Uchikake lovin'

[Kiki]

Wow I can see why so many people love Uchikake kimono. I bought one from Ichiroya off of ebay a few weeks ago ( I would have bragged about it earlier...but the board was down O:) ) I absolutely love this uchikake. Mine is bright pink and embroidered all over. I think the next one I will attempt to get will be a gorgeously woven one I feel like I've come full circle now...started out looking at uchikake's and now I finally own one!


I'd like to hear from more of you who own uchikake....why did you fall in love with them, and what keeps you collecting them?

cheers! ~Kiki

[bawsin]

Mine is a love that dare not speaks its name ... yet. I love looking at uchikake on Ichiroya.com and on eBay, but I haven't quite brought myself to buy one. Why? Because I'm worried it'll spend all its days folded up in my cedar chest!

So far I've only bought wafuku that can be worn with western attire ... basically haori (= single-breasted blazer) and michiyuki (= double-breasted). Well, OK, I've also bought a men's jyuban, and will probably wear that as an unbelted long "overcoat" one of these days. But uchikake is a whole other thing!

Therefore, I have a question for you uchikake buyers. How do you enjoy your uchikake? Do you display them on your wall? Wear them in public -- and if so, how? Or do you keep them stored in washi paper, only bringing them out for a loving look every now and then?

Genuinely curious,

Julia ("bawsin")

[AndyZ]

Where do I start on this subject? I hope I don't bore you all too much with this long-winded story... But you asked for it, kiki.

I simply love uchikake and have eight now, if you count the two shiro-muku. The oldest is Taisho, embroidered above the thickly padded hem, and the richest, darkest purple you can imagine -almost black. I also have eight more kimono of various types, and three obi. Only one is a man's kimono.

As a designer I find them a rich source of inspiration, and I like to have them displayed around me as I work. The first thing I ever do if I move home is put some kimono up. I feel my space is incomplete without them and the joy and colour they bring to my life. I can only display about three at a time, which is good in a way as I have to rotate them giving each a rest away from the light and dust. About once a month I take one down and choose another to be displayed. It means my surroundings constantly change, and bringing one out that I haven't seen for over a year means I see it afresh and can appreciate it all the more. They are like old friends, after a while. It's also a pleasure to choose the new combination -how the three relate to each other. I never enter this room without noticing the kimono and probably spend more time than I should gazing at them. But it is such a pleasure!!

Even as a small child I was interested in Japan and the textiles, prints and pottery. We were terribly poor, but my mother found ways to take me to see collections in museums. She even went without food to save up for train fares for us. I have such good memories of us gazing into glass cases completely in awe as we discovered things like kosode, Samurai armour and how the pieces fit together, Satsuma and Kutani, woodblock prints, netsuke and inro.

I never imagined though, that there would ever be a chance I could one day own a kimono myself. They seemed to be such mysterious unobtainable things.

About ten years ago I was taken on by a textile magazine, as a designer, and had to go to a large craft show. There was a demonstration of making Japanese cords, and with it an exhibition of textiles. At one end a glass case contained the most amazing thing, and it stopped me in my tracks -a pale orange, almost yellow wedding kimono decorated with cranes and pine branches loosely embroidered with coloured metal threads. I had never seen anything quite so spectacular! And I had found a new love...

Some time later I went to a Japanese antique shop, and there, actually for sale were seven more. All of the same type as the first but also all differient in design. Perhaps that first one was bought from this collection. But they were FAR beyond what I could pay, so I left the place with a heavy heart. And I have never again seen any quite like those first eight.

Later I returned to the shop. Those uchikake were all gone, but just inside the door hung an example of a different kind. A much more colourful, beautifully woven example. It had been donated to a charity and was being raffled about five months ahead. I had never won anything in my life, but somehow I felt this HAD to be mine, I could just feel it. I bought all the tickets I could. How I wished those months away... I was counting the days... and on the night in question I made sure I stayed in, hoping for that call to say I had won it. Of course the evening ticked by, and there was no call. Worse was to come. Next time I visited the shop there it was slumped on a table. The lady who won it did not want it!!! Typical! She'd brought it back and asked the shop to sell it for her. She'd said " What can you do with something like that?" The shop owner had suggested she put it on a wall and enjoy it, but she said it wouldn't go with her decor. But the price she wanted was still a lot more than I could find. 'Is there any justice in this world?' I thought. I had been so desperate to win it, I was sure for once it would happen.

Some years later, we were at last connected to the internet, and I was interested to find that it was possible to actually see things for sale not just in this country, but in far-off lands. Perhaps my family were tired of my wingeing about wedding kimonos, but that christmas they found a beautiful uchikake located in the US and decided to get it for me. It couldn't go quite smoothly though. They asked for airmail and it was sent surface, and when it still hadn't arrived by Christmas Eve they were disappointed that all they could give me next morning was a printout picture of it. But it was enough. I was thrilled! And they'd chosen an orange one, of an unusual design. It's already pictured on another topic on this board.

It took eleven weeks to arrive, so I didn't see it until the end of that January. But it was certainly worth the wait. It's still one of my favourites, and I'd never part with it.

