Indigo Tsumugi Kimono with Cranberry Tsumugi Hanhaba (Half-Size) Obi

After the Hatsugama, I had to take my formal Houmongi kimono to a kimono shop to have it cleaned because I spilled sake all over the lap during the event. I shudder to think how much this will cost me. I received a phone call from the kimono shop yesterday saying it was ready to be picked up (and paid for). Oh boy.

Even though I took my houmongi to the kimono shop, after the Hatsugama I still had all my other kimono accessories out and fairly evenly distributed all over on all the flat surfaces of my apartment. Rather than sadly put everything away, my next free day I decided to wear my informal tsumugi out again to my yakitori place.


This tsumugi, bought used, is a little too small for me in circumference, and I have to take care that it doesn't open at the front when I sit. I have bought other kimonos at this used kimono store, and they often, like this tsumugi, have the kimono resewn before selling. I have suggested that they make it just a bit wider, because I think there are few people, even Japanese or maybe especially Japanese women, who have narrower hips than me. I actually wonder if the shop mistress herself can wear kimonos this narrow.

Despite that, it is one of my favorite kimonos and probably the one I most wear, because it is so very informal, almost at the level of a yukata, but you can wear it in winter as it is a lined silk kimono. The reason it is so informal is because it is made of tsumugi silk, the threads of which are spun from the severed fibers of leftover hatched silk cocoons. Nevertheless, however informal, tsumugi kimonos can be quite pricey, this one though is an inexpensive one dyed in indigo in the kasuri (ikat) technique. Even so, I am still rather surprised I could afford it. Maybe the frayed edges were removed when it was resewn so narrow and that is why it was much less expensive than it might have been.


Obviously, or maybe not, the simplest and of course most informal obi to wear is a half-size one, most often seen with yukata. The fun of an informal kimono is to be able to throw it on in a matter of minutes with a half-size obi. This level of informality is somewhere around the equivalent of designer jeans (if anybody still wears them) or designer sportswear, really only appropriate to wear around the neighborhood. Many Japanese people themselves are not all that knowledgeable about kimono and I am often asked if I am on my way to my tea class. Being to embarrassed to admit I am on my way to a yakitori place, I just nod my head. By the way, my tea teacher used to forbid us to wear tsumugi or half-size obi's to class, but now has gotten desparate as few of us wear kimono to class (we must wear skirts though) and told us that anything is OK now.


This cranberry-colored tsumugi half-size obi is made from a silk-polyester blend woven with cotton threads. I bought it to go with my unlined cotton indigo kasuri dyed kimono some time ago, and figured, rightly as it turned out, that it would match this kimono as well. Of all the obi's I have worn with this indigo tsumugi kimono so far, I think this tsumugi obi matches best. Now I wish I had bought a Nagoya tsumugi obi instead of this half-sized one, so it was slightly more formal, then I could maybe wear it in Ginza (the Fifth Ave of Tokyo). But then again, this is so easy to throw on when I am just in the mood to wear kimono for no reason. Anyway, I have this obi tied in a variant of the standard bunko bow.



* Online Sites For Tying Half-Size or Yukata Obi's

Hanaya-no-ji and Kai-no-kuchi at Waku: 【花矢の字結び】【貝の口結び】

Funwari at Waku: 【ふんわり結び】

Bunko-fu Half-Tie and Ya-no-ji at Waku: 【文庫風 片結びアレンジ】【矢の字風】

How to Tie Obi's and Sundry Info at Yukataya: 着物の種類・豆知識　

How to Tie Bunko Bow at Yukataya: 「文庫結び」



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