Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.692
Dear newsletter readers,
Hello, this is Mitsue writing. How are you doing? In Osaka, it is getting a little hot soon after cherry blossoms shower. And now, we see carps swimming in the sky! Guess what?
Hello, this is Mitsue writing. How are you doing? In Osaka, it is getting a little hot soon after cherry blossoms shower. And now, we see carps swimming in the sky! Guess what?
Well, actually they are fabric carps attached to a pole called 'Koinobori' (carp streamer), and we put it on a roof of balcony. The carps blowing in the wind remind of carps dynamically climbing up waterfalls.
Children's day (May 5th)is a Japanese national holiday which celebrate children's health and happiness. The day was originally called Tango no Sekku, and known as Boys' Day while Girls' Day (Hinamatsuri) celebrated on March 3rd. It became a national holiday renamed Children's day to celebrate the happiness of all children.
We raise Koinobori because of the Chinese legend that a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon, and we display the traditional Japanese military helmet, kabuto as traditional symbols of strength and vitality. For my son, I just displayed little Kabuto because there was no space to display a big one.
Children's day (May 5th)is a Japanese national holiday which celebrate children's health and happiness. The day was originally called Tango no Sekku, and known as Boys' Day while Girls' Day (Hinamatsuri) celebrated on March 3rd. It became a national holiday renamed Children's day to celebrate the happiness of all children.
We raise Koinobori because of the Chinese legend that a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon, and we display the traditional Japanese military helmet, kabuto as traditional symbols of strength and vitality. For my son, I just displayed little Kabuto because there was no space to display a big one.
What is the most pleasure custom for me is to eat 'Kashiwa-mochi' (a rice cake which contains sweet beans wrapped in oak leaf) and 'Chimaki' (triangle shaped sticky rice dumpling wrapped with bamboo leaf) on this day! The meaning of using oat leaf is that old leaf does not fall until a sprout grows, so it is a sign of fertility and family prosperity.
The origin of eating Chimaki is from a sad legend of China. Chimaki is eaten commemorating the death of Qu Yuan. He was a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom in about 4c BC. Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan was so loved by people and he tried to warn his king to expand the kingdom, but failed. Qu Yuan's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo river on May 5th. According to a legend, packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent the fish from eating the poet's body. There is also a music 'the Fantasy of Miluo river' recalling his death.
I'm now practicing playing this music with erhu (Chinese fiddle with 2 strings) for a concert in July. It is very difficult for me. Maybe I talk about this later. Here is a Youtube of this music if you are interested in. You may become sleepy......zzz
I'm now practicing playing this music with erhu (Chinese fiddle with 2 strings) for a concert in July. It is very difficult for me. Maybe I talk about this later. Here is a Youtube of this music if you are interested in. You may become sleepy......zzz
The shape and ingredients of Kashiwa-moichi and Chimaki are different depending on its region or home. In Osaka, the below photo is popular. They are so delicious!!
Kashiwa-mochi & Chimaki
I hope Koinobori blows in the wind peacefully every year.
Here are some carp design items of ICHIROYA. Why don't you enjoy carp design in this season?
Children's Cotton Kimono
Vintage summer kimono
Vintage summer kimono
Vintage haori
Nagoya obi
Fukuro obi
Fukusa
Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.691
Dear newsletter readers,
It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Shigeoka.
It has been a month since I started working at Ichiroya.
I'm still nervous while I'm working here because it has been a long time since I left my last job for raising my sons.
Moreover, I don’t know much about kimono, and I’m not good at English.
This is the first time to use English in 20 years. I just studied basics when I was a student.
Therefore, I am extremely thankful that Ichiroya accepted me.
This job is certainly challenging for me, but it is very interesting at the same time.
It is really fun that I am able to learn various things though work.
I will do my best.
By the way, in Japan, students, including my sons, were in spring break until recently.
It was a good time to go on a family trip to Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki.
Huis Ten Bosch is a theme park of 17th century Dutch. There are old Dutch towns, attractions, hotels, museums, restaurants, souvenir shops and so on.
It is known for its Flower Festival and illuminations.
When we visited there, 1 million tulips were in full bloom.
It was not so cold in the night. So that, we were able to see the various illuminations and the projection mappings comfortably.
(The canal looks like a rainbow)
(The projection mapping with an image of the four seasons)
The view that called "The kingdom of light" from the Ferris Wheel was very fantastic and beautiful.
We had a wonderful time. So my sons wanted to stay there, and play around more.
Then, where shall we go summer vacation?
Tulip used to be one of the popular patterns of kimono.
Let me show you some items with tulip design.
