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Tuesday, December 20, 2005
about kimonos
during yesterday's japanese class, my teacher told us something about kimonos that i didn't know beforehand. so thought that i will share this info to all of ya too... very interesting...
for those keen observers, you will know that there are kimonos with long sleeves, and kimonos with normal length ones... those with long long ones, we see many of such especially in seijin no hi (adult day), when gals who turn 20 that year will all wear kimonos and attend some municipal function and visit shrines upon reaching adulthood. initially i had thought that the long sleeves ones are for young gals... but i was wrong... turned out that they are worn by female who are unmarried, i.e. a 40 year old spinster can also wear that, though i have not seen any yet ;p wearing that will be equivalent to declaring to the whole world (japan only) that you are unmarried...
that's not all... this cultural practice dates back many many years ago. make it 1500 years ago (as estimated by my teacher). during that time, japanese don't have futons (those mattress and blanket combos japs use to sleep on their tatamis nowadays) and tatamis. more specifically, they do have tatamis, but they dun line the whole floor with it, unless you are real rich. they usually have 1 tatami mat just to sleep on, and a few half sized ones to sit on. so no futon how to survive in such a cold winter?
their kimono doubles up as their futon.
because during that time, kimono is the standard wear, they do have lots of kimono outfits, and so, they have many blankets to use. and of course, those with longer sleeve (maybe broader is a better term) can offer more surface area to cover oneself with. so why would unmarried gals need more blanket area?
to attract guys to come share their blankets with.
my teacher was saying, if gals are walking along the streets swaying their long, broad sleeves, it will mean that they are announcing that they are available, and are trying to attract guys to share their comfort with at night... realised i just wrote that in present tense, although this may not be so in the present era... but people who know about this get this idea when they do see gals nowadays swaying their sleeves obliviously.
and one more thing. in the past, even after marriage, the man and the woman live separately. the man will go over to the wife's house at night to spend the night, and return to his own house or work during the day time. this would of course mean that the men at that time can have many "wives"... interesting to note that once they get married, the woman's kimono size will decrease, hence "incentive" for the guy to look for another woman who offer a larger kimono.. heh... easy to pick up new ones, just need to see who is swaying their sleeves offering to share their kimonos with in the night. the man and wife will only need to stay together if they have offsprings.
should be able to find some info regarding this over the net, but not now lah.. maybe if any of you can, let me know ;)
posted by winz at 9:41 AM
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