Hinamatsuri 2019!

Today is Hinamatsuri (雛祭, doll festival, girl’s day), a day for girls to celebrate, to set up an ornate display of dolls inspired by Heian emperor and empress, and to wish for love and health in the future. I don’t have a proper set of dolls, but I do like to do a small DIY every year and celebrate by making a sweet, girly coordination on the mannequin.

This year I wanted to feature this green obi with pastel designs, and thought this blush pink houmongi with sagara embroidery of a shifuku (silk pouch to protect tea ceremony tools) with a rabbit on it would be perfect. It’s adorable and feminine and the colours play off the obi so well. Rabbits are also commonly used to represent people in their hina-matsuri doll displays, representing a young girl’s wish for a large family when she grows up. The whole outfit feels sweet, girly, and spring-like, which is exactly what I was going for. The blue beaded obijime was chosen to echo the texture of the embroidery on the kimono, and I tied it in a wisteria knot just because I think it looks pretty.

And of course, I couldn’t let hinamatsuri pass without doing some sort of DIY display. I’ve done origami, perler beads, nanoblocks, and illustration. This year I decided to do some adorable sashiko!

Items used in this coordination

Liz in Bunny Kimono!

I’ve often said that being my friend is dangerous, and coming to visit me generally results in the guest being subjected to kitsuke. I decided to level things up this time, and when I went to Baltimore to visit my friend Elizabeth a few weeks back, I brought a kimono with me. She chose the bunny komon based on the photos of my collection, and I brought a selection of accessories that I thought would coordinate well with it and be easy to tie without too many accessories. We ended up choosing the taupe arabesque hanhaba obi, a hot pink obijime, and spade obidome.

For someone who has never worn kimono before, Liz took to it like a pro! Next time, maybe she’ll come up here to visit me and I’ll put her in something really elaborate.

I have to admit, this kimono fits her much better than it fits me. Oh, to have a shorter wingspan!

Items used in this coordination

Bunny Geta

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but I apologize for the gap between updates lately. I’m stuck in a perfect storm of being too sick to dress myself, too poor to buy new items, and too busy to catalogue old things, and it sucks. However, Kansai Gal sent me a box of all sorts of awesome stuff and these geta were in it, so here’s a little something to tide you over. And yes, I still have that giant box of obi to work my way through.

There are no words to express how adorable I find these things. The straps are thick white chirimen, and they’re embroidered with adorable pink bunnies and fireworks. I can’t wait to be able to wear them with this awesome bunny komon.

Trip to the park in a bunny houmongi

I’m back! Sort of! I’m still not 100% better, they’re working on figuring out exactly what is wrong with me. Fun fun. However, I do have a bit more energy now, so when this adorable houmongi with french knot embroidery and a bunny arrived this morning, I decided to tackle it with gusto! I paired it up with a greeny blue fukuro obi with pinkish lavender lines and my blue and red shibori obiage and hakata obijime. A pair of gold and red zori pulled out the gold leaf accents on the kimono nicely.

Astute readers may have noticed something slightly different about my hair 😉 Being trapped inside the house on sick leave for extended periods apparently makes me do wacky things.


In case you’re wondering what my earrings are, they are turquoise Calaveras (day of the dead skulls) with roses in their eyes, from Polished Two on Etsy. They arrived this morning as well, and were the exact same colours as the embroidery on the kimono. I figured I had to wear them.

And in honour of the recently departed Gary Coleman, RIP.
What’chu talkin’ bout, Willis?

For more images, and larger versions, please check out My Flickr.