Showing posts with label kigo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kigo. Show all posts

2008/06/09

Kasuri Ikat

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Kasuri Ikat Patterns 絣ダルマ模様
絣(かすり)とだるまさんの模様





Throughout the Edo period (1600-1868) the Tokugawa Shogunate issued strict sumptuary laws regarding the textiles for use by urban merchants. Forbidden to wear heavy brocades and damasks, 17th-century merchants and their wives turned to the dyers, who were soon producing textiles to rival the finest woven products in style, variety, skill, and sheer expense.

Silk kosode made of tiny-pointed tie-dye (kanoko 鹿の子) and yuzen, a composite painting technique employing rice-paste resist, characterized the mid-Edo period. Recently domesticated cotton, as well as asa stripes, checks, stencil and paste resist (katazome 型染め) and
hazy-patterned ikat (kasuri 絣) textiles were typical of the late 18th and 19th centuries.
quote from
Overview of Woven and Dyed Textiles
source : museum/textile

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quote
Kasuri (Ikat)
These ikat fabrics are made by selectively binding and dyeing parts of the warp or weft threads, or even both, before the fabric is woven. It is an arduous and exacting process. For either silk or cotton fabrics, the threads are stretched on a frame, selected design areas are bound, then the hanks of bound threads are immersed in the dye pots.
(Photo)
For warp ikats (as shown below), it's the warp threads that are bound and dyed. The fabric is woven with plain wefts, as all of the patterning is in the warps. The irregular, feathery design outlines are a characteristic feature, where the dye seeps under the bindings slightly. In contrast, vertical pattern lines are crisp and smooth.


For weft kasuri, more juggling is possible. It's the wefts that are bound selectively and dyed, and the weaver has a little freedom in positioning the dyed pattern areas exactly during the weaving process. This makes quite complex motifs possible. It presumes, however, that the bindings were done with much care and precision. Fabric ornamentation with elaborate weft-ikat motifs is known as "picture kasuri," or e-gasuri 絵絣. Sometimes the warps are printed or painted before the final weaving process. The fabric below appears to combine techniques.
(Photo)
For meisen ikat 銘仙,  both warp and weft are bound and dyed. Distinctive effects are produced by combining or crossing the resisted areas.

For detailed descriptions of these processes, I recommend
Jun and Noriko Tomita's, Japanese Ikat Weaving
London, 1982
source : www.marlamallett.com



The various Japanese techniques of tying and dyeing warps before weaving are explained in great detail in this small book. The authors assume that the reader has basic weaving knowledge. Both warp and weft kasuri techniques are described:
Tegukuri Gasuri, Surikomi Gasuri, Itajime Gasuri, Orijime Gasuri, Hogushi Gasuri, Kushi-Oshi Gasuri, Fukiyose Gasuri, and Bokashi Gasuri.
Both natural and synthetic indigo processes are described.

source : Books on Japanese Textiles

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The Kasuri Ikat Collection of Jeff Krauss








© Ikat Collection of Jeff Krauss

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絣(だるまさんに幾何学模様)
old piece of Matrial from the Nishiguchi Collection


© kofu-nishiguti.com

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Dark blue indigo robe with Daruma pattern





© sensyo


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Iyogasuri, Iyo Kasuri 伊予絣 Ikat from Iyo
A speciality from the region of Iyo, Ehime Prefecture 愛媛県, especially Matsuyama City.


Heart-warming Handmade Design Iyo-kasuri is said to have originated over 190 years ago when Kana Kagiya watched the changing of a straw-woven roof of a farmer's house and came up with the idea of using shapes similar to the ones left imprinted on the old roof by bamboo upholding it, in the design for cloth.

Iyo-gasuri is created through the following painstaking processes:

seikei 整経 - formatting the number and the length of vertical and horizontal threads;
seiren 精錬 - boiling the threads in hot water for about half a day to strengthen them;
kukuri 括り - threading together the parts to be dyed;
senshoku  染色 - dying each thread with natural indigo;
ori  織り - weaving the threads into high quality cloth.

The long and elaborate processes are what give the iyo-kasuri its distinctive look, and allow people to enjoy the warmth of the spirit of the craft.
source : www.ehime-iinet.or.jp


立秋の紺落ち付くや伊予絣
risshuu no kon ochitsuku ya Iyogasuri

the dark blue
is relaxing at the beginning of autumn -
ikat from Iyo


. Natsume Soseki 夏目漱石 .


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San-In-gasuri 山陰絣 (San-in no Kasuri)




. San-In-gasuri 山陰絣 San-In Kasuri -
Ikat from Tottori 鳥取県 - Introduction .

広瀬 Hirose, 倉吉 Kurayoshi and 弓浜 Yumihama.

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..... Kimono, Yukata, Nagajuban 着物、浴衣、長じゅばん



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2008/04/21

Edo Toys and beni lipstick

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浮世絵のなかの江戸玩具―
消えたみみずく、だるまが笑う


藤岡 摩里子 (著)

Toys in Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints
in the Edo Period
Mariko Fujioka

The Lost Owl and Laughing Daruma


ISBN978-4-7845-0936-2

This book features three ukiyo-e works of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) , born in the late Edo Period.
What these three prints have in common is the figure of an owl toy.
Very few people know what it means. Let's take a look as to how this owl toy originally developed in Japan.

