What Do You Call...?" post about the odds and ends you might not know the name of if you're new to the topic.

The special whiteface geisha and maiko use is one example. Used in combination with the right stuff (for example, a wax primer called "kabuki abura" 歌舞伎油) it makes a much, much nicer geisha whiteface for costuming than greasepaint. It's what they themselves actually use!

The actual name for that kind of whiteface is "oshiroi" おしろい or "shiro-nuri" 白塗り. Searching places like Ebay with those terms will bring you more luck than "geisha whiteface".

If you're interested in a walkthrough of all the materials traditionally needed, check out this post from TheGloss.com.