Archive Blog :

We gathered together a 10lbs lot of mixed Japanese vintage cotton furoshiki and have added it to our  inventory on yokodana.com as Product # 110-CTN-FUROSHIKI, US$105.00 plus shipping. Here's the backstory on these packages, that we offer from time to time: In the course of picking and sorting for our main products, our bulk vintage Japanese kimono packages, and fabrics-by-pieces throughout the year, we set aside special items until we have enough for a bundle or two. Perfect for crafts, sewing projects, sashiko, quilters, and designers. Each package is unique, one-of-a-kind (Pictures here are NOT of present package). To learn more about furoshiki,...

July 9, 2022: Updated Customer Showcase -- Blouse From Juban silk A customer from Virginia (USA) recently sent us some pictures of a top that she made using some nagajuban fabric she got on our site. She also added some details of her creative process. So, since we know that many visitors to yokodana.com are what we lovingly call, "creative types", we thought we'd share it on our website's Customer Showcase page.You can view all the showcases HERE. To see this showcase please click-push HERE.

We are fortunate indeed that here at yokodana.com we regularly receive lovely emails from customers telling us how they liked an order, and often describing how they used our fabrics (either purchased via our Bulk Kimono Packages ,or , in our Fabrics-by-pieces section) in a creative project. Above and below are pictures we recently received from a USA customer in New York(State). Here's what she wrote to us explaining what she did in making 2 lampshades from both whole kimonos and fabrics bought by piece/yard:  Dear YokoDana , I have been buying your various bundles of kimono, juban and haori jackets. I...

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE LOOK AND FEEL OF THESE OLDER JAPANESE TEXTILES? Since 1998 on yokodana.com we have been selling mostly bulk kimonos in 10lbs lots, as well as select, and  often rare, vintage Japanese textiles - kimono fabrics by yard or piece. We  have accumulated these pieces over the years in the course of picking and sorting for our bulk kimonos, and we recently realized that we have far more pieces in our stash than we can ever realistically add to the site under our current staffing arrangements (My husband, Dana, and I). On top of that, we routinely acquire more and more of...

From time to time we get lovely emails and pictures from the many sorts of creative folks who buy our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabric pieces. The latest is from Lisa, a USA regular customer. Over a period of time she purchased pieces of our vintage fabrics, mostly kasuri and some boro, and then made a quilt from them. To see more pictures and learn more about her process in making this quilt, please visit her showcase page on our site HERE.

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...

Site Review: Japanoscope.com--Translating and Exploring the best, and worst, of Japan

September 22, 2021(updated Oct 18, 2021:

We are happy to announce that we now offer discounted shipping rates for our international customers using GlobalPost ( GoGlobalPost.com).

  We came across these pictures on a Japanese-language website, Youtouch.com. Starting in 2017 and then most recently (October 7, 2021), they explain how these dresses were upcycled, made from 1950s-1960s vintage kimonos, deconstructed and made into both wedding gowns and other fashionable dresses/gowns; some are then made available as rentals (in Japan). To see full pictures of these lovely dresses please visit 2017 blog HERE , and 2021 blog HERE. Also, in early 2020, one of our customers (Below, Pam T., Canada) shared with us her own wedding kimono made from our "A Package" vintage silk women's kimonos:   To...

ANNOUNCING NEW TYPES OF BULK KIMONO & FABRIC LOTS PACKAGES:September 28, 2021 Background: We have been bringing in tons(literally) of vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics every year since 1998. All these years we have been putting aside any unusual or distinctive pieces as we go about our routine sorting for filling orders for our main product, our "A Package ( 110-A), Womens Silk Package". Since we've done this for years and - before the Pandemic - frankly didn't give all of them much thought until we realized how much we had accumulated. So, early in 2021, as we made space...

NEWS FOR OUR USA CUSTOMERS:We just learned that the US Postal Service (USPS) announced an increase in shipping costs during what they call "Holiday Peak Season". This will affect our USA customers selecting First Class (Packages),Priority Mail, Express Mail, and Parcel Post Select. It will NOT affect any international shipments. This begins October 3 and ends December 26, 2021. We have relatively new Fed Ex Ground and United Parcel Service Ground rates available and in most zip codes (especially West Coast USA) savings can be as much as 40% cheaper than USPS. At present the new UPS rate does not reflect...

This past spring(2021) we posted a blog about the trend among young college-aged Japanese women to wear women's hakama over a formal kimono at graduation time and other special occasions. (Above image: hakama-bijin.com) During the closing ceremonies of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics we were surprised - and pleased - to see this fashion trend among young women in Japan being showcased as part of the final ceremonies . Below we share pictures of  Olympics kimonos-with-hakama from various public media sources (also, note the footwear types): Below: Other Types of Kimono on Display During 2020 Olympics Closing Ceremonies Lastly, as...

