Author: Diane

Tokaido hanhaba obi

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A while back I found a Stations of the Tokaido hanhaba obi on eBay that was quite similar to this one, but it was a bit expensive for a hanhaba, in my opinion. I let it slide, but honestly I regretted it after the auction was over.

Fast-forward approximately a year and this little baby shows up on eBay for a starting bid of one penny. Not only was it in a much more affordable price range, it also had much nicer contrast – the stations and reverse are a lovely golden yellow colour. On the first one I’d seen, they were a deeper red than the obi’s base, so they were pretty indistinguishable.

Tokaido hanhaba

The front side is a lovely brick red with simplified interpretations of the start point of Nihonbashi Bridge, the end point of the Bridge to Kyoto, and Station2 – Kawasaki. The reverse is a nice versatile warm gold asanoha weave design.

Tokaido hanhaba

Tokaido hanhaba

Tokaido hanhaba

Tokaido hanhaba

Beautiful handmade kanzashi

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I received these two gorgeous handmade hair accessories, or kanzashi, from Kornelia and I really encourage you to visit her Etsy shop.

Card Suits Hairband
As I’ve said many times before, I am a sucker for card suit motifs. I cannot wait to wear this with my card suit geta, spade obidome and a haneri I haven’t shown off yet. This is adorable, and I have to say I have never seen card suit motifs done using this method before. It’s so charming! I also really love that it’s on a hairband, so I can wear it no matter how short my hair might be.

Cards Kanzashi Hairband

Cards Kanzashi Hairband

Pastel pink ume clip

This is a much more traditional-looking kanzashi, but I don’t find it any less beautiful or charming. It’s such a delicate colour, but it’s a nice substantial size, so it doesn’t feel too twee or childish for someone of my age and height. The alligator clip needs a little more hair to grip than I currently have, but I’ll be growing it out a little bit again for the fall so I’ll be able to wear it during the winter, when it’s in season.
Pink Ume Kanzashi

Pink Ume Kanzashi

Art Gallery – More kimono artwork

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This is a fairly old piece, but I still love it to bits. It’s got a really pretty ethereal anime feel, which is in rather stark contrast to how rumpled I looked when I actually wore this outfit. Thank goodness for artistic liberties, right?

The artist was very pleasant to and worked with me to ensure I’d be happy with the final product, and I really am. To see a larger version, you can either click the image or visit the artist on her DeviantArt page.

Black kofurisode and purple hakama

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Today I went to a mini-convention to raise money for the Red Cross for Japan relief efforts and I figured it would be a great time to wear my new purple hakama. I’ve had this kofurisode for a while, but no hakama to wear it with, so I decided to pull them together with the yellow side of a new obi and a gorgeous purple shibori haneri Naomi sent me years ago.

I knew I’d be walking around a fair bit so I decided to forgo tabi and zori and wore a pair of comfy mary-jane style shoes instead, but I think it worked quite well.

The outfit got a very positive reaction, lots of people asking what I was wearing and taking my picture. I actually also got suckered into going on stage during the costume contest. Since my outfit was not actually a cosplay, and it was not handmade, I was not eligible for a prize but I got to explain what I was wearing and the audience gave me a good reception, so I am happy! I also got a few professional portraits taken, but I do not have them yet. If I get copies, I will post them.

I really love the hakama. It’s amazingly comfortable and hides a multitude of sins. It was a great choice for a convention, it gave me much more freedom of movement than just the kimono would have. I’d love to get more of them eventually.

Purple embroidered hakama

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Hakama, those pleated skirt-like garments worn over kimono, are one of those things I always sort of accepted as something I would never own. The standard modern lengths for hakama are between 91 and 97 cm, and I’d need at least 102cm to fit me properly. The few pairs that were long enough that I’d seen were incredibly, terribly out of my budget, and also usually a boring black or navy.

In rushes Kansai_gal to the rescue. She found these for me and sent them to me, and I am absolutely smitten! They’re a gorgeous rich purple colour, a wonderful washable synthetic, and have charming embroidered mums, pinks, and bellflowers on the hem. The best part of all, however, is that they are a whopping 103 centimetres long. Almost too long for me! Amazing!

Hakama are a wonderful solution to kimono that may be a bit too short, or don’t wrap across the hips properly. They’re also a lot more forgiving than a standard kimono and obi might be. They’re generally considered fairly youthful and casual, but as I’ve said time and time again I am hideously immature and tend to dress younger than I should.

A quick note about these photos – no, I have not repainted my wall pink. This shade of purple is notoriously hard to capture with digital photos, so I had to colour correct the photos to make the actual item accurate. The wall got distorted in the process XD

Purple embroidered hakama

Purple embroidered hakama Purple embroidered hakama Purple embroidered hakama

I am very excited to get to wear these, hopefully to a small local convention this weekend with my black kofurisode.