第3章 だるま、みみずくにグチる   
─ みみずくとだるまの江戸時代におけるイメージ
みみずくとだるま
国芳の疱瘡絵から(3)擬人化されたみみずく・だるま
Daruma complains to the owl

第4章 みみずく、だるまとともに役者になる   
─擬人化されたみみずく・だるま誕生の背景と幕末の浮世絵
江戸の遊び・娯楽
Daruma and the owl become real heroes in the Edo period

© www.shahyo.com




CLICK for more photos !

This kind of owl image and toy was used in the Edo period to ward off the smallpox.


hoosoo-e 疱瘡絵 prints to protect children from smallpox
red prints 赤絵 aka-e


Hoosoo 疱瘡 Smallpox, Red and Daruma
(Essay by Bernard Faure)

- Introduction to smallpox -


. hoosoo 疱瘡 伝説 Hoso - Legends about Smallpox .

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歌川国芳 江戸東京博物館蔵
Utagawa Kuniyoshi





CLICK for originan link ... www.kumon.ne.jp
赤い羽子板 akai hago-ita
with a lady Daruma, for a girl





www.yamamoto-museum.com



疱瘡の神 God of Smallpox
Daruma with toys of children

http://nire.main.jp/sb/log/eid155.html






source :  www.eisai.co.jp/museum with more "red images"

Momotaro and Daruma ... 桃太郎とだるま


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kigo for late winter

CLICK for more photos

kanbeni 寒紅 かんべに "crimson lipstick made in the cold"
kanbeni uri 寒紅売(かんべにうり)vendor of crimson lipstick

ushibeni 丑紅(うしべに) "bull lipstick"
"crimson bought on the day of the ox" ushibeni lipstick

This was used to prevent illnesses, like cold and the smallpox. You had to buy it on the day of the ox in the middle of the cold season to be effective. You put it on the lips and it would kill all the bacteria in your mouth. The girls of Edo and Kyoto loved to use this.

It was not really a stick, but a paste sold in little pots or small shells and smeared on the lips with the little finger. On the day of the ox and before that, vendors would walk along the streets, calling their ware. And the shops put up little paper signs announcing they got the "lipstick made in the cold", which was said to be the best and most shining.

. WKD . benibana 紅花 Safflower and kurenai red  
used to produce this BENI lipstick.



土産には京の寒紅伊勢の箸
dosan ni wa Kyoo no kanbeni Ise no hashi

as souvenirs
kanbeni lipstick from Kyoto
chopsticks from Ise



丑紅を皆濃くつけて話しけり
ushibeni o mina koku tsukete hanashikeri

with a thick layer
of ushibeni lipstick
they all talk happily


Takahama Kyoshi 虚子


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丑紅にをんなとなりし瞳すゞし
ushibeni ni onna to narishi doo suzushi

with ushibeni lipstick
I become a woman -
cool pupils (of my eye)


Nozawa Junsui 野沢順水


. WKD : Lips and Lipstick .



soource : 2004 大阪府立中之島図書館
http://ningyodo.library.pref.osaka.jp/cgi-bin/work.cgi
Daruma doll and Ushibeni in a container like an oxen.


Ushi, the bull, the oxen, the cow and Daruma



伊勢半本店 紅ミュージアム Isehan Beni Museum
企画展 『江戸の赤』 Edo no Aka
2009年10月3日~11月29日

CLICK for more photos
Exhibition : The color RED of Edo
(October 2009)

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kurenaishi 紅師 making lip red from safflowers
They also used the color to dye cloth.
beni seizo shokunin 紅製造職人

. Edo shokunin 江戸の職人 Edo craftsmen .


江戸の化粧 Edo no Kesho - 陶智子 Sue Tomoko

. 江戸美人の化粧 Cosmetics of the Edo Bijin Beauties .


薬指すりこ木にする紅の猪口
kusuriyubi surikoki ni suru beni no choku

using the fourth finger
like a pestle
in the lipstick dish


Senryu from Edo

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 .



紅皿にうはうけにけり春の雪
beni-zara ni uwauke ni keri haru no yuki

onto a small dish
of red lipstick
spring snow


This hokku is from the eleventh month (December) in 1823, the year in which Issa's wife Kiku died in the fifth month. A month later, in January 1824, Issa's remaining son also died, leaving him completely without a family. In the tenth and eleventh months, after having left his ailing infant son with a couple who could nurse him, he mostly stayed with various students living in towns near his village. Perhaps he saw snow falling on a woman's lipstick dish left on a porch, or he could have been remembering his wife's lipstick dish from the early spring of this or a previous year. Or he may have been looking at his wife's partially used lipstick dish, which she left behind when she died.

Japanese women (and Kabuki actors) used lipstick, that is, red lip dye (beni), which was sold brushed onto the surface of small dishes (or sometimes inside bowls). The dye was brushed on as if it were lacquer, in many very thin layers, each of which was allowed to dry before the next layer was applied, so the pigment was concentrated and lasted a long time. To redden their lips (or make cheek rouge by mixing in white makeup) at times of special ceremonies or celebrations, women wet the outer lipstick layer on the dish with a brush or a finger, and the water turned the green (if it was expensive) or dark burgundy (if it was cheap) lipstick pigment into anything from pink to bright crimson, depending on the amount of water used.

