Coming of Age Day  (Seijin no Hi) comes every second Monday of January in Japan, so pictures of this year's new adults in kimono are coming in. Seijin no Hi is said to have been celebrated from the 8th Century CE in Japan, so It has a rich history. However, we’ve noticed some very interesting changes in recent years, with young Japanese experimenting with creative -- as well as non-traditional -- ways to wear their kimono and accessories on this day of their transition to adulthood. So, we thought we’d share some of these, particularly because of the striking differences seen in...

 Interesting use of hakama....and boots! The college school year in Japan ends in March. We recently came across pictures of graduates from Nihon Daigaku (Japan University) in a blog from tokyobling.wordpress.com, from May, 2012. Thought our visitors might enjoy seeing how Japanese youth of today adapt their use of traditional kimono wear(kitsuke).(scroll down for more....)  Here's a brief excerpt from that blog: Posted in "Japanese Traditions, People, Places" by tokyobling on May 24, 2012: In March, the traditional month for all university graduations in Japan, I happened to be in Tokyo’s Kudanshita district, just near the Budokan in the Kitamaru...

Website Review:  www.getamashi.com   BACKGROUND: Since we started yokodana.com in 1998 we have tried to share with our visitors and customers whenever we find quality sites relevant to the themes of our own website. In fact, we have a dedicated page where we keep a running list of such sites and resources HERE.  For a number of years in the 00's, until about 2015, we had a link to a USA woodwork company that made beautiful kimono lacquered display stands at an excellent price; also, in that same time frame we had recommended a Japan-based Geta-maker that was recommended to us by some of our...