Kimono industry on the way out...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Leading figures are warning that within a decade the art of traditional kimono making could die out...

[Taro Toporific]

Leading figures are warning that within a decade the art of traditional kimono making could die out...

Most kimono in the "affordable" price range under 200,000 yen are sewn in China. Ditto on most Cuming-of-Age Day kimono.

The so-called "traditional kimono makers" that the article is bemoaning the loss of are NOT serving the normal Japanese but just a microscopic minority of out-of-touch wealthy with more money than sense, i.e. the fuckquewad Imperial Household. Every neighborhood in Tokyo has a few women who sew kimono in their spare time and most ward offices offer D.I.Y. kimono classes around Cuming-of-Age Day.

Kimono silk and obi can be made with less labor intensive processes and OUGHT TO BE because traditional methods involve enslavement at preindustrial wage levels. Materials and methods change, thank Buddha.
[floatr][/floatr]

Saying the "art of traditional kimono making could die out" is like saying the art of traditional beaver-fur top hat blocking is dying out.


The felt hats were produced in a process that involved removing the unwanted outer guard hairs, shaving the dense inner coat, arranging the shaved fur or fluff in random directions know as carding, and agitating the fluff producing a loose felt called a batt. Then the shaping of the hat could begin with the addition of heat and moisture and finally a stiffing agent like gum Arabic followed by steaming and ironing.
A. Carding (combing the fibers), Bowing (cleaning and fluffing) B. Matting (various layers of the fiber into felt) C. Basoning (manipulated the batt of felt into a triangular shape called a capade or gore that will become the crown of the Hat) D. Flanging (attaching the brim) E. Blocking (forcing the hat body onto a wood form and stamping the moisture from it) ...

[Screwed Up Eyes]

Slightly off topic, but, gee, do I know better than most that the beaver caper is going out of business...