Word of the Week

Okay, so I'm busy with school and all, so I can't really update all that often. I was thinking I'll post mostly during the weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) when school's on, and throughout the week during the holidays. I will keep posting each topic weekly though!

Today's topic is the Japanese word of the week! When I was studying Japanese (actually, I still am studying Japanese), I used to have a "word of the day" and I had to use the word at least once that day. So I thought to put up something similar here, only that the words would be kimono-related or one that you would hear frequently in conjunction with kimono. So here it is!

Word of the Week

赤 あか・い aka.i
Meaning: Red/Crimson

Type: i-adjective

Word use: 赤い着物 akai kimono
Meaning: Red kimono

Maiko Fukuteru in a dark red furisode*:

Another maiko in beautiful red furisode*:

Lovely aren't they? I've been looking to buy a nice dark red kimono to wear, and I did win one with black motifs a few days ago! Here's a little picture:

I can't wait to get it in the mail!! Hopefully it'll arrive before I go home for Christmas :P

Well, that's all for now!

* - Taken from the Immortal Geisha forums

What is kimono?

Alright I thought it'd be dull if I were to just post pictures once a week, so I thought that in between picture day, I'll add in little bits and pieces to help people understand what kimono are, what the little pieces are called, their sub-categories, etc.

Today's topic is the most basic: "What is kimono?"

Women in kimono (click on picture for WebSite)*

Kimono, 着物, (pronounced kee-mo-no) is the traditional clothing of Japan. The word itself is taken apart and analysed, it is found to basically mean "things to wear"; 着 ki = wear, 物 mono = things. Originally, kimono meant all types of clothing to wear. However, with the introduction of Western clothing, yofuku 洋服, it has come to mean the full length traditional garment of Japan worn by men, women and children of all ages.

Kimonos are T-shaped, straight-lined robes that fall to the ankle, with collars and wide, full-length sleeves. Kimonos are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right and secured by an obi, which is tied at the back. Kimonos are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially geta and zori) and tabi.**

Parts of a kimono (taken from Wikipedia)

* - from JapaneseKimono
** - from Wikipedia

The beginning...

Hi all!

Actually I created this blog with the intention of just using it to test out new blog layouts for my sister's knitting and food blog, but then I had the idea of creating a kimono blog, since I have such a large collection of kimono and kimono items!

So here we are, with yet another kimono blog on the net!

I thought I'd start out with showing off a little bit of my kimono collection first. I don't have very many pictures of myself wearing kimono or yukata, so for the moment, I will only post pictures of my kimono or obi pieces at the rate of one piece a week.

Here is this week's kimono!

This piece was amongst my birthday presents this year from my parents! It measures 160cm in length, and the sodetake (length of sleeves) is around 48cm. It is made of silk. Lovely piece, very comfortable and soft. The woven pattern (which can be seen faintly in the picture) is of long grass. The motifs are autumnal leaves (not sure which leaves they are, but they look to be cutesy type maple leaves), which obviously makes the kimono an autumn kimono. I'd love to wear it now, but it's a little too late in the year to do it. Although I might just wear it since no one here will really notice that anyway! ^___^

I have a matching juban, obi, obiage and obijime to go with it, but those pictures are for the coming weeks! =) Look forward to it!