Well everyone, today I met up with a few of my colleauges from Angola. You see, Dr. Foster and his wife have come to Canada for a short visit and we decided to have a little get together with them while they were in town. Now, Dr. Foster brought us all a copy of one of the promotional videos made from the films taken on my last trip to Angola. I will post the video on YouTube for all of you to see once I get permission.

For now though, I wanted to direct your attention to the following photos:



This is a little girl I met up with in Angola. She had a massive facial tumor most likely caused by cancer. Dr. Foster originally planned to take a sample of it and send it back to Canada with us for diagnosis. When he got inside though, he found it connected by only a single tendril. So the tumor was removed, and we hoped it wouldn't return. Unfortunately, I found out from Dr. Foster today that this little girl ended up having very molignant and particularly aggressive cancer. She passed away in May 2009 - two months after I met her. She had been sick for only five months before the cancer claimed her life. She was only 9 years old. Please keep her in your hearts and prayers.

________________________________________ _

KIMONO-LOVERS CONTEST WINNERS:

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by ShoShanaShira


Title: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Beauty

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by The-Darkwolf



THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Akai-Tenshi


________________________________________ _

MY ETSY SHOP

CHRISTMAS CARDS:


POSTCARDS:


HALO FOR THE HOLIDAYS


PRINTS:



I've also listed the last remaining prints of a few of my recently retired pieces. If you want prints of those, this may be your last chance to get them!

KANZASHI:

________________________________________ _

MY OTHER GALLERY:

Some of the pieces in my other gallery are now over five years old, or nearing five years old. So take a few minutes to say goodbye to these babies because they will be removed from my gallery at the end of the month. Then they can rest happily and peacefully in their retirement.

Up for retirement on January 1st:


Up for retirement on February 1st:


Prints of some of these pieces are up for sale in my Etsy shop: [link]
________________________________________ _______

MY PHOTOGRAPHY: [link]

Killarney 2008:

[link]

Angola 2009:

[link]

Spain 2009:

[link]

Killarney 2009:

[link]

Well, I've FINALLY gotten around to naming the winners of the last Kimono-Lovers contest. So without further adeu, here they are!

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by ShoShanaShira


Title: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Beauty
Congratulations, you have been awarded 30 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's an Uncrested Tsukesage. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: You're winning deviation will also become the club's new featured deviation until the end of our next contest. Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010. And you will recieve 5 pieces of kimono fabric for craft work.

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by The-Darkwolf


Congratulations, you have been awarded 20 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's a Large Patterned Komon. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010. And you will recieve 2 pieces of kimono fabric for craft work.

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Akai-Tenshi


Congratulations, you have been awarded 10 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's a Large Patterned Komon. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010.

Let's have a round of applause for the winners!

________________________________________ _

MY ETSY SHOP

CHRISTMAS CARDS:


POSTCARDS:


HALO FOR THE HOLIDAYS


PRINTS:



I've also listed the last remaining prints of a few of my recently retired pieces. If you want prints of those, this may be your last chance to get them!

KANZASHI:

________________________________________ _

MY OTHER GALLERY:

Some of the pieces in my other gallery are now over five years old, or nearing five years old. So take a few minutes to say goodbye to these babies because they will be removed from my gallery at the end of the month. Then they can rest happily and peacefully in their retirement.

Up for retirement on January 1st:


Up for retirement on February 1st:


Prints of some of these pieces are up for sale in my Etsy shop: [link]
________________________________________ _______

MY PHOTOGRAPHY: [link]

Killarney 2008:

[link]

Angola 2009:

[link]

Spain 2009:

[link]

Killarney 2009:

[link]

Okay, so it's happened to me once and it seems to have happened to me again...

Last year I discovered that my maiko hikizuri belonged to the Kaida Okiya and was worn by maiko Takahiro.

Well, I recently recieved an email from with links to a few pictures on flickr. Apparently, the ro hikizuri I just purchased belonged to the Tama Okiya in Gion Kobu and was worn by geikos Mayuha, Wakana and Mamesuzu for hassaku!

My Hikizuri:


Mayuha in 2007:
[link]
In this image Mayuha is standing near the centre with Suzuha behind her. In that image you can see the strange pink flower that I can't identify on her skirt. Also, the crests match the ones on my hikizuri
[link]
[link]
In these two images you can see Mayuha on the left with Suzuha on the right. The bellflower and sweet pea details on the right side of the hikizuri's skirt are visible in these images. Also, you'll notice that Mayuha's kimono is a three crested kurotomesode (the ones on the shoulders are missing) just like my hikizuri.

Mamesuzu 2008:
[link]
Here you can see Mamesuzu in this hikizuri. The hikizuri is difficult to identify in this image, but the sweet pea details are there as well as a hint of that pink flower on the left side. The shoulder crests are also missing.

Wakana 2009:
[link]
And here's Wakana. There's that pink flower, the bellflower and sweet pea details as well as the matching crests!

Geikos Suzuha and Kotoha were the two top paid geiko in Gion Kobu a couple of years ago (before Suzuha retired in 2007 I believe). As members of the Tama Okiya, the two of them brought great fame to their house, making it one of the most well known okiya in Gion.

Now the thing that weirds me out about this hikizuri is that the Tama Okiya has a Pulownia crest. Seen here on Suzuha's obi: [link] And all of the geiko seen wearing it belong to that okiya. Yet, this hikizuri has a definite Sensu shaped crest. I was wondering why geiko would wear the crests that don't belong to their okiya was was told that sometimes kimono are shared or given between houses. So this hikizuri likely has a much longer history than we know.

So I attended the Road to Asia Festival as a seller this weekend and I thought I'd show you all some of my kitsuke as well as tell some stories.


On my first day I wore my Hinotori Higure taisho furisode with one of my phoenix themed fukuro obi. I came up with this ensemble for the single colour challenge on IG forums too. I didn't have a helper with me that day, so I only got one photo. It was one of my fellow sellers who offered to take it for me, and guess who he was? He was a 12th generation tea master from Kyoto! He was selling his family's teas. He enjoyed my kanashi and my kimono a great deal and by the end of the day he was chatting with me about the geiko-san and okasan who used to come into his family's teashop. One of the okasan he remembers had 49 geiko working for her at the time. She was the okasan of the Daichan Okiya if I remember correctly. He also told me that every afternoon around 3 or 4pm you would see the maiko and geiko rushing home from classes to get dressed and put on their makeup. Well, after chatting with him that day, I decided I would bring my Maiko hikizuri the next day. I thought if anyone would appreciate it, he would.


So, I had my Maiko hikizuri on display with me for the second day. That evening as I packed up my hikizuri, he mentioned that he remembers that the maiko and geiko used to burn insense near their kimono to keep moths away and they would even carry a little pouch of it with them, so every time the maiko walked by you would be able to smell the insense. Before leaving he thanked me for appreciating his culture so much and bringing back to his memories from Kyoto.


On the second day, I wore my Peacock Lady furisode and Green Dragon Maru Obi. I had a helper with me today, so I got a few more pictures of this ensemble.

Originally, I had my obi tied in a sort of short darari knot, but it got smushed as I worked so I eventually retied it in a sort of floppy butterfly knot. I think that style works well with the contemporary kitsuke of the taisho/early showa period.


My helper shot this candid photo as I helped a customer. The little girl (she's an odori student) was admiring the kanzashi at my table and her mother was trying to decide which one would look best with her kimono. I just love how you can see the height difference between the little girl and myself.

And that was my fun time at the Road to Asia Festival!