05 Thursday Apr 2012
Tags
Darari, Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Hassaku, Hiki, Hikizuri, Holiday, Japanese, Kimono, Kitsuke, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Okiya, Susohiki
This is an ongoing series of posts. To learn more, please read the previous posts in this series:
Dude, It’s A Darari!
Mystery Mon…Kind of Solved?
Darari Mystery Mon 3.0
Kikyou Knot Mon Part 4
To recap, I have been researching an alternate mon (crest) which is used by the Tama okiya (geisha house) of Gion Kobu, which is known as the “Kikyo Knot” 結び桔梗, seen here:
21 Saturday Jan 2012
Tags
Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Katsura, Kimono, Mon, Okiya, Susohiki, Vintage, Wig
Thanks everyone who responded about the blog sale! I was able to match almost every item I had for sale up with a loving home. So glad to know that they’ll be going to people who will take care of them. 
So, I have a confession to make….one of my resolutions this year was to not buy any more kimono. For the same reasons that I held the sale, actually…no room, and needing to start saving money. Well, as it turns out, as soon as I got the money in from the sale, this gorgeous hikizuri I had been watching (but never planned to buy) went down in price by over half. I told myself I would not buy it even at that price, but made the seller an offer just for fun. They counter-offered, and it just so happened that it was about the amount I had made from the sale, so….I bought it. Looking at the pictures, I think you can tell why:
16 Wednesday Nov 2011
Tags
bacchus, Darari, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Katsuyoshi, kikyo, kikyou, Kimono, knot, magazine, Maiko, Mamekazu, Mon, Obi, Okiya, scans, Susohiki, Vintage
It just keeps on popping up! Thanks to Jaki-san on IG, I now have even more photos of the “Musubi Kikyou” kamon in use!
I actually lost this 1985 “Kyo Maiko” book to Jaki in a bidding war on YJA….thankfully, she won it and was awesome enough to post the scans for me!
08 Monday Aug 2011
Tags
Darari, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Katsuyoshi, Kimono, Kitsuke, magazine, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Okiya, Susohiki, Vintage
Over the past few months, I’ve been researching the maiko who wore my blue mountain hikizuri, pictured below:
Her name was Katsuyoshi (佳つ好), of Gion Kobu. So far, I have been able to determine that she was a maiko during the 1980s-early 1990s. It’s been kind of hard to find anything about her, as she only appears officially in one Miyako Odori program: the 1990 one that may have well been her last year as a maiko.
08 Wednesday Jun 2011
Tags
Darari, Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Kimono, magazine, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Okiya, scans, Susohiki, Vintage
If you remember from the posts Dude, It’s a Darari! and Mystery Mon…Kind of Solved?, I have been researching an alternate mon which is used by the Tama okiya of Gion Kobu, which is known as the “Kikyo Knot” 結び桔梗, seen here:
Thanks to the help of several members of the IG forums, I now have even more pictures of this mon being used!
10 Tuesday May 2011
Tags
Darari, eBay, Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Japanese, Kimono, Kitsuke, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Shopping, Vintage
I am writing this post in the interest of keeping those of my readers who collect maiko items from potentially losing a lot of money, and to also give you a heads up.
Recently, there has been a case of a seller on ebay named hope-kiboutrying to sell darari obi that they do not own.
Those of you who are IG members can view the original discussion thread here.
Basically, this seller claimed to have a ro darari in their possession that they were selling on ebay for a starting price of $1.00 USD. Below are the photos from the auction:
20 Wednesday Apr 2011
Tags
Darari, eBay, Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Kimono, magazine, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Okiya, Ro, sale, Shopping, Susohiki, Vintage
So…those maiko hikizuri and darari obi sales that ryujapan99 had over the weekend? Well, when it was just the darari up on eBay, I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy anything. (Since I already have a darari, and I knew they’d go for a lot of money.) Then the maiko hikizuri were put up for auction. I knew these would go for significantly less, and was oh-so-tempted. To deter myself from purchasing though, I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy one unless I found a picture of a maiko wearing it. I thought that this would be a good way to keep me busy and away from the bidding. Since there are so many hikizuri that are worn without being photographed (and since the hiki for sale were vintage and therefore from a time when not so many photographs were taken of maiko as there are today), I figured that the chances of finding a picture were slim enough to be a deterrent. That worked fairly well…until I found the picture hehe. :p
So, please allow me to introduce to you my second maiko hiki ever….this time, it’s blue with multi-colored mountains and golden squares. I seem to have a thing for the bold graphic hiki. (Then again, I have a thing for any boldy patterned kimono haha)
14 Thursday Apr 2011
Tags
Darari, eBay, Fashion, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Kimono, Kitsuke, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Vintage
It’s a maiko-lover’s dream. EBay seller ryujapan99 currently has not one, but 3 darari obi (one of them ro!) as well as 3 maiko hikizuri (one also ro!) up for sale right now. Bidding is, of course, ultra-crazy as of the moment. All of it is too rich for my blood. (And paycheck) I might consider going after the blue maiko hiki, but I’ll have to wait and see what the price is closer to the auction’s end. If you have several-hundred dollars just lying around that you have no idea what to do with, someone who has been looking forever for a darari and must have it, or if you’re a maiko collector who has some money, you might want to check out these listings!!! (Remember though, all is fair in love and ebay auctions, guys. The person with the most money to spend is the winner. Which, unfortunately, is definitely not me haha. 
)
Link to the crazy-fest is here
Happy bidding! If someone wins one of these, please let me know, I’d love to see pics! <3
27 Thursday Jan 2011
Posted in Buying Sprees, Geisha, kimono, Kimono Projects, Kitsuke, maiko, obi
Tags
Darari, eBay, Geiko, Geisha, Hiki, Hikizuri, Japanese, Katsura, Kimono, Kitsuke, Maiko, Mon, Obi, Obidome, Okiya, Projects, Vintage
Last week, I brought my maiko hikizuri, darari obi, okobo, and maiko wig onto campus to show the professor of the East Asian Civilization course that I took last semester. It was really great to have been able to show them off and talk about maiko and geiko kimono/traditions with him!
Today, as I was unpacking everything from the suitcase I stored them in, I realized that I had no photos of my hiki except the ones from the internet listing, which made it look washed-out! As I was getting ready to take a few pictures, I decided to “dress up” my hikizuri with all the maiko accessories I already own, to get an idea of what it’ll look like when I dress up in maiko henshin. (Btw, all I need for that now is a maiko collar, a junior wisteria kanzashi set, the oshiroi makeup, and juban/hadajuban sets. Obiage too if I end up buying one and not making my own, and a pair of non-lacquered okobo if I’m going for super-accurate…but those are secondary items on my list.)
Here is my Hiroshimaya okiya maiko hikizuri:
22 Wednesday Dec 2010
So, remember how I couldn’t find another picture of the mon that’s on my darari obi, no matter where I looked? Turns out, I was looking in the wrong place the entire time.
I assumed that since the okiya which used this mon is no longer active in Gion, and that since the only picture that had the same mon was from the 70s, that I should be searching the vintage photographs of maiko to try and see if I could spot it. Well….
