Kimono

For the end of term, my japanese school propose various events, to allow foreigners to experience japanese life, or at least parts of life they don't get to experience every day. This year, they proposed a 'lets wear a kimono' event, which I was most enthousiastic to join!

Not only is wearing a kimono not your everyday japanese life, it is something few Japanese have a chance to do, apart from at their wedding day.

The class was at a scmall school near Tokyo station, very chic and refined, but the 2 teachers we had were absolutely marvelous, and spoke very slowly and clearly, so we could follow without any trouble. 'We' was a Korean lady and myself, so it was pretty much a private lesson!

We got to put on the most formal type of kimono, the furisode, with long, ankle-length sleaves (or at least, close to the ankles of a shorter person). As is common in Japan, it is the kimono with the fewest yet most elaborate designs that wins in status over the complicated flower or bird motifs. The plain top and middrift of the fancy kimono then allowing for a more elaborate obi.

The putting on of the kimono is a lot like being tied up like a parcel. There are undergarments, and towels, and rags, and strings, and sashes, and little rolls to give volume, and little cards to stiffen thens up, and pins, and elastics, ... But eventually, all the trailing bits are neatly tucked out of sight, and after a few last tweaks,

Voilà!

After a long photoshoot, we then learned the basics of how to accept tea and sweets, which led to a lot of 'am I doind this right' sidways glances, and a lot of 'you had better do that again from the start', but was very fun.

All in all, it was an amazingly rewarding experience. The teachers were superb, the kimono was really quite fun to wear, once you get it on. It is a pity the price, and time and skill it takes to put it on someone means it is slowly going into disusage.