What to do with a heap of vintage Kimono?

This is a story on how to deal with unnecessary but memorable stuff.

As my uncle shifted away from the house gradually, the furniture and household goods remain as they were. My uncle and his wife felt, and feel, reluctant to throw them out as garbage. Maybe because it’s a pain in the neck, but in the first place, they have fond memories of any goods. Particularly, a heap of Kimono was keepsakes from my great-grandma and grandma, but the kimono clothes looked easier to reuse than other secondhand goods, so I, with my uncle and his wife, sought to find a second life of these kimonos. 

 
However, we had to start with heavy labor, that is, to open the chest of drawers. In a decade, moisture and weight deformed the wooden materials, and each drawer lost its rectangle shape slightly. Anyway, we opened the drawers finally and got Kimono in two big cardboard boxes. 

Examples of our Kimonos

Kimono Drawers

KIMONO AND THE INDUSTRY

The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment. The life of Kimono is said to be about 100 years, with the assumption of good storage and maintenance. Secondhand shops of Kimono appeared at the beginning of the 2000s, then the market has been growing. Nevertheless, a statistics says the overall market size, annual sales of traditional Japanese clothing, has been shrinking to around 300 billion JPY, after reaching the peak at 1.8 trillion dollars in 1982 (3 and 18 billion dollars respectively).

Ms. Yoshida, a Kimono lover and associate professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, specializing in business administration, analyzed the trend during that period as follows: 

“…Kimono production peaked during Japan’s period of high economic growth, but then decreased rapidly in the 1970s. However, manufacturers’ prices of kimonos continued to increase, despite the drop in production, until the collapse of Japan’s asset price bubble economy in the early 1990s. According to Yoshida, what is notable is that, with the downturn in production, kimono-related businesses began to base their business models on the sale of “high-end/high-value-added” merchandise. … Owing to the price increases, kimonos came to be considered as formal attire for special occasions only, and were treated as “assets.” In addition, prices rose even higher as a result of the industry’s peculiarly complex modes of distribution. 

Thus, a new business model developed, in which added-value was based on the perception that kimonos are “formal attire,” which changed the structure of the industry...The collapse [of the business model] began when the asset price bubble burst, reducing the number of high-income earners who purchased kimonos.” 

For the full article, please visit: http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/radiant/eng/kyoto/story2.html/

A CATCHING-UP STRATEGY OF THE KIMONO INDUSTRY

What’s left is the public general detached from the Kimono culture. But not a few women in their 20s to 40s are still interested in Kimono, and some new markets in the industry have been growing.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) convened a panel of experts in the relevant industries and from academia. The panel members discussed how to revitalize the kimono culture and industries went from January to June 2015, then released the report. Here is the summary of the suggested ways forward:

1) To develop new business models for exploiting potential markets, focusing on women in their 20s to 30s.

2) To increase the opportunities to wear Kimono. If officials of central and local government offices wear Kimono, it might lead to the attention of tourists. And indeed, since 2015, METI has pushed its officials to wear Kimono on November 15 in celebration of Kimono Day as part of a new effort to promote Japan’s traditional attire as casual wear.
For reference: https://www.meti.go.jp/english/mobile/2015/20151117001.html　

3) To harness Kimono for the local revitalization. The report mentions some examples: Traditional Industries Day, occurring from March 10 to 20 each year in Kyoto, offers benefits to anyone wearing Kimono; and local traditional textile and dyeing in the form of Kimono could contribute to the regional branding strategies.

4) To use Kimono as a vehicle of spreading Japan's diverse attractions to the world. The model case in the report is EXPO MILANO 2015 in the Japanese Pavilion. There was cooperation between a Japanese restaurant Minokichi and Teijin, a fiber manufacturer. Teijin supplied sets of Kimono as uniforms using polyester material that has easy-care features, vivid colors, and elegant luster.

For the full report, please visit:  https://www.meti.go.jp/committee/kenkyukai/seizou/wasou_shinkou/report_001.html  (Only in Japanese)

SELLING TO SECONDHAND KIMONO SHOPS?

Back to my personal story, first I thought vintage Kimono shops might purchase our Kimono. But I gave up. These shops purchase secondhand kimono clothes only when enough profit is expected: fine textiles (preferably with a certificate), no mourning, no extraordinary size. That’s unavoidable, because they have to cover all costs for going off to appraise and purchase Kimono from original owners, cleaning and removing stains, and storing until finding new buyers. Unfortunately, our Kimonos are all casual wears, so this option didn’t work.

FIND NEW OWNERS

So I had to find new owners for these Kimono clothes in other ways. My friend who knows well about Kimono and her friend visited me. She told that prints and patterns of antique Kimono are much diverse and elaborate than that of today, as the market size of Kimono, former casual wear for Japanese, was large before.

If to their liking, I wanted to give away any Kimono, but there are two problems: size and stains. When it comes to the size of Kimono, Yuki (length between the base of the neck and wrist) is one of the important measures. It depends on both the shoulder width and the arm's length. My great grandmother was tall (that means the arms were likely long enough), but instead, had narrow and sloping shoulders, so some kimonos don’t fit my friend, who is a little taller than my great-grandma. 

Besides, even though some Kimonos fit, stains on noticeable parts were the next impediments. No wonder, because we didn’t expose them to air/wind for more than 10 years (It’s not good for other garments as well). Nevertheless, fortunately, two Kimonos found new owners. Besides, following my friend’s advice, I decided to keep one Kimono for me, as a memento of my great-grandma, though my mum already took over some sets of Kimono. 

For Kimono size, please see: https://www.shimazakura.com/my-kimono-size-s/123.htm   

PUTTING UP FOR ONLINE AUCTION

Next, I tried to sell them on the Internet auction site. Some craft workers produce western-style clothes and other goods using Kimono fabric. In this case, neither stains nor size matters.

I set the knockdown price at 1JPY, practically free, just asking bidders to cover shipping expenses. I update my auction account every week during two months, receiving bids just little by little.

DISPOSAL

Finally, I disposed of the goods left (unsold Kimono). My great grandmother and grandmother in heaven would never complain in consideration of my efforts!


As you can see, vintage Kimonos aren’t gold mines. I spent such considerable efforts just to avoid throwing them out as garbage, not to make a profit. I know not a few foreigners and metropolitans welcome retrospect Japanese products/houses and wonder why the Japanese abandoned them. Here’s the answer. Unappreciation and laziness sometimes affect, but what demotivates us most is that the time, effort, and costs to maintain them have slight payback. And they find themselves also falling into procrastinating necessary actions, then when realizing, the situation gets hopeless.