Above: 2021 Obon Lantern Floating Ceremony / Virtual Marketplace FYI from Japanphilly.org about this summer's Obon festival plans:  The 9th annual Philadelphia Obon Festival continues a new Shofuso tradition, born out of the hardships of the previous year, to light lanterns and float them on Shofuso’s pond dedicated to those no longer with us. The Registered participants can launch floating lanterns on Shofuso’s pond. Obon is a series of events in Japan that enshrine the spirits of ancestors in the summer that are based on Buddhism and Ancestral worship. Typically, in Japan, between August 13-15 (depending on the region), people...

What is this? We happened upon this old web magazine article on web-japan.org, a cultural site run by the Japanese government. It featured a Niponica web magazine article from 2013 that we're sure is of interest to many of our visitors and customers. It's banner header is:   Japanese Fabrics Have Their Global Reputation Wrapped Up Topics Listed: How to Wrap Something in a FuroshikiTextiles and JapanDyeing and WeavingModern Fabrics for Today's LifestylesJapanese High-Tech Textiles Circle the World, and BeyondCloth Signs Add Color to Urban LandscapesTasty Japan: Time to Eat! Inari-zushiStrolling Japan: Okinawa, Islands of ClothSouvenirs of Japan: Furoshiki Cloth for...

 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...

Amami Ohshima Tsumugi Sightseeing GardenAmami Ohshima Island, Japan Ohshima Tsumugi-Mura: Contemporary Maker on Amami Ohshima Island, Japan, 2021 What's this about? In our routine searches for images and information about the vintage Japanese textiles we sell, we came across a Japanese language website which is somewhat of a tourist (Sightseeing) destination on Amami Ohshima island in Japan, the place where various mud and plant-based pongee silk fabrics have been made by hand for centuries. We were happy that they have an English version of this website, and were equally pleased to see some information and pictures of the making of...

One of the joys we experience in selling beautiful vintage and antique Japanese fabrics is to see the endless ways that our customers use them creatively. We were delighted when Lisa, a long-time customer of yokodana.com, sent us the above  picture with an email explaining how she made the wall hanging using YokoDana's asa(hemp) fabrics . We loved what she did with her fabrics and thank her for letting us share it here. Here's her letter to us:  Hi Yoko,I started a project wall-hanging almost a year ago, with 3 panels of a sheer Asa in a fabulous MCM pattern. There...

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...

Lauren Chong Sng, ABCRags (USA): Sakiori and much more made from vintage kimonos We like to post on our web site when people have creatively used our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics in their work, so we are happy to share here the work of a customer, Lauren Sng of ABCRags in California. We have loved the things she posts on Instagram (@abcrags), and are particularly fond of her sakiori weaving pieces. We are pleased to share just a few of the things she makes using not only our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics, but from many sources. Such a...

Pam T., CanadaCustomer Showcase: Here on yokodana.com we like to post on our web site when people have creatively used our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics in their work, so we are happy to share pictures and emails from Pam T. of Calgary, Canada who made her wedding dress  from a vintage kimono.  Starting in January of this year (2020) Pam approached us saying she wanted to use a vintage kimono to make her own wedding dress. She ended up getting our “A Package”. In a series of emails to us since then, she shared the story of her process of...

We came across this in a Facebook group, and since we regularly get requests for information on how to make a kimono, thought we should post this here from a German lady with expertise in kitsuke: https://youtu.be/rW-Cz9HbkqA Let us know your opinions on this, whether we should list it in our FAQ info as a reliable resource.

Yamaki Bonsai Pine, 390 years old, survived Atomic Bomb blast in Hiroshima. Interesting story here.

Above: Purse Front View:Day Care Nursery, Children(More pictures below) Background: We feel that the Japanese word "furusato" doesn't translate very well to English, as furusato connotes much more than just one's 'hometown'. As we detail elsewhere on our site, YokoDana KImono's owner's furusato (home town) is in Kumamoto prefecture, Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. From time to time we like to blog about things from home, usually topics that center around themes of our website (cultural and historical information, kimonos, traditional Japanese textiles, creative Japanese textile arts, and crafts).  But this blog post is a bit different:...

YokoDana Kimono's Statement about COVID19: We have been on lock-down here in Delaware USA for over three months now and been more than busy filling orders the whole time. It appears that folks are gathering things for projects to do -- hobby or business-wise -- during the Pandemic. We ourselves -- including family in USA and Japan -- are well. We want to thank the many who have been writing to check in on us, your thoughtfulness is much appreciated. We also have been getting many questions about the status of our supplies of vintage kimonos (for our bulk kimono...