The word uwa-uke is a Japanese word that is often written either 上受け or 上請け, though Issa simply uses phonetic hiragana symbols. Issa's collected works 4.460 gives mama ママ beside uwa-uke. This means sic, 'as it stands,' so uwa-uke must be the word Issa intended. The word means 'received (from) above,' 'placed on/upon.' In modern Japanese it is most commonly used for the English term FOB, 'Freight on board,' referring to freight being completely loaded onto a ship or train. It is also used in karate to refer to receiving an opponent's thrust from above in such a way that the opponent is thrown down onto the mat. In Issa's hokku it probably means that the dish is receiving or blessing and being blessed by snowflakes. The snow is not simply falling but is being received and accepted by the plate. Even if the actual season is winter, Issa uses "spring snow." If the season is winter, this would mean that the large wet flakes of snow were more like spring than winter snow.

Spring also suggests warmth, including the warmth of the woman who uses or used the dish and the implied warm water on her finger as she dissolves a little pigment to use on her lips. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, "spring" also commonly connotes love, sensual beauty, or even erotic attraction. The wet snowflakes must be turning the dry layers of lipstick on the dish a very bright crimson, creating a strong contrast with the snow, whose color suggests the white of Japanese makeup. This color combination would go together well if the hokku is a vision or a memory of Issa's dead wife, who is momentarily brought back to life either before his eyes or in his mind by the hot flare of red on the wet plate occasioned by the snow.

Chris Drake


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The color red is first mentioned in Chinese chronicles, when Princess Himiko send woven robes at presents to the court.

kooseiken 絳青縑(こうせいけん)

The red color KOO 絳 was produced dying with akane red.


. RED in Japanese Culture


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Picture Puzzles, Rebus Pictuers - hanji-e  江戸の判じ絵

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Fukuro Daruma ふくろだるま


Present from my friend Ishino


source : lazy13.exblog.jp/page


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手遊尽し Teasobi Tsukushi Prints by (歌川重宣)Utagawa Shigenobu


BOOKS about Daruma
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2007/12/01

WKD - Orchids Ran

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Orchid "Daruma"

Purple Rain‘Daruma’




ブラソレリオカトレヤ(ポーツ・オブ・パラダイス ‘グレネイリーズ・グリーン・ジャイアント’× パープル・レイン ‘ダルマ’)‘ジェントル・ブリーズ’

© nishiguchi BLOG

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Purple Rain DARUMA
パープル レイン ダルマ




© aiaipark.com


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Orchidaceae,
commonly referred to as the Orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots. It is currently believed to be the second largest family of flowering plants (only the Asteraceae is larger), with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, found in 880 genera.
The name comes from the Greek "orkhis", literally meaning "testicle", because its root has a similar shape. The term was introduced in 1845 by John Lindley in "School Botany".
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !



Japanese orchid garden shows, Orchid Japan
Reference


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Fûkiran, fuukiran (富貴蘭)
is a Japanese orchid and is translated as
"Orchid of the rich and noble"
, as it was collected by daimyô and samurai. The common name is fûran (fuuran, wind orchid) and the genus/species is 'Neofinetia falcata'. All of these three names are used interchangeably.

These Japanese orchids are grown for the entire plant, not just the flower, with the foliage being the most admired part of the plant. The shapes, patterns, and coloration of the foliage are the most important attributes. The mind-set required to enjoy the delicate variations in shape or stripe of the leaves rather than esteeming the flowers may have something in common with the Japanese taste for the quiet and simple.

Shared by Steve Weiss
Joys of Japan


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quote
Dendrophylax lindenii, the Ghost Orchid
- not to be confused with the
Eurasian Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum) - is a perennial epiphyte from the orchid family (Orchidaceae). Other common names include Palm Polly and White Frog Orchid. Formerly classified under Polyrrhiza this orchid has recently been moved to the genus Dendrophylax.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !




in the rotted hollow
of a tree stump the ghost orchid
reappears


- Shared by Alan Pizzarelli -
Joys of Japan, 2012




host orchids
by the cemetery gate –
I think of monkfish


- Shared by Stella Pierides -
Joys of Japan, 2012


. Anglerfish, angler fish (ankoo 鮟鱇) monkfish .


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H A I K U


kigo for early summer

iwachchidori, iwa chidori 巖千鳥 (いわちどり)
"rock chidori birds"
Amitostigma keiskei



shiran 紫蘭 (しらん) "violet orchid" bletilla
Bletilla is a temperate, terrestrial genus of orchids containing 9 species distributed through China, Japan and Taiwan and Vietnam.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !


suzuran 鈴蘭 (すずらん) "bell orchid"
..... kimikage soo 君影草(きみかげそう)"plant of your shadow"
lily of the valley. Convallaria keiskei. Maiglöckchen


tsukubanesoo no hana 衝羽根草の花 (つくばねそうのはな)
Paris tetraphylla. kind of herb Paris
very seldom plant.


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kigo for mid-summer

sekkoku no hana 石斛の花 (せっこくのはな)
..... sekkoku 石斛(せっこく)Japanese Stone Orchid
Dendrobium moniliforme


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kigo for late summer

chidorisoo 千鳥草 (ちどりそう) "Chidori bird plant"
Gymnadenia conopsea. テガタチドリ


fuuran 風蘭 (ふうらん) "wind orchid"
Neofinetia falcata, Angraecum falcatum
Neofinetia falcata is a species of orchid found in China, Korea, and Japan.


gankooran 岩高蘭 (がんこうらん) Empetrum nigrum
var. japonicum


kochooran, kochoo ran 胡蝶蘭 (こちょうらん)
"orchid like a lake butterfly", moth orchid
..... uchooran 羽蝶蘭(うちょうらん)
Orchis graminifolia
iwaran, iwa ran 岩蘭(いわらん)"cliff orchid"
Arima ran 有馬蘭(ありまらん) "orchid from Arima"
Phalaenopsis



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kigo for mid-autumn

ran 蘭 (らん) orchid
shuuran 秋蘭(しゅうらん)autumn orchid
..... ran no aki 蘭の秋(らんのあき)autumn of the orchid
ran no hana 蘭の花(らんのはな)orchid flower
ran no ka 蘭の香(らんのか) fragrance of an orchid
Fam. Orchidea. Orchidee


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kigo for all winter

katorea カトレア cattleya

. . . CLICK here for Photos !


