Category: Obi

The not-so-itsy-bitsy spider

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As anyone who reads this blog regularly has probably noticed, I have a fondness for quirky, odd, or unexpected motifs. Flowers are pretty but unless they’re really bold or interesting, don’t usually grab my eye. Birds I could take or leave. Put a skeleton, or a jellyfish, or insects of some sort on a kimono and I am making obsessive grabby-hands within nanoseconds.

There is only one shop in Montreal that sells real kimono and obi, and the first time I went there I browsed and didn’t find too much that grabbed me. The owner, Mrs. Uchiyama, pointed me towards a bin of obi that were on sale, after she realized I was actually looking for kimono to wear, not “pretty brocade” to use as home decor. That’s where I found this baby.

As soon as I saw it, I had to have it. The spiders are just so adorable and goofy-looking.

The obi itself is a really interesting texture, it’s a single layer but definitely heavy weight, a sort of raw slubbed silk. The spider webs and leaves are painted on, and then the spiders are embroidered over top of that. It’s fukuro width, but doesn’t exactly feel formal to me, due to the rough nature of the base silk.

I’ve only worn it once, sadly. It needs to get more exposure and I’m hoping I’ll have somewhere else to wear it in the near future. I paired it up with my purple net pattern tsukesage, the same one I wore with my koinobori obi. It’s a great, versatile kimono that serves as a showcase for interesting obi.

Please forgive the blousy mess my kimono is making here, it shifted while I was setting up the camera and tripod.

So what do you prefer? Traditional motifs, geometrics, or like me, are you a sucker for the weirder things in life?

Home sick kitsuke time

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I’ve been wanting to put this outfit on for a while, since I bought the haori on my birthday and today I was feeling under the weather and didn’t go out, so I figured it would be a good time to see how it all looked together. BIG MISTAKE. Kitsuke and a fever do not mix, especially not when the obi is made of the skin of Satan himself. This obi is beautiful, but it’s synthetic and brand new, which means it’s both very stiff and very slippery. It would not stay put, and I ended up cheating on the obi a bit, since I knew I was not going out today.

Overall I am very pleased with the coordination of this outfit. It’s almost as though the haori was made specifically with this in mind.  I pulled out the pinky pastel tones with a pink obiage and pink and silver obijime, and then tied it all together with silver zori. However, my kitsuke (and the look on my face in the photos) makes me cringe. My ohashori’s a mess, my collar’s all over the place, and if you could see what I did to make the obi stay put I’d be hideously embarrassed! But let’s pretend everything is fine, and just admire the coordination some more.

So let that be today’s lesson – if you’re feeling like refried death to begin with, don’t try wrestling with kimono for no good reason.

Hakuna Hakata

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First off, happy new year to anyone reading this! I hope the coming year is safe, healthy, happy, and filled with beautiful things.

But now onto the actual point of this entry – my love affair with hakata-ori (hakata weave). Guess who watched The Lion King recently? XD I don’t know many people who collect kimono who don’t appreciate the supple, geometric beauty of hakata textiles. I do know one, but she’s silly.

Hakata is a beautiful distinctive woven textile from the city of Hakata in the Fukuoka region of Japan. It’s typically a single thickness, similar in texture to gros-grain ribbon. Generally it’s decorated in a geometric design in a contrasting colour, symbolic of Buddhist treasures. However, more organic or fanciful hakata does exist! I recently missed out on the chance to bid on a white and red hakata obi with fish on it. 🙁

Other terms for hakata weave can include honchiku or honchikuzen and hira-ori, so if you are searching online, try looking for these terms as well.

For women, hakata tends to evoke a more casual feel, although geiko commonly wear them with more formal kimono. Men, however, are lucky and the bulk of men’s kaku obi are made of this sort of textile.

My personal collection of hakata textile is small, but I hope to change that eventually. All of the hanhaba obi I own at the time of this entry are hakata. I also own several fukuro-width obi of various formality levels.

Cream ro hakata fukuro


A soft creamy-white synthetic ro hakata. It’s technically fukuro, but the only ro kimono I currently own is a komon, and when folded in half this obi could easily pass for being something more casual. That’s part of the magic of hakata.

Green and gold hakata fukuro


Proof that you can indeed dress up hakata. This is a rich slightly blue-leaning green with white and soft gold weaving. It’s not yellow, it’s definitely gold-coloured, and definitely too dressy-feeling for a casual outfit. It has the perfect blend of vintage “laissez-faire” and modern dressy feeling for the vintage furisode I wear it with.