Above: From The Spoon-Tamago.com Dispatch, March 13, 2020: We continue to totally love the newsletter from this web site business. Outstanding, timely and creative information around themes of Japanese culture, arts & history, new and old. Check out this timely piece about epidemics, at link below: Amabie: the Japanese Yokai That Can Stave Off Epidemic http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2020/03/13/amabie-japanese-epidemic-yokai/

Below we are excerpting here some pictures and comments from our Furusato--Hometown page of this site. We post these here to share how Japanese of today are honoring traditional customs and still doing so with modern twists. Pay special attention to the kimonos and accessories particularly of the girls in these various photos, blending old and new creatively. YokoDana Kimono Owner's Family Photos Japan: 2020 Above -- YokoDana.com's Owner's Nephew's Family: Note the twins in blue hifu  (Hifu is a special hand-made vest for age 3 of Shichi-Go-San Celebration); Hifu Buttons are handmade using the same fabric. Flower buttons are Tsumami-zaiku crafted by Aunt Honami...

Jacket Made from YokoDana’s Vintage Ohshima Tsumugi Silk Kimono -- Carol Lambright Many of our customers are what we call, affectionately, creative types: All have a passion for their craft, whether they call themselves artisans, artists, designers, quilters, stitchers or multi-media artists – regardless of their moniker -- for years we have enjoyed seeing old vintage Japanese textiles we sell by the pound be reborn into something new -- yet old.  One recent feedback that we received comes from Carol Lambright, an Oregon, USA customer. Last year she bought a 10lb package of old Ohshima Tsumugi (pongee) Silks (see more about...

V&A 2020 Kimono Exhibit in LondonKimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, Previews 1800-1830, Kyoto, Photo Credits on vam.ac.uk  If you are lucky enough to be in England or able to travel to London, and share our interest in kimono culture, you should check out this London Exhibition, "Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk" at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which recently opened and runs until June 21, 2020.  The Victoria and Albert Museum, called "V&A" for short, has a Youtube page with a preview of the exhibit (click-push HERE to see it.) Their summary of the exhibition is below: This exhibition will present the kimono...

We love to show off the work of YokoDana.com's customers from around the world who use our  vintage Japanese kimono fabrics in their creative work of all kinds. We recently received fabric orders from Karina Hesketh, a designer from northern England. She is a member of The Guild of Master Craftsmen in the United Kingdom. We saw pictures of some of her work and decided to share them here on our website as another example of how our customers engage in   "re-purposing" or "upcycling" the vintage Japanese textiles they get from us at YokoDana Kimono and elsewhere --  giving these special old...

(Photos: Spoon-Tamago.com) Pictures of fog in Kikuchi Valley, Kumamoto, yokodana.com's owner's furusato (hometown).  Spoon-tamago.com has a wonderful newsletter and this is from a recent one. Kikuchi is close to the village where Yoko Lewis grew up. Just felt like sharing.... (smile)

Family Pictures: Girls' Ceremonial Kimonos  Well, we're finally back to our normal schedule, after having given ourselves an unusually long (for us) vacation over the holidays. We have caught up with all orders received during our being away and off-grid. Thanks to all who waited so patiently while we rested and recuperated -- so we're all re-charged and looking forward to another great year on yokodana.com! Here's what's going on with us as we slide into 2020: 1. Venues: We are resuming preparations for our two 2020 spring venues at Cherry Blossom Festivals in Philadelphia and New York City (Brooklyn...

Shichi-Go-San Kimonos -- Family Pics 2019 Above and below areYokoDana Kimono's (yokodana.com) owner Yoko Lewis' Nieces' children dressed for Shichi-Go-San at our local shrine in Yamaga, Japan. We love this picture for several reasons: First, because of the fact that the three ages (7,5,3) are represented, and, a boy cousin not in kimono squatted to get in the picture; Second, the tallest girl in the center is wearing a very old vintage kimono which has been in the family for several generations, topped with a beret, earrings, a lace shawl, and leather boots instead of zori; and third, the two smaller...

We saw this recently and love this picture of all aged women wearing their "funky" meisen kimonos, posted on a Japanese travel website wattention.com: 2019 Sample Picture of "Funky Kimono" Meisen Wearers (Picture: Wonderland Japan, WAttention.com ) To learn about our bulk packages of these kinds of Meisen Silk kimonos from the 1950s and earlier, please visit HERE.

Saw this remarkable picture on a Facebook group, and just love it:    From Anji Salz (Tokyo) Facebook: Long time no Nihongami 👘💫I took inspiration from Edo period ukiyo-e and then layered two antique kimono over my red silk juban.Each kimono is only tied with one koshihimo tie!! No unnecessary stuff like nowadays. The obi is also tied with no string at all - and I’m telling you:THIS IS THE MOST COMFORTABLE I’VE EVER BEEN IN KIMONO 👘😱🤭❤️ Anji's main facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/anji.salz

  Christine Williams Organza Appliqués NOTE: We like to share on our web site when people have creatively used our vintage Japanese kimono fabrics in their artistic work. Christine Williams of California (USA) sent us some sample pictures of how she had used our vintage kimono fabrics so we asked her to tell us about the pictures and anything about them she cared to share. Yoko Lewis  Back Story: Since 1998 we have been frequently amazed -- and impressed -- with the varied ways in which folks creatively use our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics. In fact, we have been keeping a running list of them HERE.  Actually,...

