May 29, 2008

Kimono Shop in Kawagoe

I visited the city of Kawagoe in Saitama prefecture on May 27. This city is also called Koedo (small Edo [Edo is the old name of Tokyo]), and old buildings are line along both sides of a street in an area of the city, where a lot of people visit for sightseeing.

This time, I went to a kimono shop in this city to pick up my kimono that I had ordered the shop to tailor me previously in April. The kimono shop, called Kasama, is selling some types of material cloth for kimono, and among those, one type is called Kawagoetozan, which is specialty products of the city. Kawagoetozan is a cotton textile and not so expensive as a silk textile. However, woven from fine threads, it has quite a soft and smooth finish, even with a slight luster. If you want to enjoy wearing kimono frequently in daily life, Kawagoetozan is a right choice; this textile is low-priced, beautiful, and easy to wash because it is cotton.


(Inside of the Kasama kimono shop)

This time, I payed 28,200 yen for my kimono including for textile and tailoring work. Since I am quite a tall guy as a Japanese man (actually, I am 188 cm tall), a bolt of textile is not sufficient to make my kimono and I always need additional cloth, which raises the price of my kimono. So, if you are not so tall as I am, the price of your kimono may be lower.

The photos below show my kimono. I have not worn it yet and I am looking forward to a chance to wear it.



Today's Sake
Daishichi Junmai Kimono (Daishichi Sake Brewery Co., Ltd.)
I drank this sake in an Izakaya when I visited Kawagoe city last time to order my kimono on April 29. I think this is a typical Kimoto sake. Very bold and rich taste! Some people may like this but other may not. I like sake like this.

5 comments:

J-tsy said...

Thank you for your post on your purchase of kimono. I wondered does Kasama make custom-made Haori? Can you receommend some other shops to me?

いちべー said...

Yes, Kasama makes a custom-made haori.
Do you have some kimonos already? Or, do you want to start enjoying kimono? If the latter is the case, I think you can buy secondhand kimonos.
In my case, being a tall guy, I need to have the shop make kimono of my size. In addition to cotton-kimonos from Kasama, I have bought custom-made silk kimono at kimono shops near Bakurocho Station.
http://www.kimonom.jp/shops_detail.php?shop_id=6

J-tsy said...

hi there
Thank you for your recommendation. I had checked on the link provided and they are awesome with the varieties of kimono cloth.

Actually I want to make a replica of a silk haori wore by Umeya Shokichi(梅屋庄吉)back in the 1900's. I have the pictures of the actual haori and even the dimension. My cousin who worked in the sonbun(孫文) singapore nanyang museum is planning an exhibition in may 2013. This exhbition talks about sonbun-sama network during his days in Japan.

I have tried looking around some shops in Tokyo but it seems so difficult. I remembered seeing a lot of gofuku shops during my visit to kawagoe matsuri.

What do you think is kawagoe a better choice? some shops even had the silk wovening factory right?

Anyway i appreciate your help here and really happy that i can converse english to you directly.

いちべー said...

Janet,
You mean your cousin wants to exhibit a replica of the silk haori and you want to make it?
I think you should first find material for it. Then, you can ask a kimono shop to make a custom-made haori.
As to whether Kawagoe is a better choice, I am not sure. And I think many shops are purchasing kimono material from wholesalers and I guess there are not many that own weaving factories.

J-tsy said...

Hi ichibay-san

You were right about my intentions. and you know what, i had went down to Kawagoe last weekend.

The lady at Kasama was very nice. Although i couldn't give her the deal, she recommended me to go kanda which is just 5 mins down the street.

Kanda is indeed a bigger scale shop. Too bad that the boss wasn't around, however the staffs were helpful too. I told them to help me to ask from wholesalers after hearing from you. haha... :P

Actually i also went to the kimono yamato, the staffs were not only young but also not very helpful. I was quite disappointed maybe because i used too much english. They were kinda unfriendly and told me that i had to look for the person who served me previously despite that i went there 3 times not knowing the person is around or not.-_-'''

Anyway, i still want to thank you for this conversation.May i find what i want and will continue to look out to your future blogs. All the best.

Cheers
Janet