Names of Traditional Japanese Clothes

I was looking this up so I knew what type of jacket pattern to look for when I thought I might want to refer to it later. Hence this blogpost. So really this is really more of a notebook page for me than something I strongly wanted to share. Links are to wikipedia pages which often have pictures on.

Fundoshi - old school men's pants. The man puts the 'fun' in 'fundoshi'. Essentially a loin cloth. Probably not going to need a pattern for this. Ever.
Furisode - unmarried woman's kimono. Easily identified by bright colours and very long sleeves which reach the ground.

Hakama - culottes with lots of material. Mainly worn by men but sometimes for women when playing sport or when graduating. The two activities have a lot in common.
Hanten - short winter coat with a black sateen collar. Is sateen very different to satin? Oh, it uses a satin weave but cotton instead of silk. Checks out.
Happi - straight sleeved coat, now usually worn at festivals. I don't want to look like a japanese hippy. But this is the sort of thing I've been looking at making. The Colonel makes it look good. 

Oh god no.

Haramaki - stretchy stomach cloths. Also 'senninbari'.
Jinbei - pyjamas/house clothes for men and women.
Joe - religious long coat/robe. Usually white.
Junihitoe - 12 layer kimono worn by court ladies. Very beautiful.

Kappogi - apron for wearing over a kimono. Basically a hospital gown with baggy sleevs that ties at the back. Not sexy.
Kasaya - buddhist robes.
Kimono - literally means 'thing which is worn'.
Koikuchi - men's shirt where the neck resembles the mouth of a carp (koi). No collar and a kind of curved v-neck.
Kosode - worn by men and women. A loose t-shaped robe worn with an obi belt/sash.

Kubi bukuro - mesh bag designed to attach to the saddle and hold a severed head. I'm thinking crochet.
Mawashi - Sumo belt/loincloth

Got to admire the cropping there.
Samue - traditionally what zen buddhist monks wear when they're working. Plain side-tie two-piece cotton pyjama-type things.
Senninbari - the stomach cloth haramaki but this one is a 'thousand stitch belt'. When a man was going off to war (including first world war) his wife/mother would go out and ask passing women on the street to stitch a stitch in the belt so each was done by a different woman. In Shinto this was then believed to be an amulet to keep them safe. Apparently the 'stitch' is a french knot. Amazing.

Tobi trousers - I love these! They balloon out past the knees and then gather again at the ankles. It makes japanese workmen (the main wearers) look like a cross between MC Hammer and the original Star Trek crew.

I would love to wear these. I would look uber ridiculous, but still.
Uwagi - kimono style jacket now worn in martial arts. Closed with an obi belt.
Yukata - casual summer kimono worn by men and women. Unlined and closed with an obi belt. This is not a picture of me, I just like their style.

You get these instead of towel robes in japanese hotels.

My Own Journey Through the Floating World

Looking for the bloghop and giveaway? Click here.

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There is a very special exhibition on in Tokyo at the moment called "Ukiyo-e: A Journey Through the Floating World". It covers the Edo period in japanese art (pronounced ed-oh and not ee-dough like I keep saying) which went from roughly the 17th to the start of the 20th Century and was formed from, initially, hand coloured woodblock prints before later incorporating more modern printing methods. Probably the most famous of this style is one I am sure you are already familiar with.

This is "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" and despite the number of times I have seen this image, I don't think I ever noticed Mount Fuji there in the middle, behind the second boat. What I didn't know until today is that this is from a series by Katsushika Hokusai called "36 Views of Mount Fuji" and that each of the views is an equivalent masterpiece. You can see them all on Wikipedia here. What I also didn't know is that although this image and others like Red Fuji (second in this series and below) are so iconic, this style of art was restricted to actors and beautiful women only until the Edo period was almost over - this series is from the 1820's. Landscapes were real late comers on the scene.

The majority of the exhibition was therefore people and, this being polite japanese society fodder, there was none of that enormous phallus type stuff the dastardly europeans put in their exhibitions. Therefore this exhibition was really delightful from beginning to end. There were more than 300 pieces on show so I've picked a few artists and images out that I made a note of as I went round.


Kaigetsudo Ando 

This gent painted rather than doing woodblock prints.