Jennifer Morales -- Textile Artist: Hand-Made Accessories using Meisen Silks Back Story: Since 1998 we have been frequently amazed -- and impressed -- with the varied ways in which folks creatively use our vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics. In fact, we have been keeping a running list of them HERE.  Actually, up until 2016 we used to have a "Guest Gallery" on our website for customers to  showcase things which they had made from kimonos or fabrics which they purchased on www.yokodana.com -- or bought in person at one of our venues. However, over time we had not kept it up to date, so when we upgraded our...

FYI For our Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area kitsuke & Japanophile folks:  August 24th, 2019 (Sat.) is a chance to wear your yukata (or whatever kitsuke) and experience Obon festival dancing, Taiko drumming, food and more. Sorry we won't be there but it's always a special event we recommend:Yoko LewisYokoDana Kimono Presents: Philadelphia Obon Festival 2019 (banner & images source: Japanphilly.org) From Japanphilly.org newsletter about this year's Obon at Fairmount Park (Shofuso): Obon is a Japanese celebration of one’s ancestors. Each August, people return to their hometowns to remember the dead and reunite with loved ones. Obon is celebrated with regional dances...

Tokyo Weekender is a long-standing publication based in Tokyo, originally founded in 1970 as an English language print periodical for expatriates living in Japan. Back in the day we used it when we lived in Japan but hadn't seen it ourselves for some time until one of their correspondents, Sarah B Hodges, recently published articles on kimono culture, which came up on Facebook – so, as we enjoyed them so much we want to share them here on our blog. If you are an enthusiast of Japanese Culture, particularly what we like to call kimono culture, we highly recommend these...

  This blog post is not necessarily directly related to the usual themes of our website www.yokodana.com (Japanese culture, vintage kimono, traditional Japanese textile art etc.). However, we were so struck by the beauty and use of colors (ombre’) of a hand-dyed shawl pictured on Facebook, that we wanted to share it with our visitors -- who we’re sure will enjoy it. So, we contacted the folks running the website www.thebluebrick.ca -- a couple in Canada -- and they agreed to let us post some of their pictures. After visiting their website and studying their Ombre’ collection in particular, it...

www.thestalkerbrand.com BACK-STORY: In 1998 we started selling our authentic, vintage Japanese kimonos and fabrics online. Since then we have had an ever-growing number of artists, artisans, designers, quilters and multi-media ‘creative types’ use our fabrics and kimonos.  Now, in our 21st year on yokodana.com, we believe that a near majority of our customers are some sort of entrepreneur or small business. Our customers range from large famous brands you might see in Macy’s or similar stores (but who won’t let us give out their names) to small shops, brick-and-mortar stores and web-only businesses world-wide. It is a great source of...

 UPDATE: April 13, 2019, 2:30 PM EDT -- Based on current weather forecast, we WILL be there tomorrow. We may not fully put out things until late morning when the rain is supposed to stop. Weather said to then  be cloudy until early evening when showers come in. SO....we'll be there! WEB DISCOUNT CODE: For this show, it will be ZEN-SUSHI . Please just tell us BEFORE checking out.   We've been preparing all year for our two in-person venues this spring. Our first of the season is at the Philadelphia Sakura Matsuri called "Sakura Sunday" which is Sunday, April...

SITE REVIEW: KimonoAsobi.com Since starting and running websites in 1998 (mainly www.yokodana.com, our home site and web store of YokoDana KImono) we have always loved little sites that folks start out of a specific passion -- we call them niche sites. They are always acts of love at first. But the kind of niche sites we love are those where someone is just passionate, even a bit crazy, about a particular area of interest, and end up sometimes with encyclopedic coverage of their area of interest. But then, because of the love and attention to detail -- plus reams of...

KimonoRefashioned: Exhibit at The Asian Art MuseumSan Francisco, CaliforniaFebruary 8, 2019 to May 5, 2019 One of our customers pointed out this special kimono exhibit featured on asianart.org recently and we loved the pictures of what's being shown at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 5, 2019. Images Source Citations: The pictures here are from asianart.org: sources -- Asian Art Museum and The Kyoto Costume Institute (Takashi Hatakeyama)  http://infocus.asianart.org/kimonorefashioned There are many other splendid pictures on the site, view HERE. Paragraph below gives their overview of the exhibit: FEBRUARY 8 – MAY 5, 2019In the early 1980s,...