Black & Brown

Finally my 2 new kimono and 4 obi arrived yesterday!
Time to do some kitsuke again. On the IG-forums I read that someone uses a kohrinbelt also on their nayajuban, to keep the collar back. I tried ties and I must say that it works really good! So now I use 2 kohrinbelts in my kitsuke, and less koshihimo.

This komon is a unlined or hitoe synthetic komon, and it feels really nice. And I have a proper ohashori! Thanks to Misuchi's tip on how to give your kimono the right lenght, this is also good in my kitsuke. I can really feel the difference.

The first obi gives the kimono a really chic look. The obi itself very light/thin, not so stiff as some obi can be.

The hanhaba obi gives the kimono a more casual appearance. And hanhaba can be tied in so many fun ways, so I tried this one. Do'n know what the name is of this musubi, but it's very simple and looks nice!

Wool kimono with haori

Two weekends ago I had a kitsuke-practice, just for fun and to test my camera with remote control and the tripod. I put on my wool kimono and then my hoari, which was a present from Misuchi.

What I really have to do next time, is try to make the kimono a bit longer. And most important: smile more ^_^

Pretty peacock

Now some proper kitsuke for my peacock houmongi on one of my dummies.
I really like the pattern of the peacock on this kimono. The close-up of the front shows the peacock itself, of which the feathers go on onto the back of the kimono. On the left sleeve and shoulder there are also some feathers, really pretty.

And for this kimono I got the perfect nagoya obi, that also goes well with my blue iro-tomesode. I could say that this is one of my favorite obi, but I only have 4 (5 actually, but 1 I haven't tried on yet).

Sakura!

Since last year we have a very little sakura, or Japanese cherry, tree.
Last week we had our own cherry blossoms, so sweet. I hope the tree will grow nice and big, and that I can use it as a background in my kimono pictures. If I want to do that now, I will either have to lie on the ground or do some serious Photoshop haha.

Shibori haori

When we went to the theatre to see Dadada-Dan Tenko, Misuchi gave me a really pretty shibori haori. It's a beautiful deeper red that normal red, and the pattern is very nice. I just love it.

Thank you so much Misuchi!

My poor wallet...

After a few months of asking friends if they had a DSLR-camera, and if so, which DSLR-camera. After a few months of researching the web and reading reviews, I finally bought me a Pentax K10D camera! My poor wallet...





To make it all complete, I also bought a lightweight tripod, a remote control so I can be able to make selfportraits (I got the idea from Misuchi), a second lens (18-200 mm) for New-Zealand...







And a Lowepro Slingshot bag. Really nifty this one...

Hopefully I can post my first DSLR picture soon :-)

Dadada-Dan Tenko!

Yesterday was the first time I went out in kimono in public! Very exciting, but luckily Misuchi went with us, so it wasn't scary at all. We went to a concert of Dadada-Dan Tenko in the theatre, and if you have the chance, go and see them!

The show was beautiful and breathtaking. Those big Japanese drums are so.... big! They have 3 really big drums, about 1 metre high, and other drums that vary from big to small, to drums that they have hanging in from of them. And the sound of the drums, especially the 3 big ones, you can just feel them when they were played! The drummers were really good and you could see they had lots of fun. They also did funny acts, like 2 drummers who played one at a time and the other trying to interrupt the first, or, after the break, you only saw 2 hands with drumsticks from under the curtain. The 2 hands played, but a few seconds later they went apart further than a set of hands from 1 person could!

And what we didn't expect at all, but silently hoped for came true: dancer and choreographer Isaya Mondori, also the creator of Dadada-Dan, came on stage with another dancer and performed 2 dances. The first time they were on stage they danced a story of a man who tried to cut a tree, but the heart of the tree was a beautiful tayu who tried to stop him. And the second time only the other dancer came on stage and did a dance with a Japanese umbrella (and I am trying hard to remember if Isaya Mondori also performed in this dance). The costumes and susohiki were gorgeous, and the musubi of the tayu was really pretty.

It was a really good show and we had lots of fun. Misuchi and I were the only one in kimono, there were very few Japanese, and I think that the few that were there were family or crewmembers. Everyone was staring at us or asking questions why we were dressed in kimono.

And we had some pictures taken with 2 members of Dadada-Dan Tenko:
This picture is with Misuchi and Mihoko Umemura.
She said how nice it was that we were in kimono (and did we do it ourselves?) and that she could not put on a kimono by herself.





And this one is with Misuchi and Katsuyoshi Kojima.








Pictures and clips you can find here (although in dutch, but it's really clear on what's what).

Misuchi, thank you for coming and for the beautiful haori! I tried it on yesterday when we got home, and it's perfect!