Sword & Silk

After an energetic visit to a yochien (I’ll write about that later), the SICE group biked over to the home of a nearby kimono studio (and former host family). Andy & I traded duties for the afternoon, so that I could see the kimonos while he picked up Catie at school. 

It was very interesting to see how kimonos are made. They are sewn entirely BY HAND! They clip the fabric to a pole, then barely moving their hands, stitch perfectly straight seams. Seriously impressive. I was surprised to see how narrow the fabric used is. The width of each piece is only ~20 inches. They sew along the selvage in order to match up the pattern perfectly. She showed us some fabric she’d just matched the pattern on and had cut out. After watching my mom agonize over matching much smaller patterns for curtains, I can only imagine what a pain it was to match this design! In the course of answering some other questions, she allowed how the fabric alone for this kimono cost about $3,800. That doesn’t take into consideration all the labor that will go into making it! gulp.

After watching them work in the studio, we all went next door to see and try on kimono in the owner’s home. She showed us about 20 kimono, dropping each in a big silk heap on the floor. I gasped each time she dropped one. One of the best parts of the experience was that almost all of the kimonos had some kind of story attached, e.g. one belonged to her husband’s mother and was just a casual kimono, or another one was worn by her daughter for a wedding- see, here is a photo…that sort of thing. 

After the viewing, they let all the students choose which one they wanted to try on. By then Mrs. Hirata had arrived with 2 more big bundles of kimono. Not being particularly kimono-shaped, I had no intention of trying one on. However, Yuki and Mrs. Hirata were not to be denied and I ended up putting one on in the end as well. They even had a few men’s kimono, so Roberto was able to participate as well.

Once we were all dressed, it was time for photos. LOTS of photos. To add to the authenticity, the owner brought out a 300-year-old sword for Roberto to pose with. Of course, once the girls saw that, they all wanted to play with the sword as well. We now have a whole class of geisha samuri, I guess!