Thoughts from the Bus Stop

Japanese Culture for beginners

Back in Crawley to see my folks a few weeks ago, I went to a 'Japanese Cultural Event' at Crawley's lovely new library. I have more enthusiasm for, than knowledge of, Japanese culture. Mainly the tradional stuff - geisha, kimono, graphic prints - but also modern phenomenon such as cosplay, especially the sort of outfits worn by the 'Harajuku kids' made famous by street fashion magazine FRUiTS. So it was great to get a good introduction from a Japanese person who lives in Britain.

Akemi Solloway is a lecturer and consultant on Japanese culture, and leads study visits to Japan. She started by explaining that she wears kimono all the time - she had her train ticket tucked in her obi! What really surprised me was that everything else she needed - purse, keys, etc - she kept in the long 'pockets' of her kimono sleeves. She also explained that while the fan she had on her was wooden, she sometimes carried a metal fan which could be used for self-defence if walking alone at night!

Akemi dressed a volunteer in a summerweight cotton kimono known as a yukata, and tied an obi round her waist which she finished with a big bow. The lady said it was likely wearing a corset - rather tight but good for your posture!

Then Akemi took us through part of the tea ceremony. Along the way she told us loads about Japanese history and modern Japanese culture, and told us about the two-day Japanese Art Festival she runs in Richmond every year, which includes art, music and food. This year it's 27-28 February, and it's FREE! I really hope I can get there.

Thread Wrapped 'Temari' Ball

Found this is a charity shop and thought it was just a homemade Christmas tree bauble, but I did some Googling to find out what the technique was and it turns out it's a temari.

Temari are tradional Japanese decorations or toys given as New Year gifts, originally made from waste scraps of fabric and thread. You can learn how to make one here and here, and or cheat - buy one on Etsy!

Blossoming

 
 
 
Blossom on Eaton Gardens (c) Kristen Bailey 2009

Walking home from the supermarket on Tuesday, my spirits were lifted by all the different blossoms appearing on trees and bushes - I'm just an old romantic I guess!

I wish we had 'flower viewing' in our culture, as they do in Japan (hanami) - how much more fun would it be to have a 'blossom forecast' (sakurazensen) after the news bulletin?

* SONG OF THE DAY: Dolly Parton - Little Blossom *

 

 

Image: www.sakurazensen.com 

 

Raiment for Receptions: A Japanese Bride's Last Furisode

Furisode - Japan, ca. 1975-1985, ivory silk satin embroidered with muti-colored silk floss.

Raiment for Receptions: A Japanese Bride's Last Furisode is on at the Kent State University Museum until to March 12, 2006:

"The furisode, or "swinging sleeve" kimono, is traditionally worn only by women before marriage. The last time a Japanese bride wears these long, swinging sleeves is at her wedding reception. On this occasion, elaborately embroidered furisode, called uchikake, are worn over a matching kimono and serve to display the family's status as well as to keep the bride the visual focus of the reception party.

In The Story of the Kimono, Jan Liddel (1989) writes that during the wedding reception "the bride changes at least two or three times. This astonishing fashion show is designed to entertain the guests and parade family status, and it usually presents a mixture of traditional and Western-style clothing, such as evening dress. At least one furisode will be worn, which may be rented, as the bride will never wear this long-sleeved robe again."

The Japanese bride's traditional apparel usually consists of a white kimono called shiromaku (shiro meaning white and maku meaning pure) worn for the wedding ceremony, or for a wedding photograph if she has decided on Western dress for the ceremony itself, and then at least one colorful and elaborate uchikake during the reception. The seven richly ornamented garments in this exhibition, all from the Silverman/Rodgers gift to the Kent State University Museum, are examples of uchikake worn as part of such wedding festivities."

Fashioning Kimono: Dress in early 20th century Japan

Kimono for a woman. Machine-spun pongee silk woven with stencil-printed warp thread (meisen) Japan, Taisho period, 1912-26; Kimono for a woman. Figured silk crêpe (omeshi chirimen) brocade-woven with lacquered threads (rama-ire) Japan, Taisho period, 1920-30.

On at the V&A Museum in London until 1 May 2006, V&A - Fashioning Kimono: Dress in early 20th century Japan.

"These boldly patterned and brilliantly coloured kimono reveal the dynamism of Japanese textile design in the early twentieth century. This was a period of economic prosperity and cultural expansion. Although western-style clothes were gaining popularity among women, the kimono continued to be worn. The traditional cut of the garment remained the same, but the motifs were dramatically enlarged and new designs appeared, inspired by western styles such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco... These vibrant kimono styles remained popular until the 1950s."

I hope I can get up to London to see this - just browsing the photo gallery is making me drool...

