Lunchtime Kitsuke

A quick shot from lunch with DH at Ichiban, where I worked years ago. The weather is so hot outside already, really, I should be in summer kimono all year. It was around 80F today, with high humidity... so... Japanese weather? The outer kosode and inner juban are both silk. To be honest, I didn't bother with a third layer under the juban (don't do that! Not having a cotton layer underneath can make your silk rot faster) but I was still way too overheated. If it weren't for the blinding sun and high UV rating, we'd probably have gone to the beach instead!

Even inside, it can be hard to cool off. When it's 80F-ish outside, you can only expect it to be maybe 75F inside in a small restaurant, since the doors open and close all the time. Still the food is good and fairly cheap, and the tea room is filled with framed noren and ukiyo-e prints, so it's comfortable and attractive!

This time, I didn't have a flat obijime that I liked with the obi, so I used two thin kumihimo that are of the variety used in furisode decoration instead. The obiage is plain white, partially shibori- I think I have nothing less formal that isn't sha silk. The obi itself was billed as a Nagoya obi, I think, but it's actually a fukuro that is very floppy and double-sided. One side is brightly patterned with royal blue and white plaid; red, white, and olive green botan (peonies); and bright metallic gold peacocks with hearts in their feathers. The other side is smooth olive silk, no pattern at all. The shigoki obi is only slightly darker than the peonies and is a very thin, loose gauze with a shadow-pattern of birds and tree branches. The kosode, a basket-patterned web, giving (hopefully) the illusion of air moving through the fabric.

All in all, it's a colour scheme I am very comfortable in. My current boss asked me to come to work in kimono one day... but it's a restaurant. Maybe I'll look into a synthetic outfit that I can wash more easily.