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kigo for early winter

kanran 寒蘭 (かんらん) orchids in the cold


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夜の欄香にかくれてや花白し
yoru no ran ka ni kakurete ya hana shiroshi

white flowers
hidden in its fragrance -
evening orchids


Yosa Buson


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蘭の秋心華やぐ午後の茶
ran no aki kokoro hanayagu gogo no cha

flamboyant orchids in autumn
tea in the afternoon


source : tokino



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orchid show
an eclipsed moon
follows me home


source : paula


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. rangetsu 蘭月(らんげつ) "orchid month"  
august


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Wild orchids in my area, Ohaga, Japan


Photo Gabi Greve, 2010

Click on the photo for more pictures.



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. Philippines SAIJIKI  

Vanda
is a genus in the orchid family (Orchidaceae) which, although not large (about fifty species), is one of the most important florally. This genus and it allies are considered to be the most highly evolved of all orchids within Orchidaceae. The genus is very highly prized in horticulture for its showy, fragrant, long lasting, and intensely colorful flowers.
The name "Vanda"
is derived from the Sanskrit name for the species Vanda tessellata.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !


August daybreak...
peach Vanda blooms exude
brilliant colors


Willie Bongcaron


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as if mocking
the red tongue of the Vanda
sticks out



the most popular Vanda variety here is the Vanda sanderiana, or locally known as the
waling-waling

- Shared by Bos Tsip
Joys of Japan, 2012


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. YEMEN SAIJIKI  


Some orchids bloom only in March-April, others all year round and some after or with the rainy season.

orchid, just like this, is therefore a
TOPIC for haiku in Yemen.
specially named orchids could become a kigo.


clouds gather
amid the mountains
orchid fragrance

***

climbing up
Jabel Raymah..
scent of orchids

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well
grounded in Yemen..
Arabian orchid

***

responding to orchids..
the bee
the man



Heike Gewi
Kigo Hotline, September 2010


Reference : Orchid Arabia

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quote
In the case of this particular Ophrys, that animal is a relative of the bumblebee. The orchid offers no nectar or pollen reward; rather, it seduces male bees with the promise of bee sex and then insures its pollination by frustrating precisely the desire it has excited.
The orchid accomplishes its sexual deception by mimicking the appearance, scent, and even the tactile experience of a female bee. The flower, in other words, traffics in something very much like metaphor: This stands for that. Not bad for a vegetable.
source : nationalgeographic.com


人賎しく蘭の価を論じけり
hito iyashiku ran no atai o ronji keri

Men are disgusting.
They argue over
The price of orchids.

Tr. Alex Kerr

Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規


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. PLANTS in all seasons - SAIJIKI


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2007/07/14

Comb (kushi) kanzashi and hair

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kushi 櫛 comb, Kamm

Famous combs in Japan are made of boxwood
(tsuge gushi 柘植櫛).

The combs are usually soaked in camellia oil to keep their shine for many years. They also prevent static electricity to develop.

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Japanese boxwood comb does not create static helping make all hair look beautiful.

Carved Boxwood comb -Daruma-



Detail


© japanesetradition.net / Sanrokudo070715




Dragon design and more, click the thumbnail.

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A dreary feeling
in a spring night
It's hard to shake off
I comb my long hair
Until my heart’s content


Yosano Akiko


JAPANESE COMBS AND HAIR ORNAMENTS
By Ed Jacob

A Japanese comb is about much more than just styling your hair. Some 400 years ago, Japan took the simple comb and transformed it into an elegant beauty accessory that became a work of art. Japanese kushi (combs) and kanzashi (hairpins) became expressions of a woman’s character, social class, religion, and people could even tell what neighbourhood someone lived in by looking at their hair ornaments .

According to an ancient Japanese proverb, “A woman’s hair is her life” (Kami wa onna no inochi) and from the early 1600’s until the beginning of the modern era, decorative combs and hairpins called kanzashi have been an important part of Japanese fashion.

Western style jewelry such as rings, necklaces and bracelets was not worn in Japan until the modern era. Instead, women decorated their hair. The elaborate hairstyles (mage), of the Edo period required a tremendous amount of time and money to maintain, and the value of what a woman wore in her hair often far exceeded even the cost of the beautiful silken, gold brocade kimono she wore on her back. Hair was so important that it came to symbolize nearly every facet of her existence.

Looking at a woman’s hairstyle, you could tell what social class she belonged to, whether she was married or not, her age, and whether she had any children. Hair ornaments became important family heirlooms that were handed down from generation to generation, and in Kyoto, when a comb eventually wore out or was broken, it was saved until the Kompira Kushi Matsuri (Kyoto Comb Festival) and taken to a temple where prayers were said for its spirit, after which it was burned in a purifying ritual fire.

