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 Dear Customers & Friends
Hello from Japan! This is Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.290.
Today, Yuka is writing this newsletter- about kimono dressing license.
About two years ago, I met two teachers of kimono dressing and decided to take lessons from them.
Need a licence to wear a kimono? No-it is not necessary but actually, people ask professional dresser's help when they need to wear fancy kimono here unless you have someone to help around you- but the someone is getting less and less.
It is the reality. To wear yukata or wear everyday kimono, it is not serious thing but since our lifestyle changed so drastically, from sometime ago,
asking professional's help is the very general way for wearing fancy kimono. If you are invited to attend a wedding and if you decide to wear a formal kimono- most people take appointment at a beauty shop for hair and kimono dressing. My two sensei-teachers(Okado sensei and Tomio sensei)have been professional dressers for years and on Coming of Age Day each year, they dress many young girls with furisode from very early morning and send them to the ceremony each year. They are busy at wedding seasons of course. They have been a supervisors and without their help, we could not complete our DVD(they appear in the DVD as models too).
There are books and DVD(like the one we sell at our website), and I was not thinking about taking a license at first but I wanted to learn in systematic way and moreover, I wanted to learn small clue and secret of kimono dressing. My two teachers were excellent teachers. They taught us not only technique but also the history, trend, other methods and reason of each actions and procedures.
Wearing yukata is not so complicated, however, they said recently they are sometimes asked to dress yukata. They say to the customer, they can teach how to dress but the customers said they preferred to be dressed by them instead of learning how to dress! So please do not apologize, I often receive e-mails from our customers who apologize for their lack of knowledge about kimono but here too, kimono are getting like `special` thing!
There are many schools of kimono dressing just like ikebana or Japanese dance. We belonged Ninomiya school, and there are three steps(Beginners-to be able to dress themselves, Advanced-dress somebody else with basic bow tie, and Instructor's course).
To take the instructor's license, the test included:
*skill test using torso
*three minutes speech about kimono
*paper test about rules and knowledge
We could decide when to take this test, so we could take quite a lot of time for preparation and both sensei watched us carefully and gave us a lot of detailed advice. We are very very lucky. Some kimono classes have many students, but we could take the private lessons.
When I decided to take the classes, Mugi, our second daughter also wanted to learn, so we learned together for two years-as a mother and a daughter, we sometimes had awkward atmosphere before the class, but we had to learn together and as a result we had to work hand in hand and had to forget the fight and bad feelings:-) At Mugi's Coming of Age ceremony, I could tie a bow for her and send her to the ceremony(our sensei gave us extra lesson for this purpose)
and it became our unforgettable memory.
Mugi is a college student, so it seemed not to difficult for her to memorize the steps and text but it took me much longer time for me to memorize. Mugi could remember the small steps and make nice folds and so on but somehow my hands were slower and fold I made came off... my two generous sensei tried so hard not to make me lose my face as a mother! Before the final test, Mugi and I practiced and pointed out the things to correct each other.
On March 2nd, both Okado sensei and Tomio sensei took us to the school and we met Miki sensei- the Director of Ninomiya school of Kimono dressing to take the test. We wore our semi formal kimono for the test(this is a part of the test). Mugi and I woke up early and checked our kimono each other, left home early, studied at a coffee shop at the train station(last minute struggle!).
Both sensei watched us so carefully(I do not think they were worried about Mugi but they must have worried about the older student-ME), their eyes were telling me `stay calm`. Miki sensei was so nice and tried to make us relax and watched us with her gentle smile while we did the skill test.
After the test, the two sensei and Mugi and I went back, they said we did a good job, so we could just wait without being worried. Mugi and I bought big bento box(for late lunch), and ate like a pig as soon as we arrived home.
About a week later, sensei called and told us we both passed the test! We are so relieved and the two sensei really sounded so happy for us too. On March 28th, we wore our kimono to receive the certificate at the school. At a train station I found the two sensei wearing very lovely color formal iromuji kimono- for this happy day to celebrate us.
Miki sensei was waiting for us-with the kakejiku scroll with the calligraphic character done by Miki sensei for this occasion (the letter was KOTOBUKI, the most congratulatory word) along with the ikebana of paeoniae radix `Syakuyaku`- this also has been done by Miki sensei to welcome us.
We received the certificate and took the photos:
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I know my two sensei never stop learning and keep studying-trend, new bow style, making crafts from kimono fabrics and always check each other's kimono dressing. We can attend monthly Kenkyukai(study group) at Ninomiya school to meet more people and share information.
On our way home on that day, our steps were much lighter, I felt so relieved (I could pass the test with Mugi-I was not left out!). We were told there are not so many young people taking classes, so Mugi will be the youngest in the group. At the beginning I did not imagine both Mugi and I could take the license, but I found Mugi so enthusiastic to learn - the two sensei's encouragement made this possible. I do not think Mugi could accept my advice so obediently(you know- mother and daughter relationship, it can be too close, especially Mugi had this mother with not-clever hands!)but the two sensei watched over us like a mother hawk
It was a happy trip home- you can see how relaxed we were:
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Let me mention about the kimono Mugi is wearing.
She is wearing a houmongi- it was my kimono when I was engaged with Ichiro(26 years ago), and the back ground color was peach color.
After the engagement, I had not have worn the kimono for a long time and found a lot of patina all over. I sent the kimono to a dyer in Kyoto and they
dyed the solid color part with black and left the patterned part as it was. It turned out to be like a new totally different kimono - patina became not noticeble. I am so glad Mugi likes the kimono and enjoys wearing(it does not look old, doesn't it?)
You probably do not need to take lessons to wear the traditional costume of your own country, it may be very rare thing-you have to learn how to wear own costume! but that tells how drastic our lifestyle change came. There are many `new kimono lover generation` who create own style and do not care much about too traditional way. Some older generation people think non-traditional kimono are not real kimono but kimono industry are in critical situation, so
they are trying all kinds of approach in order to get more attention to kimono. On Coming of Age Day, young girls bring the kimono they chose to Oakdo sensei and Tomio sensei - sometimes they are surprising, and not traditional but they never deny and try their best to dress them- they respect their choice(sometimes girls' mothers have different opinion) but sensei say, they respect the girls' choice for that is their big day. We were lucky to learn at Ninomiya school which has open mind and finely-textured lesson.
Thank you very much for reading our newsletter.
We are listing obi, cotton bolt and bolt and hope you will enjoy checking our new listing!
Ichiro & Yuka Wada
Kimono Flea Market "ICHIROYA"
http://www.ichiroya.com
e-mail: info@ichiroya.com
address: Asia-shoji Bldg.301
1841-1 Nishi 1 chome
Wakamatsu cho
Tondabayashi city
Osaka 584-0025 JAPAN
TEL&FAX ****( international number ) - 81-721-23-5446
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