Geisha and Kanzashi

Tsumami kanzashi flowers, made by Naomi Graham-Diaz (c) PuchiMaiko.com

I love it when a chance 'click' sends me off on a journey round the net. Reading comments on the blog of a friend of a friend, I came across these beautiful tsumami kanzashi flowers, made by Naomi Graham-Diaz, who sells them on her PuchiMaiko site, and also runs Immortal Geisha, a fantastic info site about geisha and maiko (trainee geisha) culture and dress.

Kanzashi are hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles, and the word 'tsumami' means 'to pinch'. These flowers are traditionally made by pinching a small, square-cut piece of cloth, usually fine silk, into bud and petal forms. This Japanese kanzashi site has dozens of breathtaking examples for sale - click on some of the thumbtails and be stunned! Then have a look at Gaijin Geisha's kanzashi, which are a gorgeous modern spin on traditional design.

I really want to learn how to make some - but I bet it's a fiddly business to get right. Apparently they are glued not sewn. Craftster links to a series of kanzashi demo movies which are fascinating. The speed and accuracy with which they work is amazing.

I've decided I want to get two books - an illustrated, factual guide to geisha life - maybe Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance and Art, by John Gallagher; and a decent biography of a geisha. I read a little of Geisha of Gion last year when I was doing a History of Costume course and we read the passages about how the maikos and geishas dress. It's the autobiography of Mineko Iwasaki, whose life story was also the subject of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha (probably the best known of the recent batch of geisha novels and biogs). Geisha by Liza Dalby is supposed to be very good too - her story of how she (an American graduate student in anthropology) became a geisha.

It's lovely to have a new interest! Well, not new exactly - I've always been attracted to Japanese and Chinese decorative art and clothing, but in a very vague, ill-informed way. 'Chinoiserie', I suppose - that mixed-up British perception of what Japanese and Chinese style is (like the interior decor in Brighton's glorious Royal Pavilion, for example). So the enthusiasm is there but not the knowledge - it will be exciting to delve deeper and learn a lot more about it, through reading and by trying to learn some new practical techniques.

***

PuchiMaiko
Immortal Geisha
Wikipedia: Memoirs of a Geisha (book and forthcoming film)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London: Chinoiserie
Wikipedia: Chinoiserie

International Costume And Textile Museums

Prompted by In A Minute Ago's Sharon B flagging up the website of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, New York, I've ended up surfing around looking for other international fashion and textile museums. Here's a list of sites to browse - I'll add to it whenever I see another I like the look of. So many beautiful, fascinating things!

UK
Fashion, Jewellery & Accessories at The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Fashion and Textile Museum, London (run by Zandra Rhodes)
The Museum of Costume, Bath
Allhallows Lace Museum, Honiton, Devon
Fashion and Style at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, East Sussex
Bexhill Museum of Costume and Social History, East Sussex
Costume at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, West Sussex
The Boot and Shoe Collection at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
The Gallery of Costume, Manchester
Hatworks, Stockport
National Museum of Costume Scotland at Shambellie House, New Abbey, Dumfriesshire
The Fashion Collection at the Ulster Museum, Belfast
The Sheelin Irish Lace Museum, Bellanaleck, Fermanagh

Europe
ModeMuseum, Antwerp, Belgium
The Fashion Collection at the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Netherlands
Tassenmuseum Hendrikje (Museum of Handbags), Amstelveen, Netherlands
Le Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris
Musée des Tissus et des Arts decoratifs de Lyon, Lyon
Musée et Jardin Christian Dior, Granville
El Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària, Barcelona
The National Costume Center of Finland, Jyväskylä
Textiles, Clothing and Jewellery at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg
The Textile Collection at the Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb, Croatia

USA and Canada
Costume Museum of Canada, Dugald, Manitoba
Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto
Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto
Costume and Textiles at the Musée McCord Museum, Montreal
Clothing and Textiles Collection at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, New York
American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
Textile Museum, Washington, DC
Black Fashion Museum, Washington, DC
Kent State University Museum's Fashion Collection, Ohio
The University of Virginia Collection of Historic Dress
Costume and Textiles at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Costume and Textiles at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio 
The Fashion Collection at the Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
The Costume Collection at the Goldstein Museum of Design, St. Paul, MN
The Lace Museum, Sunnyvale, CA
Costume and Textiles at Los Angeles Country Museum of Art
Cornell University Costume Collection
Historic Costume Collection of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
University of North Texas, Texas Fashion Collection

Rest of the World
The Palestine Costume Archive, Canberra, Australia
Decorative Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum, Japan
Kobe Fashion Museum, Japan
The Kyoto Costume Institute, Japan
Ningbo Costume Museum, China