As lovely as Japanese combs are, however, they are almost never given as gifts because of a superstition that associates them with suffering and death. The word kushi, is associated with misfortune because it sounds like the words for suffering (ku) and death (shi). One should never give one as a present because it might bring death to the person and, similarly, it is considered unlucky to pick one another person’s comb because you may take on a person’s suffering.

Although decorative combs went out of fashion for the general public more than a hundred years ago, they are still worn with kimono, and if you know where to look, it is still possible to find craftsmen that make and sell them today. One such shop is Nijusan-ya (Jusanya), a tiny store hidden in plain sight in Kyoto’s bustling Shijo shopping district.

Nijyusan-ya means twenty three, a seemingly strange choice of name for a comb shop, and is puzzling even to Japanese people who aren’t in on the joke. It comes from a Japanese word for the special bamboo combs that are their specialty, called togushi. The characters used to write togushi have the same pronunciation as the numbers ten (to), nine (ku or gu) and four (shi). Add them up and you get the shop’s name, twenty three.

Nijusan-ya is very Kyoto. In typical Kyoto style, it does not advertise, has a tiny sign, and is the kind of place you could walk by 500 times without ever noticing. In business for more than 180 years, it has been at its present location in Kyoto’s downtown Shijo district for more than 60. They sell nothing but combs and hair ornaments, but their goods are of such high quality that they are able to compete with the cell-phone shops and trendy designer clothing boutiques nearby.

Kyoto has always been known for the quality of its gold, tortoise shell, mother of pearl, and lacquer work, and Kyogushi (Kyoto-style combs) are the most famous in the country. Kyoto’s combs have traditionally been made from boxwood from the island of Kyushu, which has become extremely rare and expensive. While other comb makers have resorted to importing low-priced boxwood from Thailand, Nijusan-ya insists on using only the domestic variety to ensure the quality of its products.

That is the secret to Nijusan-ya’s success. The owner, Isamu Kakie, like his father and his grandfather before him, is uncompromising in his adherence to tradition. Every last item in the shop is hand-crafted by skilled artisans who shape the wood by hand, and then spend hours or days decorating the products with the beautiful cranes, Mt. Fujis, chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms that make them so gorgeous.

ps
Hair ornaments could even be a deadly weapon.
Female ninja called kunoishi used them to rake the eyes of their victims while escaping or dipped them in poison to assassinate people. There are also many accounts of women using them to fend off male attackers.
- - - - - Ed Jacob

Juusanya 十三や Jusan-Ya
the word for comb is kushi, and it can also mean KU nine and SHI four, which add up to be 13, or 十三.
- reference source : 十三や -


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Orokugushi お六櫛 O-Roku Combs

Oroku-kushi


quote
"Oroku-gushi"... Small comb made from Minebari 峰榛 (wood)
from which about 100 teeth are sawed to width of only 10cm or less
... was known to the whole country as a special product of Nakasendo and a souvenir of the Ontakesan belief and the Zenkoji Temple visiting since Edo period.
Still, this Yabuhara-juku makes and keeps being loved as a traditional craft goods of the comb and Nagano Prefecture of utility goods.

The Nagano Prefecture Kiso-gun Kiso-mura is given to a rich forest and the head of a river in the village of the source of Kisogawa and has developed.
Yabuhara-juku located in the south of "Torii pass" called the most dangerous place of the Nakasendo was a stage of "Center point of Nakasendo" in Edo period,and the transportation node as divergence in the point of east and west and the Hida Road. "Orokugushi" is told to have come to be made from the Yabuhara-juku, year of the Kyouho era of Edo period.

Legend of Oroku-comb
There was a beautiful maiden name of "Oroku" in the Tsumago-jyuku. She was always worried about sickness of the head.
Oroku prayed to the Ontake-Daigongen as a certain traveler had taught one day. There was reporting..."Comb the hair with the hatchel made from the Minebali tree in the morning and evening. Your headache recovers without fail. " Oroku immediately made the comb of the Minebali,and she combed the hair every evening every morning.Then, her sickness was put away completely soon on several.
This was, and when the comb made from Minebali that was able to be taken in the vicinity was marketed to the traveler, "Oroku-gushi" became serious famous, and it was well known to the whole country.
It is said that it came to make Orokugushi also in the Yabuhara because the Minebali that is the material tree can be gathered near the Torii pass when becoming year of the Kyouho era.

Oroku-comb in Yabuhara 薮原宿原町
The article on Orokugushi is in Edo period is published in the book on Ota Shokusanjin's 'Jinjyutsu Kikou' (1802).

Orokugushi made the name known to the whole country in addition by the play of the original of Snto Kyoden 'Orokugushi Kiso no Adauchi' in 1807, and became a large fashion.
The thing that the house of 78 percent in the Yabuhara-jyuku was involved in the work of the comb is understood according to material in 1844 - 1848.
It is assumed that about one million combs were produced in the thicket field according to the record in 1876.
The comb made here is called to be "Orokugushi" generically in Yabuhara-jyuku. As for the kind of Orokugushi, a lot of various names are given by shape, the size, and the difference of how etc. to apply teeth.

Read more here

Comb making Tools
Traditional techniques
Craftsman lives
source : www.kisomura.net


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Satsuma tsugegushi 薩摩つげ櫛
boxwood combs from Kagoshima



made with various patterns of blossoms

In the middle of the Edo Period, when the Satsuma clan was engaged in the Kiso River embankment project, lower ranking samurai of the clan began making boxwood combs to supplement their incomes. The popularity of these lovely combs can be seen in the lyrics of a contemporary song:

"How I wish I were a boxwood comb,
so I could meet many ladies".


