Accessory... Parasols?

[Nicole]

Well, um to start off... hi. I suppose I should be polite and introduce myself so... my name is Nicole, I'm a 25-year-old Italian girl living in Florida. I absolutely love kimonos, and it might sound strange but it was from anime and manga that I started looking for them. My home is now packed with Japanese antiques, kimonos, obi, books, music and so on. My love has taken a hold of my husband, brother and two closest friends and we're hoping to take a trip to the place of our affections soon.

Er... anyway, I don't usually wear my kimono outside (Florida's scorching heat makes it a bit uncomfortable most of the year) but I recently purchased a few yukata, and I'll even wear haori over jeans and a light camisole. Like I said before I'm living in a place where the sun is practically right next to me and unfortunately I'm unusually pale-skinned and with very pale and sun-shy eyes. I was considering purchasing a parasol to take around as a sun shield and to look pretty. But as I shop for them, I'm not sure what the difference is. The two types I found are maigasa and janome and I'm not sure which one would be proper for everyday use or if it doesn't even matter. Um, can anyone help out with this? Thank you so much for reading this. Sorry to be of any trouble.

[Kiyoaki]

Nicole,

The mai-gasa is primarily a prop for classical dancing, so it tends to be small and light. The ban-gasa are the wider paper ones with bamboo ribs. They come in different sizes, the way Western style ones do. The biggest distinction between the two styles would be in the graphics used for the Japanese ones.

In practical terms, a Western style umbrella wouldn't be out of the question with kimono, but if you want to achieve the traditional 'look', then by all means the bangasa would be the better choice.

Kiyoaki