This is of a courtesan but the one I saw was called "Beauty in the Wind" and you can see it here. He really captured the movement of her silk kimono in the air.

I couldn't help noticing that all the figures in these early pictures have either no or rather flabby chins. Proves my theory that flabby chins are the most beautiful. Moving on.

























Isoda Koryusai

As I was walking round the exhibition I found myself wondering whether, when so many pictures are available online, exhibitions like this are becoming unecessary. But then I look at this and remember what it looked like in person, and realise that I am a muppet for even thinking such a thing. The texture of the paper and the ink just doesn't come across, or the delicacy of the print or the colour.

It is rumoured he was a samurai who gave that up for art. Can't help wondering what his parents said.











Kitigawa Utamaro

This is the guy who influenced the french impressionist painters and is generally considered one of the all time greats of the genre. There was a rather sweet statement introducing his section of the exhibition, saying that he managed to capture the different facial characteristics of women of different classes!

This is "Three Beauties of the Present Day". I became incerasingly fascinated by the hairdo's as we went around and that crossed swords in the backcombed fringe thing of the one on the left is something I will be attempting shortly.









Toshusai Sharaku

He was a great creator of portraits of Kabuki actors of the age, who were always pictured in make-up for a specific role. These were often available at the theatres - possibly a bit like flyers or perhaps more like a souvenir program. When first published his portraits upset some people as they were realistic rather than showing a more photoshopped view of the actors.

Like original Shakespeare, female roles were (and in fact still are) played by men.



















Hashiguchi Goyo

My final selection was one of my favourite pictures from the whole place. Possibly because it is something I seem to spend a lot of time doing as well as for its beauty.

This is called "Woman in Blue Combing her Hair" and was created in 1920 when Edo was coming to an end as the style changed and became more realistic.














Pooch claims that I have too much time to think now that I'm not working. I suspect this has something to do with my telling him at some length why he was like a cat, and how that explained why I liked him.

However, as I walked back to the station (and shortly before getting on the wrong train again) I did think about how a lot of my favourite paintings feature women with long, dark hair, like what I have. Would this be something true of most people? That they prefer art that reminds them either of themselves or people they care for. Or am I just a real narcissist? The colour course I am doing at the moment is talking about the emotional response we have to colour. I suppose it must be easier to have an emotional reaction to an image you can relate to rather than one you can't. For instance, I've never really felt anything about Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" but then I've never used one. All in all, I might spend a bit more time pondering that one. Although not thinking about urinals in particular.



(All the japanese images in this post are from Wikipedia and are licensed under creative commons. Although I now see I've screwed up the linking thing that makes the creative commons thing valid. God. I can't be bothered going back and linking them all. Take it from me these were all on wikipedia under the various artists' names and this isn't me trying to do dubious things.)

She Who Sews Blog Hop and Competition

Thanks to Carla and Mdm Samm for hosting this bloghop! We were challenged to use a particular range of fabric, which you can see here, and make whatever we chose with it. I got hold of one of the panel pieces and a half metre of the print you can see below with it.

Choosing what to make caused me a real problem! The fabrics were not speaking to me at all and I was quite put off by the large size of the panel units - I'm much more used to EPP shapes rather than big panels. After weeks of thought and much mulling over my Pinterest Boards I decided to see how a modern spool looked (tutorial link here).

I was on to something! Much cursing and digging through scraps later and I came up with this rather wonky cushion cover. The spool on the far left uses scraps from the Nancy Drew hop last year!

My spools were each a tad too big but the business of the prints hides it unless you look very closely. Maybe!

I chose the ladies with dark hair (like me) and one with a knitting quote, since that is my first love! It looks rather nice on the sofa and is very comfy.

Before the giveaway, those of you who follow this blog know that I temporarily moved to Tokyo for my husband's job last year and am now exploring the delights of Japanese crafts (I know - I am one seriously lucky woman!). I got to go to the Tokyo Quilt Fair last week and the photos are available for anyone to look at on Flickr in case you are interested in what is going on with Japanese quilts. I am really falling for the traditional colourways that I haven't seen elsewhere.