The final step in the production process is natural drying after soaking in camellia oil.
source : www.pref.kagoshima.jp

. Regional Folk Art from Japan - Kagoshima .


. Oita Folk Art - 大分県 Ōita .
Tsuge combs from Beppu 別府 .

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Further Reading

Tetsuo Ishihara,石原哲男
The Geisha Stylist Who Let His Hair Down
Nihongami no sekai 日本髪の世界. 舞妓の髪型編
The only man among Kyoto's last five keppatsu-shi, or hairdressers to the geisha, Ishihara is the coiffeur king of the most celebrated of the pleasure quarters surviving from old Japan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6563-2004Aug16.html


Kushi, kanzashi, keshōgu : Edo no kōgei :
Santorī Bijutsukan korekushon
くし・かんざし・化粧具 : 江戶の巧芸 : サントリ一美術館コレクション.
http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!silibraries&uri=full=3100001~!875560~!0#focus


Sawanoi Kushi Museum 櫛かんざし美術館
http://www.sawanoi-sake.com/kushi/index


Inquiry concerning hair ornaments
. . . PMJS : Listserve


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Kushi Matsuri 櫛祭り Kushi Comb Festival

Kyoto biyou bunka club (Kyoto cosmetics culture club) started it at 1961.
on the 4th Monday of September. Because one pronunciation in Japanese of 9-gatsu (September) is “ku-gatsu” and 4 is “shi”, the word that strung two words together becomes “Kushi” which means a comb.

The highlight of the festival is a procession of women who are doing up own hair to various Japanese coiffures, and wearing various kimonos, and making own faces up.
source : www.japan-hopper.com

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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. Edo shokunin 江戸の職人 Edo craftsmen .

kushishi, kushi shi 櫛師 comb maker
kushi shokunin 櫛職人 craftsman making combs



source : edoichiba.jp.kusi...

They made decorative combs for the ladies to beautify their coiffure.
Since the ladies did not wash their hair as often as it is done now, they had to make use of comps regularly.



The fashionable ladies of Edo had three favorite items
first the Kushi
second the Obi (sash)
third the Kosode (Kimono with short sleeves)

The wood for a comb was mostly tsuge 楊 boxwood, but shitan 紫檀 red sandalwood, kokutan 黒檀 Ebony Diospyros and other light wood was also used.
The wood was cut into a rough form and then let sit to dry for three or more years.
Ivory, bekkoo 鼈甲 Bekko tortoiseshell, horn of deer and even bamboo were also used.


喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 - 1806) kushi 櫛

- quote -
The Art of Japanese Hair Comb Patterns
(Kushi Hinagata)

by Stephen J. Gertz
Sometime post-1905, an anonymous gentleman in Japan, wishing to preserve his collection of rice-paper rubbings of setsu kushi hinagata (patterns of miniature combs), took three issues of Japan Art Society Reports from the 37th Year of the Meiji (1905), mounted the rubbings on each page, had the issues bound together, crossed out the original titles and provided one in black ink.


CLICK for more illustrations !

. . . . . The resulting unique scrapbook features over 500 charcoal rubbings of miniature Japanese combs and hairpins (koagi). . . . . .
Katsushika Hokusai's classic three-volume Imayo Kushi Hinagata (1823)
. . . . . Traditional comb shapes are half moon, horseshoe, and square. The combs were often worn in concert with koagi (hair pins) in classical Japanese hairdressing. . . . . .
- read more here
- source : booktryst.com . Stephen J. Gertz -

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. bihatsu kigan 美髪祈願 praying for beautiful hair .
櫛型のお守り amulet in form of a comb
櫛型の絵馬 ema votive tablet in form of a comb

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Combs have a long history in Japan.
wakare no kushi 別れの櫛 comb as a good-bye present
comb of separation

goes back to the Heian period.

- quote -
When the Saigu, or royal vestal virgin of Ise, was about to be sent away on her prolonged period of service at the Great Shrine, she was called to the palace and the emperor thrust a comb into her hair with his own hands.
This was the wakare no kushi, or " comb of separation."
Thus the sojourn of the virgin princess at Ise was brought under the taboo of comb and hair.
- source : archive.org/stream/politicalphiloso -


. Legends and Tales from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .

- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
48 櫛 to explore


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kanzashi かんざし / 簪 hairpin




Photos from my friend Ishino


. . . CLICK here for hairpin Photos !


かんざしや今日雪しろの奈良井川
kanzashi ya kyoo yukishiro no Naraigawa

this hairpin -
thawing snow water today
in Naraigawa

Harada Takashi 原田喬
Tr. Gabi Greve

. . . CLICK here for Photos of River Naraigawa ! in Nagano prefecture

yukishiro ゆきしろ【雪代】 thawing snow water, kigo for mid-spring
melting snow, snowmelt, thaw, yukidoke 雪解



In spring, the greening branches were thought to be full of the life force and used to stick into the hair:


kazasu  挿頭す, kazashi 挿頭

- - - - -

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 .

