Thursday 24 April 2008

Furisode (振袖)

Furi-sode (振袖) is the prime ceremonial cloth for unmarried women among kimonos. Furi (振) means 'swing' and sode (袖) means 'sleeves.' So Furisode has longer sleeves than the other kimonos.

Parents of Japanese girls used to make a set of Furisode for their daughters when girls became 20 years old. And the girls wore it for coming-of-age ceremonies. Now not so many parents do that. Some wear western dresses, and some rent Furisode from shops.

But I LOVE 振袖♡

I can only wear it when I'm single! (Well, physically I can wear Furisode after I get married, but it's strange.) So my sister & I wore it for our cousin's wedding party♬



My parets got these Furisodes made for our coming-of-age ceremonies. They are same cloth in different colours.



They look unpatterned, but actually they got white dots(゚∇^*)! A fabric-dyeing artist sprinkled with wax before dyeing. After that, he washed the cloth, then un-dyed spots remain white.


The back of Obi belt (帯) can be tied in may shapes.




Can you see that the shapes of my sister's and my Obis are different? It's like Origami. We asked a professional kimono dresser to get us dressed.



She had such a wonderful technique, and made those shapes so quickly♥ I want to wear Furisode by myself, but you'd see it's not so easy! I don't think I can make those shapes on my back(>▽<;

6 comments:

ROTA said...

Hello,

You both look stunning.
I also got a furisode and looking for someone who can help me in the Netherlands.
I hope you enjoyed the day.

Greetings Mirjam

Mariko said...

♣ROTA
Thanks for ur comment!
Yes, we did enjoy our day♡
Uhmm, sounds difficult to find someone who can get you wore furisode in Netherlands.
But yes!! I did it in England.
You may find a Japanese student or someone if you keep looking for him/her.
Please show me ur photos when you get dressed!

Anonymous said...

O my...it's beautiful!!! it's art!!!! And I am sure you could do it if you want to...(not to yourself tho...) I remember how you dressed us beautifully when we were in England!!!!

ROTA said...

I will send you the pictures but i may take a long time.

I have a question: i need a underkimono for my komon, do you now a site in English where they are sold for a reasonable price.

Greetings

Mariko said...

♣Yi Mei,
Thank you!! How are you doing?
Yes, I sometimes remember the day I got you guys wore kimonos! That was great fun!

Mariko said...

♣Rota
I found HP in English where you can purchase kimonos.

http://www.ichiroya.com/index.php

Prices are not bad.
You want to buy juban, right?
Select Juban on the list of the items when you 'Search'!