For the giveaway I have all the other ladies in the panel to give away! They just did not speak to me so I cannot imagine myself using them in the future - but I'd love it if you did. Just tell me what you'd do with them in a comment. I will post internationally and the giveaway is open until midnight JST on Sunday 9th.

Now please go and visit the other people in today's hop and go here to see the full schedule of this and the doorstop hop. Thanks for visiting!

• How ART you?
• Seams To Be Sew
• threads on my socks
• Quilted Delights
• Life in the Scrapatch
• krislovesfabric
• Sew We Quilt

Unexpectedly Chocolatey

I love it when you're out and about and you come across a luxury chocolate festival. This one happened to be on the 11th floor of a department store next to one mother of a craft shop, but more of that another time. I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves...and these represent just a selection of what was on offer:

Mmmm, chocolate planets... And what did I come home with?

Zip, zilch, nada, nix etc.

Man, I'm getting old. 

In January...

In an effort to be more conscious of what I am making and both the quality and quantity of it, I am going to try this monthly review. Here, then, is some of what I made in January.

It also serves to remind me that there are lots of things I have part made or even finished that I haven't included or photographed. What we have here is (left to right, starting at the top):

• March's block for the I Love Lucy Bee (in the sidebar). I've also started Feb's and made another 4-5 of my own red and white ones. 
• Immense bag for the sewing room swap. 100% not my taste but fits the recipient's inspiration mosaic.
• WIP - EPP Pouch swap. This is the unpicked version of square 7, which was a finished object except it was fugly!
• Finished second EPP pouch, also for the swap. I think this is very cute although again, not really my taste. 
• Amazingly busy Tokyo Quilt Show. I've started a design for an EPP quilt inspired by what I saw there. 
• She Who Sews hop cushion cover. My day is coming next week for the proper reveal. 
• Pouch mentioned above in 3.
• Pooch's jumper from The Killing which was for his birthday.
• Jasmine's ill-fated dress. Never make a dress for a baby you have not been given the measurements of, relying on it being for the 12-18 month old when she's only 8 months old. She's one big baby. 
• The hot water bottle cover I knitted and forgot to photograph. 
• Multinomah Shawl which was a late xmas present. 
• Cast on and finished sock one of a pair using yarn dyed in the colours of cats. This shade is 'calico' - bought long before I knew of the existence of the Calico Cat Cafe

One of the things I have noticed since getting more into patchwork is how much pressure bloggers put on themselves to achieve goals and then catch up when they fall behind. There is immense peer-pressure to take part in sew-a-longs and bees and various other events. Then when they inevitably over commit there is an annual finish-a-long for which bloggers also set ambitious goals, while also signing up to new challenges, which just adds to the air of constant pressure. I don't think I've ever noticed that with knitters and the knitting blogs I follow are much more relaxed. 

Pooch has noticed my lack of planning and every morning asks me what my schedule is for the day, before expressing concern at my lack of one. Beyond remembering which days the various recycling goes out and ensuring the whole flat is cleaned once a week I have no other commitments other than a fortnightly knitting group - which makes me one lucky lady, I know. In keeping with this I am not setting any goals for February. Things will be sewn, knitted and ripped as becomes necessary!

Neko Font

I am utterly destroyed by the end of The Bridge. I console myself with Neko Font.

At One with Noisy Nature

The Institute for Nature Study is 20 mins walk from the flat so having spent 2 hours up to my elbows in rubber gloves (cleaning), and noticing that the day was a lovely one, I decided to make a break for it. I believe there is an actual establishment there, but basically it is a relatively big forest surrounded on all sounds by bits of highly developed city.

The woodland's history is on the website (and in english) but essentially it's very old and apart from footpaths and the odd bit of tending, it is largely left to get on with it. Bits of tree that fall off or die are left where they are to rot and feed the rest of the forest and plants grow as nature intends them to. It means it is all quite higgledypiggledy.

It also means there are a large number of trees which are too big to get into a single photo.

In my usual way I hopped and hummed my way around the whole place which took about 90 minutes. I wasn't rushing and frequently stopped to stroke the trees and listen to the birds. The trees were highly strokable.