かんざしの蝶を誘ふやとぶ小蝶
kanzashi no choo o sasou ya tobu ko choo

lured by the butterfly
hairpin...
little butterfly

Tr. David Lanoue

- - - - -

at the sound of a cute boy's voice --

small butterfly
trying hard to attract
a butterfly hairstick

This hokku is from the second half of the twelfth month (early February) in 1825, soon after Issa had returned to his house in his hometown after several months of staying at students' houses following his second wife's declaration of divorce and a stroke that caused him to temporarily lose the power of speech. A little over a year earlier, in January 1824, the last surviving member of Issa's family, his third son Konzaburō, who was not quite two, had died, so 1824 had been a traumatic year for Issa.

The boy's voice is mysterious. The butterfly and the boy seem to share some sort of intuitive animal communication. Could the hokku be based on Issa's memory of an experience with his infant third son when the boy was alive? Or is Issa perhaps watching a young boy in 1825 and remembering his own four dead children and his dead wife? According to the hokku's headnote, a young boy seems to be laughing or just making sounds, presumably of delight, as he watches a small butterfly and a woman (his mother?) who has inserted or is inserting a decorative hairstick into her hair.

In Issa's time hairsticks were often metal and had two parallel prongs, making the hairstick resemble a slim tuning fork. At the base, where the two prongs diverged, there was a decorative image, usually a small painting or a carved shape -- in this hokku a representation of a butterfly. The real butterfly seems to have been stimulated both by the shape on the hairstick and by the young boy's voice -- does it feel the voice vibrate through its wings? -- and at the sound of the voice it flits near the shape on the stick in the woman's hair, trying to make friends with it. Issa seems to suggest the small butterfly is inviting the butterfly shape to fly up and do a mating dance with it.

Chris Drake



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- quote
Edo Tsumami-Kanzashi 江戸つまみ簪
Ornamental Hairpins


■ Traditional Technologies and Techniques
1- 裁ち For Edo Tsumami-Kanzashi (ornamental hairpins), small squares of dyed silk are accurately cut using a fabric slice, a wooden measure and a chopping board.
2- つまみ With fine-tipped tweezers, the silk squares are pinched and folded using various traditional tsumami (pinching) techniques. These techniques include the maru-tsumami 丸つまみ (the round pinch), the kaku-tsumami 角つまみ (the square pinch), the suji-tsumami じつまみ (a pinching technique for creating family crest patterns), and the uragaeshi-tsumami (the reverse pinch) 裏返しつまみ.
3- ふき(植えつけ) Fuki (placement) involves affixing the pinched small squares of silk to a pasteboard coated with rice starch. Each piece of silk is placed using tweezers and shaped to make petals, flowers and cranes, etc.
4- 組上げ The final mounting of finished ornaments to hairpins is done using kyokuten-ito (a very fine silk twine).


■ Traditionally Used Raw Materials
・Finely-woven glossy silk fabric is used. 布地は、羽二重
・Timber used as base wood (for hairpins) includes boxwood, pear, magnolia, and other species with similar properties.
ツゲ、ナシ、ホオ又はこれらと同等の材質

■ History and Characteristics
The origins of ornamental hairpins are said to lie with the tradition of "passing something through the hair." The basis of this tradition was the ancient belief that narrow rods with pointy tips held magical powers. Thus, people felt evil might be warded off if a narrow hairpin was passed through the hair.

However, the ornamental hairpins of more modern times are not just derived from something “passed through the hair.” Rather, it is said the Edo tradition of Tsumami-Kanzashi (ornamental hairpins) commenced in the early Edo Period due to a particular technique for making ornamental flower petals arriving in Edo from Kyoto.

With this technique, lightweight silk is cut into small squares and then shaped by tweezers using traditional pinching techniques. By arranging these pieces using a “pinch craft” process, flowers and birds are created.

In the middle Edo Period, combs 櫛, ornaments 簪 and hair decorations called “kusudama”楠玉 (a ball-shaped decoration of flowers created from tsumami) were all made in the city. As these articles were beautiful in color and reasonable in price, it is said they were favored as souvenirs of Edo.

In the collection of the “Byakkotai-Kinenkan”白虎隊記念館 (The White Tiger Force Museum*) in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture; there is a tsumami kusudama ornamental hairpin believed to have been taken back to the Aizu Domain from Edo as a souvenir.

In the contemporaneous commentary written on the customs of the Edo Period called "Morisada manko" 守貞漫稿 (literally "an encyclopedia of folkways and other affairs"), there is the following reference made to women's hair fashions:

“In the Bunsei Era (1818-1830), among women wearing their hair in the Shimada style, there was the practice of gathering it at the back and decorating the hair with crepe scraps, in white, blues, reds and purples that had been collected together to make ornaments that were shaped as chrysanthemums and cranes.”

Moreover, among models featured in “fujinzu”婦人図 (depictions of women) created by woodblock print artists of the late Edo to early Meiji Periods, it appears the hair ornaments shown are in the Tsumami-Kanzashi style.

In contemporary times, Tokyo is the main manufacturing area of Tsumami-Kanzashi ornamental hairpins, these products further enhancing the beauty of the feminine form when dressed in kimono on occasions such as the New Year 正月, “shichigosan”七五三 (the seven-five-three festival), “jusanmairi”十三まいり (a temple visit made by 13-year-old children to give thanks for their traditional coming of age), “seijinshiki”成人式 (a ceremony that celebrates minors obtaining their age of majority), and weddings.

* The “Byakkotai-Kinenkan” is a museum that commemorates Aizu Domain warriors of the Boshin War (1868 -1869).

