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Japan's kimono industry struggles to keep cultural icon alive

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November 20, 2000 

TOKYO--(UNB/AP) - For everyone, it's a struggle. The women twist and strain, wrestling with pieces of folded fabric and lengths of cord. "Ouch!" says one. "It's hot in here," complains another.

Beautiful but expensive, charming but impractical. The kimono may be a symbol of Japanese culture, but it is far from the foundation of the nation's wardrobe. A dwindling number of people even own one. Fewer still know the proper way to put one on.

"My mother could do this in 30 minutes," said a frustrated Kaoru Nagami, 43. It took her kimono class three times that long, even with a teacher's gentle prodding and diagrams on a dry-erase board.

A kimono is more than just a robe cinched at the waist. It typically has over a dozen parts - from layers of undergarments to a stiff sash over three yards (meters) long - and putting it all together is a feat that requires physical dexterity and hours of practice.

Most Japanese women don't even try.

A slumping economy and fewer occasions to wear the kimono have relegated it to a role something like that of the tuxedo or evening gown in the West. And young Japanese lean toward English lessons or hip-hop dance rather than kimono instruction that once was considered de rigueur.

Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry calls the kimono business "seriously depressed." Between 1990 and 1998, it says, sales of the garment fell nearly 60 percent.

Manufacturers are responding with various schemes: kimono parties, kimono vacations, kimono classes. Retailers are dispatching professionals to homes to help people don their purchase. New designs feature modern touches like zippers, velcro or wash-and-wear polyester.

"We have to make the kimono fit yesterday's lifestyle," said Eiji Ohashi, who runs Shinso Ohashi, a company specializing in easy to wear, affordable kimonos. "People have to break some of the old rules."

Those rules are numerous, as students of the kimono soon discover.

Certain seasons call for certain colors, and certain occasions for certain fabrics. There are certain ways to walk, sit, bow, and a properly worn kimono has no wrinkles, perfectly straight seams and an elaborately knotted sash - with certain shapes for certain ages, of course.

The price of a custom-made silk kimono comes close to that of a small car, in the thousands of dollars. A good sash, or "obi," can cost just as much or more.

The kimono wasn't always so inaccessible. Before World War II, it was an integral part of the day-to-day wardrobe of the average Japanese. People wore it as they wanted, Ohashi says, without worrying about being an "expert."

But when Western clothing became the norm in the postwar era, the garment turned into formal wear, worn mainly at weddings, graduations and other special occasions.

"The number of people who wear the kimono is dropping, and one reason is because there's no place to wear it," said Fumikazu Morimoto, a spokesman for mail-order firm Nissen, which has opened a Japanese-style salon where kimono-clad customers can study traditional arts and sip tea.

Another problem with the kimono is that it is still typically tailor-made, although most Japanese are used to buying clothes off-the-rack. To attract young customers, manufacturers are beginning to sell the garment ready-to-wear, and they're using materials and accessories that would raise eyebrows among purists.

Shinso Ohashi, for instance, makes an obi in a fluffy, parka-like material with a zipper pocket. The company also makes a sash that snaps easily around the waist - the Japanese equivalent of the clip-on tie - and a polyester kimono in traditional patterns that look just like the real thing.

Olive, a fashion magazine for teen-agers, recently featured models in the "yukata" - an inexpensive, cotton version of the traditional silk kimono, popular with young people - adorned with unorthodox accessories like cameo brooches, studded belts and high-heeled shoes.

On the annual Coming of Age Day - which is devoted to all Japanese turning 20 and one of the few chances students get to wear the kimono - trend-setting women attracted media attention for brazenly shortening its long skirt or pairing it with platform boots.

Takashi Kataoka, one of several Japanese fashion designers making kimono-inspired clothing, launched a collection last year that included skirts made from kimono fabric and dresses bound with an obi-like sash.

"Clothing is becoming so futuristic," he said. "I wanted to bring back a sense of old-style warmth."

Still, purists insist there's no substitute for the real thing. Each garment, they say, is a work of art, an heirloom that can be passed down from one generation to the next.

"Some businessmen try to sell the kimono cheaply and in bulk," said Teiyu Ogura, who dyes kimono silk in Tokyo using a centuries-old technique. "In 10 years, you'll be using it as a dust cloth."

On the Net:

Vintage kimono auction, http://www.i-kimono.com/english/index.html