Kimono 着物 or Thing to Wear

In my last post, I talked about Anime and a very little bit about the samurai. Today, I’d like to talk briefly about another aspect of Japanese culture that I find so interesting and that many people love: Kimono.

In Japanese, the word simply means “a thing to wear,” and only in the last 140 years has it come to denote traditional Japanese clothes, as opposed to Western clothes.

One of the nice things about kimono is that there is so much information about the wearer built right into the garment.Look at this young lady and this doll. Both of them are wearing a style of long sleeved kimono called a Furisode. Furisode are worn by young unmarried girls.



The fancy stytle of the obi or belt on the girl also indicate that she is unmarried. Their obis have fancy names like Butterfly bows, Fukuro Tsuzume or Fat Sparrow.

A kimono for an older or married woman has shorter sleeves, and is called a Tomesode. They also wear a simpler obi tie called a Taiko or Drum Knot.

There is also a scarf called an obi age that is worn in the front of the obi, at its top. The more of the scarf that is showing, then the girl is unmarried.

Men’s kimonos are much simpler, as you see here, with a simpler obi. For formal dress, men add a pair of pleated, pants called hakama.

Finally, a yukata is a simple, unlined kimono that is worn in the summer and in the past, the plain ones were warn as pajamas.

Yukata are easily distinguished from regular kimono by the fact that they have simpler obi, and don't usually have an under kimono with them.

Here’s how to put on a modern Kimono.


6 minute　Kimono dressing with English　explanation

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The kimonos that we all know now are actually period. This style came into fashion during the Edo Period (1601-1867).

During the Heian Period (794-1185), kimonos for women were called Junihito, or 12 Layers.

Yes, 12. Until the sumptuary laws were passed in 1074, some kimonos had as many as 15 to 40 layers, and were so heavy that the women spent most of their days lying down.
Junihito is derived from a story about a lady-in-waiting who drowned trying to save the Child Emperor. It was said that her ‘twelve unlined robes’ weighted her down." Exactly where this story came from is unknown. But this legend gave name to the style of court dress, even if it was a bit of a misnomer. . . After 1074 CE, this number was reduced to five. . . (from Here)

Regardless of the number of layers, wearing colours was important, and the order of the colours was also important. Some colours were associated with certain seasons—for instance wearing yellow, a fall colour in the summer would be see as a sign of vulgarity and bad taste. You can see the colours and layers in this in this picture and in the video.

Dressing KIMONO Juni-hitoe 十二単

The kimono that the model is wearing has some red in it. Why is that important? Well, red was a colour that could only be worn by a woman who was shown favour by the Empress. Here’s a list of the layers needed for a Junihito kimono:

Juni-hitoe Glossary:

*Kosode: An under-kimono with small sleeves

*Hitoe: A chemise or unlined first layer

*Itsutsu-ginu: The 5 layers of lined uchigi or kinu robes

*Uchiginu: A stiff-silk garment worn between itsutsu-ginu and uwagi that provided stiffening for formal gowns

*Uwagi: Formal over-robe that trailed the floor in varying lengths due to each woman's position in the Imperial Court

*Karaginu: Short Chinese Jacket that could be brocaded, embroidered, or painted

*Mo: An apron-skirt that was worn on the back to act as a cascading train'

These kimonos are indeed beautiful, but it is no wonder they spent so much time sitting around and not walking!

Victorian Boys' Clothes

Normally, I don't think or write about clothes. Yes, they can be interesting to look at, but on the whole, I am of the opinion they are just there to keep you from being naked.

That said, I found this dress here, and according to the description, this dress is for a young boy. I started to think about it, and it really does make sense. Clothes were hard to make and clean, diapers had to be changed, and it would be easier to lengthen a dress for a growing child than to sew them a new pair of pants every few months.

A bit more searching brought me to these young gents: who are clearly ecstatic. They look to be between four and seven years of age, so the elder boy probably was "breeched," or allowed to wear long pants not long after this picture was taken. Assuming his mama was willing to relinquish her hold on his apparel. But may she was okay with it, since she still had the younger sibling to fuss over for a few years yet.

We all know who this tot is, even though we can't see his companion. Young Christopher served as his father's model for his books. He was dressed in gingham smocks until he had passed his 8th birthday. This was, however, unusual. When he went off to his boarding school, the other boys teased him for it.

This wasn't the first time a writer used their child as a model for a story. Francis Hodgson Burnett s young son, Vivian, was the model for Little Lord Fauntleroy. The fashion craze this generated was based off of the illustrations that were done from photos of young Vivian.

This isn't Vivian, but an illustration of the outfit that had to have been the bane of the existence of at least two generations of young boys.

Though it may seem silly to our modern eyes, and for some clothing historians, it is hard to tell the boys and girls apart, there were some, at first, practical reasons for dressing young boys in this manner. And I'm sure a vast majority of the boys turned out just fine.