Nagajuban

[okaasan]

I am fairly new to kimonos but have quite a few already. I have a question, however. Being the sleeve length varies so much from kimono to kimono, is it necessary to have a juban for each one. Especially when you are dealing with furisode and the very long sleeves. Can anyone answer this question?

[Kiyoaki]

Dear Okaasan,

The simple answer is "yes", because the open seam of the sleeve (next to the body) will reveal the difference in length. In fact the contrasting patterns and colors of the under kimono are much appreciated.

Kiyoaki

[Ume]

Hi Okaasan,

Buying nagajuban for all your kimono might be a challenge and a huge investment. It's not really necessary to do so; you can have a view you like. You need at least one for short sleeved kimono and one for furisode (if you wear both)

Nagajuban sleeves that are to short for the kimono are a big no-no, you should never do that; but sleeves that are a bit to long are no problem, you just fold them neatly within the sleeves. Furisode nagajuban sleeves however are way to long to fold. You could fold them and then baste them on top (shoulder) so the will look short.

Another way is fake sleeves. You take the sleeves from your nagajuban and make separate fake sleeves that fit every kimono you have. Every time you wear a different kimono you change the fake sleeves. This way you can make fun color combinations too.

I hope this will make your kimono wearing easier ^__^ and kimono life more fun!

Ume

[okaasan]

Thank you so much for the information. I like the idea of the fake sleeve because I am in california and it is hard to find jubans, let alone a juban for a furisode. I guess I will probably have to make one or make a fake sleeve. I just bought one from the kimono flea market but it was short sleeved. If anyone knows of a source for buying long sleeve nagajuban, please let me know.

[bawsin]

Dear Okasaan,

Aside from Ichiroya.com (which lists nagajuban as "jyuban" under the category Kimono), you can also find several other Japan-based sellers who offer vintage kimono, including juban, on English-language websites. Most of these sellers also have a presence on eBay, so if you go there and look up their eBay listings, their About Me page will usually include a link back to their kimono retail websites.

Each seller's feedback page will give you a good indication of how reliable they are. Of course, one of these is Ichiroya, which has quite a following on eBay, and which lists item that are different from those found on the Ichiroya.com ("Kimono Flea Market") site. There are two other sellers I buy from regularly - they both have feedback in the thousands - but Ichiroya remains my favourite.

I'm a bit reluctant to publicize other vintage kimono sellers on Wada san's own site ... but if you go to eBay and search on the terms juban, jyuban, nagajuban, underkimono and even juban-kimono, you should get quite a few hits, and by so doing, discover some of those other sellers.

In fact, I did an advanced search just now, searching for "any" of these words in the title but excluding the word "fabric" (so as to avoid getting listings for pieces of fabric). The search is:

(juban, jyuban, nagajuban, underkimono, "juban-kimono") -fabric

if you want to try it yourself. I got 24 hits as of 6 pm EDT. Granted, a few of these items are men's nagajuban, and most of the others are for women's nagajuban with shorter sleeves. All the same, this will give you some idea of what's out there. If you save this as a favourite search, and run it every so often, sooner or later you'll spot one that's exactly what you want.

As to finding juban with sleeves that are long enough... most sellers will indicate the sodetake (sleeve depth) in their item description; that's the amount of "drop" on the sleeve, when you hold your arm out straight from your shoulder. If you measure your furisode's sleeve depth, this will give you a very clear idea of what measurements to search for.

Does this answer your question?

[Flock]

I think the fake sleeve idea is great, I'm even thinking of making my own juban, that way I can decide exactly what colour to have it to contrast my favourite kimono ect, and the sleeves will fit
The next juban I buy will ideally be medium size, a sort of long short sleeve (obviously not a furi-sode) because I have a 1930s lilac kimono with quite long sleeves.