Tokyo Kamikazarihin Manufacturing Association
- source : www.sangyo-rodo.metro.tokyo.jp


tsumamizaikushiつまみ細工師 making ornaments with pinching techniques
They begun to flourish in the middle of the Edo period.


source : twitter.com/sakuraiseiko
桜居せいこ Sakurai Seiko - - - つまみ細工師



. Traditional Crafts of Tokyo and Edo .

. Edo Shokunin - 江戸の職人 Craftsmen of Edo - .

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kigo with boxwood (tsuge)
Buchsbaum, Buxus microphylla



kigo for late spring

tsuge no hana 黄楊の花 (つげのはな) boxwood blossoms
..... asama tsuge no hana あさま黄楊の花(あさまつげのはな)
hime tsuge, himetsuge 姫黄楊(ひめつげ)



kigo for early summer

. tsuge ochiba 黄楊落葉(つげおちば)
fallen leaves of boxwood .




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hanakanzashi はなかんざし【花簪】
Helipterum roseum

Pink and White Everlasting
lit. "flower hairpin"

a flower from the chrysanthemum family
ローダンセ /ヘリプテラム
kigo for mid-spring
Land of origin is Australia. It grows about 40 cm and has flowers of many colors from white to pink to purple. Also good to make dry flowers of the blossoms.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !



. Plants in Spring - SAIJIKI .


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Netsuke with Daruma from Boxwood


Photos :
- Hokusai Kanzashi Design 北斎の櫛雛形 -


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source : 1000ya.isis.ne.jp

kanzashi uri かんざし売り hairpin vendor in Edo

. Doing Business in Edo - 江戸の商売 .


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.................... H A I K U



秋風や櫛の歯を引おく道者
aki kaze ya kushi no ha o hiku oku dôsha

autumn wind--
sawing the teeth of a comb
a hermit




薮入や連に別れて櫛仕廻ふ
yabuiri ya tsure ni wakarete kushi shimau

Servants' Holiday--
fellow travelers part ways
combing the hair


ISSA
Tr. David Lanoue



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CLICK for more photos


紅茸の前にわが櫛すべり落つ
benitake no mae ni waga kushi suberi otsu

in front of
the red mushroom my comb
slipps and falls


Yagi Mikajo 八木三日女



benitake ベニタケ "red mushroom" scarlet mushroom
Fam. Russulaceae
The mushroom could well be a sexual symbol.
kigo for all autumn


Comments about this haiku
http://gendaihaiku.com/mikajo/commentaries.html


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kami 髪 hair

humanity kigo for the New Year


. hatsu kami 初髪 (はつかみ) "first hair"
..... 初結(はつゆい)first combing the hair
having the hair made up for the first time
..... yuizome 、結初(ゆいぞめ)
toshi no kami 年の髪(としのかみ)
sukizome 梳初 (すきぞめ) first combing the hair

CLICK for more photos
hatsu shimada 初島田(はつしまだ)first Shimada-style hair


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humanity kigo for all summer


. kami arau 髪洗う (かみあらう) washing the hair
araigami 洗い髪(あらいがみ) washed hair



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humanity kigo for early winter

. ko-no-ha-gami, konohagami, 木の葉髪 thinning hair  
"hair falling out like leaves"



observance kigo for early winter

kamioki, kami oki 髪置 (かみおき) binding up the hair
..... kushi oki 櫛置(くしおき) using a comb
November 15, the full moon night of the Asian lunar calendar
Boys and girls at age three are combed tn this fashion for the first time. This is a celebration of growing up for the whole family.
A wig is made from white hemp or cotton and put on the head of the children, to show they will grow to ripe old age. After visiting the family deity (ujigami) there is a feast with all the relatives.
Boys are next celebrated at age 5, when they put on their first hakama trousers.
Shichigosan . Seven-Five-Three Festival



observance kigo for late winter

migushi age, migushiage 御髪上 (みぐしあげ)
ogushiage おぐしあげ
memorial service for old combs, hair and nails

On an auspicious day in December, the collected hair, broken combs and cut nails of the emperor or high-ranking persons are offered at official shrines and burned in a ritual fire.
It is already reported in the Tales of Genji.


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. Hairstyles and hairdressers in Edo - - 髪 kami .
- Introduction -
kamiyui 髪結い hairdo master, hairdresser
- - - - - motoyui 元結い / mageyui 髷結い
kamiyuidoko 髪結床 hairdresser shop, hairstylist shop, barber shop
katsurashi, katsura shi 鬘師 wig maker




chonmage ちょんまげ【丁髷】topknot
traditional hairstyle for samurai in the feudal era



CLICK for more photos

At the temple Enkakuji 円覚寺 in Fukaura, Northern Japan, there are votive tablets (ema) with cut-off hair of samurai.
When a trade ship bound south was in difficult stormy waters, they would cut off their chonmage and pray to the deities for survival. If they did, the hair was offered at this temple, and is shown to our day.

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子の髪の風に流るる五月来ぬ 
ko no kami no kaze ni nagaruru gogatsu kinu

the hair of my child
is floating in the wind
May is here


Oono Rinka 大野林火 Ono Rinka


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A widow's peak
is a V-shaped point in the hairline in the center of the forehead. Hair growth on the forehead is suppressed in a bilateral pair of periorbital fields. Normally, these fields join in the middle of the forehead so as to give a hairline that runs straight across. Widow's peak results when the point of intersection on the forehead of the upper perimeters of these fields is lower than usual.
© More in the WIKIPEDIA !


autumn-
my widow's peak
changes colour


- Shared by Arvinder Kaur -
Joys of Japan, August 2012


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