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2018年8月24日

Unsewing Kimono

Previously, I have written an essay about Doyo no Mushiboshi (土用の虫干し, airing Kimono during hot summer days) here. Today, I would like to write about unsewing Kimono (着物). My mother and grand mother used to unsew their kimono and washed. The length of unsewed Kimono ran up to 12 meters, and the disassembled fabric were ・・・

2018年8月23日

Lovely! Shoujuin Temple

Many of my readers may know Shoujuin (正寿院) temple via my previous email magazine. The other day, I visited the temple to see the “Fu-rin Matsuri (風鈴まつり, Wind Bell festival), held from July 1 to September 18♪ Under the blue sky, a countless number of wind bells were swinging. Each of them has an illustration ・・・

2018年8月17日

The Summer Ends – Memories of Gozan no Okuribi

Though the weather forecast was not favorable, Gozan no Okuribi (五山の送り火), as known as Daimonji (大文字), the Send-off bonfire on five mountains, has successfully finished. The completion of Daimonji means the end of summer in Kyoto. The severe hot weather will soon be taken over by the fresh breeze of autumn. For sure, it was ・・・

2018年8月14日

Kimono and makeup

I often get asked whether my everyday makeup and my kimono makeup are different or not. For my part, as I always just put a little red on my lips, I might well be wearing the same makeup no matter the clothes… When I see maikos and geikos doing their makeup, they have such a ・・・

2018年8月9日

Mukaegane (Sacred Welcoming Bell) of Rokudo Mairi (Six Realms Pilgrimage)

During Oban (お盆, the season during which ancestral spirits are said to be returning), the sacred bell is tolling all day long at Rokudo-chinno-ji Temple (六道珍皇寺). Over the centuries, the area around the temple had been a place for burial rites, and still is said to be the boundary between this life and eternity. Early ・・・