When my wife and I were running a vintage kimono shop, an order for a fukuro obi came in from Bhutan. I took the package to the small post office near our home, and the woman at the counter looked at the address and tilted her head. “Bhutan…?... Read More | Share it now!
Kimono has inspired the world of beauty to this day. Perhaps the most striking encounter came in the late 19th century, when Europe first met not kimonos themselves, but ukiyo-e prints depicting women wearing them.Let’s start with Danae... Read More | Share it now!
Behind a customer's complaint, the story of a vintage meisen haori from Japan — silk woven from waste cocoons (tsumugi), once worn by ordinary women in the earl...
The National Yarn Factory was established in Tomioka, Gumma in 1872. It is the Japanese first full-scale machine spinning factory. The Meiji state had begun to put in place the infrastructure of a capitalist industrial economy by the early 1880s. Then,... Read More | Share it now!
The Peak production of cocoons in Japan was around 1930.The rural areas of northern and western Tokyo became influential production areas. Agrarian society played a critical role in the economic transformation of Meiji(1868-192) Japan. It was a vital... Read More | Share it now!