53 Stations of the Tokaido hakata nagoya


This is a particularly special piece to me. Within my kimono collection, I collect items with the 53 Stations of the Tokaido motifs. I found this one online and as soon as I’d saved enough money to purchase it, I found out someone I know online had beaten me to the punch. Through the kindness of said person and Yuka and Ichiro at Ichiroya, it found its way into my grubby little hands. Geometric hakata, organic hakata, and Tokaido motifs! Gleeeee!

Last, but definitely not least I have the two non-traditional hakata obi Naomi sent me in a box of goodies. I’ve yet to coordinate these with an outfit, but I will soon!

Pale and dark pink fukuro


Two soft, dusty shades of pink with white, black and yellow accents. I love how fun this one is. Definitely on the more casual end of things, I’m considering pairing it up with the purple yabane komon I bought on my birthday.

Orange and pink fukuro

This is such a fun and unexpected colour combination. A similar dusty pink to the previous one, mixed with a bright reddish orange and vivid green. I honestly have no idea what I’m going to wear this one with, it’s a challenge!

That’s it for my hakata, for the time being, but damned if I won’t be getting more eventually!

It wasn’t a rock! It was a rock lobster!

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This weekend I was invited to a holiday party at a friend’s. Initially, I’d planned to wear kimono but the bottom dropped out of the thermometer and it was nearly -15 so I scrapped those plans. I waffled about what to wear for nearly an hour, had a mini-breakdown, and decided to go with the kimono anyways, since I’d be in a warm car and a warm house for the bulk of the evening. Boy am I glad I did!

I decided to pair my awesome spiny lobster nagoya obi with my red and white yabane komon. I added a black and gold haneri, a red obijime, and a black obiage with red polka-dots. Unfortunately not visible in any of the photos are black tabi and red and gold zori. I pulled together what I feel is a rather Mamechiyo Modern style outfit.

Closeup of the awesome obi:

And my hamcat:

To keep warm, I put on my huge ridiculous snowboots and an adorable brown fleece wrap with pompoms. It looked cute, fit over the kimono, and kept me toasty warm. I think I am going to need to invest in more of these!

The outfit got a great reception from many of the party guests, including someone who had recently attended a Japanese wedding and said my outfit brought back fond memories for him. I also matched the hostess’ decor!

The coolest part by far though, was meeting a couple of awesome fans of Japanese culture and chatting with them. Emilie is interested in getting into kimono and I hope to help her along with that, and Nick already owned a yukata that he ran home to change into when he saw my outfit! In the freezing cold weather! We couldn’t resist geeking out for a few pictures 🙂

When fandom hand-gestures collide! Turns out we’d both watched the new Star Trek movie the night before. Clearly, this kooky kimono meeting was fate XD. Pardon the wonky Vulcan gesture on my part – my pinkies have been dislocated so many times due to my own clumsiness that they don’t move correctly.

All in all, it was a great evening. It’s one of the first times I’ve worn kimono out to a large gathering of people unfamiliar with my hobby, so I’m quite pleased with the positive reactions! Expect more pictures of social events in the future!

Bingata-style blue komon

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This was a gift from the ever-lovely Naomi. I’d been meaning to wear it for a while, and had planned this outfit for a work event last weekend, but unfortunately I was sick as a dog, and ended up not leaving the house. Today the weather was nice and I had some time, so I figured I’d give the outfit some air, even if I wasn’t going anywhere.

The kimono is beautiful – deep rich indigo-type blue with patterns of woven fences and flowers. It’s new, but has a very vintage feel with the long sleeves. It’s also deliciously large, it gives me nearly a full wingspan, wraps well around my hips, and is long enough to get a great ohashori.

I paired it up with my red hakata hanhaba obi and a green sayagata (key/swastika motif) haneri, plain white tabi, and my black ukon geta with green hanao. Wearing them made me realize how urgently I need to adjust the straps, after a few minutes they were digging into my feet and causing hideous pain. I’d put the red headband on to keep my overly-long bangs out of my face while doing my makeup, but realized the red lips and red satin hairband gave the whole outfit a really cute retro feel.

A huge thank you to my lovely neighbour Tom taking the pictures in his yard. 🙂

Items used in this coordination