It's arrival really started me off though. I started to scour the planet for more kimono. At first it was like a crash course in finances. I had no idea how to pay for things, especially as dollars were the main currency asked for, and that we couldn't buy postal orders in dollars. I had to learn a bit about bank transfers, exchange rates, etc. But bit by bit I have built up an attractive collection, and I have also found new friends across the globe that I would never have known.

What started out as a childhood appreciation, has turned into a way of life. But I am glad about that, as my kimono are so uplifting, and as I said become like old friends.

It's hard to imagine life without them now.

[Carmen]

Where to begin? My fascination with Japanese textiles, no, EVERYTHING Japanese, just continues to grow...

I was a costume & clothing design major in college, so I've always been attracted to gorgeous textiles, especially silk. The entire process to create a silk textile to me is just amazing and oriental motifs have always fascinated me. Since the job market in that particular area was/is pretty weak, I became a programmer, but "textiles" are still my one and only true love.

One nite while surfing aimlessly I found www.moto-ya.com and I was just floored. At the time they were only selling obi, but what beautiful obi they were! Thus began the real obsession. When they began offering Uchikake I bought a lovely one with Japanese cranes and flowerballs on a black ground with gold-flecked red clouds. (love at first sight, of course!) It's machine embroidery, but it's still a beauty.

I was surprised at the sheer bulk of the Uchikake, which is hard to truly comprehend by pictures alone, so my first concern was how to hang it. I found an outstanding (if expensive) kimono bar at www.gumps.com/parent.asp?product=112242x&dept%5Fid=1585

The bar is made of walnut and is very strong and nicely made. The little tassels really bring out the "festivity" of the Uchikake. I found a couple of really cool drawer pulls that are 2-3 inches tall. I got a Dremmel and cut off the screw heads, then put plastic anchors in the wall and simply screwed them in.

Here are some other links for hangers; I have personally bought from the first two:

www.ryudeco.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=KA+Other
www.moto-ya.com/catalog/products/00055.html

www.risingsunimports.com/catalog.php?category=Kimono+Hangers
suzukidesign.infoseek.livedoor.com/e/ikoe.html

You can also get a nice long bar of bamboo and create one yourself. All you really need is a drill, some fishing line and some eye hooks and it's CHEAP!

When they're not strutting their stuff in your livingroom, your textile babies should be tucked away in washi paper, available at Ichiroya:

www.ichiroya.com/item/list2.php?number=24

I really like these new bell flower tatoshi, they're cute.

I read somewhere that in addition to properly airing the kimono and folding it in tatoshi, you should also interleave the layers
of fabric with yet MORE tissue paper. At first I thought this was a bit "overkill", but turns out that sometimes the metal embellishments used on kimono can oxidize and leave ugly stains where it touches other parts of the garment. (think of all the metal on your uchikake!) There's NOTHING to be done for it once that happens, so now I'm wondering if regular old tissue paper will do or if it needs to be acid-free or some such nonsense. (My friends are really going to laff at me when I say "American tissue paper won't do, it's got to be Japanese..." ) Anyone have info on that? I keep the place fairly cool year-round, and it's not very humid where I live...so...

Actually, it was Gumps that gave me the idea for pillows. Like most of the stuff on their site, their pillows are ridiculously priced, and I thought, "I can do just as well or better myself!" So I did a search on ebay, and voila! a whole WORLD of Japanese antiques! Since then I've purchased quite a few haori, kimono and obi, not to mention my one Uchikake (and numerous other tidbits). Some I use in my various projects (I still sew). Some I display: I have obi hanging on the wall and on either side of the livingroom window (sun-protected), and another is draped over the entertainment armoire. I change them out according to the season or whim. I have a kimono & obi display in the livingroom and at my office and those two I switch out according to the season. For Christmas I bring out the Uchikake.

It is possible to live with the garments and not damage them. Of course keep them away from smoke and especially strong heat or direct sunlight. The silk fiber's real weakness is ultravoilet rays, so light is the silent but deadly enemy of your beloved garments. So far I have a few things I consider really old (Taisho) but I'm looking at some Meiji obi at the moment. Older things shouldn't stay out too long I don't think, but they all should "breathe" for a day, at least once or twice a year.
I do it on the weekends during the spring, and it really is another way to enjoy them. I have a long bamboo pole that is suspended from eye hooks in the ceiling. I kind of like the act of pulling a kimono out of it's slumber, having it hang around for a day, and then folding it back up. Am I crazy or what?

DID YOU SEE THE UCHIKAKE ICHIROYA POSTED IN THE LAST DAY OR TWO?

www.ichiroya.com/item/search.php?md=1015

WOW! I could have spent $10,000 without thinking about it, were I independently wealthy. That's some outstanding embroidery. I wonder that they're not in museums, too. I'm curious: the person that bought the $4500 Edo Uchikake, what are they going to do with it?? I can imagine a wall-mounted glass case...climate controlled...oh yeah... As obsessive as I am, I'm still only a newbie collector; I'd like to hear from collectors that have Edo-period (or even Meiji) items in their personal collection. How delicate are the they?


I've met another kimono-lover on this board who has convinced me that actually wearing kimono is not totally out of the question for me. "If Japanese people can wear yofuku, we can wear wafuku." ;D That is so RIGHT! So now there's a fourth category of kimono to collect...plus all the accoutrements. Sometimes I think might be cheaper to just move to Japan!

So with that in mind, I'd better go study my kana,

Carmen