Himeji Kimono

Finally the day had come. The day before the D-day I dropped the luggages containing yukata and the demo items. I already made sure that nothing was forgotten. Nihongo no Hi was identic with Japanese speech competition and other Japanese education-nuance competition. The participants were junior high school students and senior high school students. Some others were college students but I thought it was just few of them. After the competition took place, the participants would roam the event ground and took a look to some booths and the main stage. Only few of the participants were attracted to my yukata rental since we have competitor which I considered this as a bad omen. Next time, as a reminder, I need to check to the committee whether there is any similar or same yukata rental booth. But I've prepared myself to this kind of outcome. About the kimono demo, it was carried out smoothly without any major  disruption or intrusion. The spectators were eager to watch the kitsuke demo...

About my May Kitsuke, I wore my black and white stripes komon with black nagoya obi with red-white kikyo. As for juban, I just put my trusty red haneri. When you feel nothing work for haneri, just wear any random red for your juban and you will look great! I didn't want to wear something overboard for this kitsuke since I will dress Novi and Akina in kimono. I wore this ensemble at Dai 9 Nihongo no Hi. Himeji (my online shop) set a yukata rental booth and together with Akina and Novi, I dressed them in kimono. Thank you for the opportunity that have been given to Himeji. We hope we can improve in the future. For the Demo Test with Akina and Review of the Event and the Kimono Demo, they can be viewed at here and here.

I was contacted by one of the committee of Dai 9 Nihongo no Hi to hold a kimono demo. This was my first time doing a kimono demo and I wondered what kind of kimono demo I would hold. The committee said that they want a kitsuke demo, with yukata and kimono in which we could elaborate more about the kitsuke items. I contacted Akina and Novi as my models for the kitsuke. Akina is a Japanese friend of mine and  was a master student of UNY. I've done dressing some girls in yukata in every event I participated, but I've never done a kitsuke in full set of kimono. The kimono I chose was a komon, actually it was the komon of Round 1 ISOTK (Indonesian Sisterhood of Traveling Kimono), check about the project here (link). I believe I can do the yukata kitsuke on Novi in a flash of an eye, but as for the komon kitsuke, I thought I needed some practice and practice was all I got. I contacted Akina and went to her place to hold some kitsuke training. She is wonderful, and the kitsuke did...