The birds were not so much a delight upon the ear as a cacophany of unavoidable noise. The two birds I have seen most of since I arrived are the common crow, and the brown eared bulbul - and it was these which appear to dominate this location at this time of year. The latter's song is like the cry of a baby bird being slowly roasted to death over a fire (imagine me going "hweeeeeeee" at a really high pitch while simultaneously sounding like I smoke fifty a day, and repeat, and repeat, and you're near), while the caw of the crows is equally pervasive. Combine the two and it really did feel like I was in the jungle of a foreign land.

Which, me being in Japan and all, is kind of true. The noise of the crows was so incessant and they were so consistently present that I did start to wonder whether perhaps there were not that many of them and I was just being followed around. They are quite clever birds and I have, for instance, played a game of peekaboo with one who likes sitting on the house opposite our kitchen*. They seem to like to see what people are doing so was it truly that a stream of different crows were coming to perch on trees near me and have a look, or was it the same one following me? Does each visitor get assigned a crow by the chief crow, who would be like Baron Silas Greenback, the villain from Dangermouse, although admittedly on further study he is a toad and I had him confused with his henchman, Stiletto Mafiosa, who was indeed a crow. Or have I just been re-reading Thief of Time recently and got Quoth on the brain?

* What happened was I had put some toast crusts out on the balcony outside the kitchen for the birds and one of the crows had noticed. Crows are fairly hated in Tokyo as they make loads of mess trying to get into rubbish bags and bins so they are very wary of people. This one started off by checking out the situation by sitting on some of the power lines outside the kitchen, where I was washing up. It could see me, which it didn't like, so instead of hopping onto the balcony it flew onto the edge of a slightly higher flat roof that gave it a better view into the kitchen. I looked straight at it, and it backed up a little bit, which meant it vanished from my view because of it being on a higher flat roof. I backed up a step too so I could again make eye contact with it and it backed up a bit further. I backed up again and it ducked its head right down for about 30 seconds before lifting it up again to see if I'd gone. I hadn't so it ducked down again. At this point I thought I should just let the little bugger get the bread (I've nothing personally against crows and think they are rather impressive) so I closed the kitchen blinds and retired from the battle of wills.

I know we all have a tendency to endow animals with human characteristics, but they do always seem very clever to me.

Cat Interlude

My weekly visit to Calico Cat Cafe took place yesterday and I have to say it was all a bit odd. When I arrived the Cat Tower in the first room was unusually full.

When I headed downstairs the possible explanation of this became apparent. The place was full of men! There were about 10 of them sitting downstairs, unaccompanied by any women. I'm not saying only women go to Cat Cafes but this isn't something I'd seen before. The bemused but sleepy Retro was keeping out of it by going up high.

While my beloved Gomako, who I usually spend most of my time stroking, was steadfastly sleeping inside a cardboard tube. Very disappointing.

To get my fill of cat booty I bought a little tub of chicken, which is cheating but a girls-gotta-do, the opening of which causes the holder to become the temporary best friend of at least 6 cats. Yashiro is my second favourite after Gomako. Partly because of his face, which makes him look permanently annoyed that he's been bothered, but also because of his intelligence.

He has worked out that people order cat food (tiny tubs of real cooked chicken) from the staff so as soon as he sees you sit down and talk to a staff member he comes and sits near you, on the basis that the odds are good you've ordered food. He stays with you until all the food has gone, then turns his back on you to look out for the next person to talk to a staff member while seated. So self-serving and single-minded. Brilliant.

I spent a little while stroking the over flowing Taiga, who is a Maine Coon like Retro, before heading upstairs.

Still on the Cat Tower was Kinako, who is the same breed as Gomako and only 3 weeks older.

Awake, Kinako is pretty freaky looking because she has eyes which are almost rusty red rather than the usual blue or green. It makes her look rather zombie like. But you can't really be freaked out by anything that has such cute little feet.

Those pads on her paws are a brighter pink than the photo suggests. So adorable!

I've often read that you can judge the health of a cat from their fur - whether they are well groomed, evenly covered and also the softness. I've consistently been impressed with the condition of all the cats and also the love the staff show for them. I see London's first Cat Cafe is getting ready to open although there is no date yet. I'd be interested to hear what it's like if anyone is planning a visit.