< kimono >
< haori >
< obi >
Since the tulip pattern on a vintage kimono was so attractive, we made
our original obi inspired by the design.
There are more obi with other colors and also spring motif. These obi including the above obi is available at Ichiroya.
The other design also are available at kimonotte factory. Please check the enchanting desin inspired by vintage kimono here at kimonotte:
Thank you for reading.
See you next time.
Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.690
Hi! This is Nanae from Ichiroya. I’m new and have been working here from the end of February, this year, so I have been learning a lot of things about kimonos every day since then.
Spring has come! It’s getting warm so two of my friends and I decided to go camping near Mt. Fuji in Shizuoka prefecture. We went to see Mt. Fuji two years ago, too. It was cloudy because a typhoon was coming at that time, so we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji at all! ‘This time is our revenge!’ We checked the weather every moment and well-prepared a lot of equipment such as tents, beds, sleeping bags and cooking stuff. The weather forecast told us, ‘It’s time to go.’ We were ready to go then!
We took turns driving on the long journey. We enjoyed chatting and singing in my small car even though it took us 5 hours to get there in the middle of the night. Why? We were sure we could see the highest mountain in Japan this time! We were so excited!
As it got closer to the camping ground, we had a bad feeling. We thought that Mr. Mt-Fuji skipped town and left Japan. There is no Mt. Fuji around us and to make matters worse, it began drizzling. We had only one choice but to set up a camp as we had driven for 5 hours to get there already, the weather forecast said it would be fine the night and we wanted to do it!
We enjoyed some local food and sake, making fire to get warm and decorating our tent without Mr. Mt-Fuji. It was just a usual camp for us. We went to bed at 11pm. I had a good sleep. I thought…
When I opened my eyes, I saw the side of the tent in front of my face and I heard terrible sounds of a rainstorm. One of my friends was holding the pillar of our tent in the middle. Our tent is ''10(3m)'' tall and has only one pillar in the middle. It cannot withstand such strong wind. It was 2 a.m.
Another friend, who was adjusting tent pegs, came back from outside. What a …? He was covered with something white! Yes! It was a snowstorm actually. The snow was driven by strong winds, and lay about ''4in (10cm)'' deep.
We all felt menace of nature and were in peril of losing our lives while we are packing down everything. We tried to take off the pillar desperately in order not to be blown off by wind. When we could see the moon in high wind for a second, I realized Mt. Fuji towered above others just beside us!
Guess what? I’ve never seen such a huge and horrible thing with sounds of strong winds in a dusky night! So scared! So scared! I was scared of Mt. Fuji!!! We had to stay in the shaking car just beside the scary Mt. Fuji until the storm had gone.
At 7:00 a.m. Yeeeaaaaaaay!! Yeppeee!!
Look! What a dynamic view it is! We finally proved the existence of Mr. Mt. Fuji! This is a story about the horror I experienced.
All's well that ends well. :P
Thank you for staying till the end.
Here are some items with Mt. Fuji design below.
*boy's kimono*
*kimono for men*
*kimono for women*
*
http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list2/
/
http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list2/
/
*obi & others*
340701
http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list2/
出島べっぴん着物展 4/27（木）～29（土祝）
アンティーク着物ファンの方に「出島べっぴん着物展」のお知らせ！
アンティーク着物を愛してやまない方のコレクション展が 長崎の出島で行われます。
エキゾチックな長崎の「出島」が2016年に6等の建物が復元され、
表門橋も建設されさらに美しさがアップ！その特別な場所で
大切にコレクションされた着物たちが素晴らしいコーディネートでお目見えです。
長崎の方だけでなく、九州旅行をお考えのかた、この際出島までぜひぜひお出かけください。
コレクション展の期間中、楽しい「出島オラニエ（オレンジ）フェスティバル」も開催中！
「出島べっぴん着物展」とフェスティバルあわせて お出かけになられてはいかがでしょう？
アンティーク着物と出島の魅力を満喫してくださいませ。
Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.689
Dear Newsletter readers,
Konnichiwa, this is Mari.
Spring has come! It is officially Hanami season!
As Yoko wrote about how much we enjoy Hanami last week,
we are waiting for "Sakura"(cherry blossom) to bloom soooo much.
The top picture is my family Hanami around Osaka castle last year.
There are Hanami party here and there. Sakura was beautiful!
My sons were more excited to eat "Bento" lunch than watching Sakura though...
The sakura trees around Ichiroya are not blooming yet.
Maybe next weekend is the best time to see full bloom of them.
Some of you might already noticed that our top page has been
changed a little bit. There are a couple of new functions
which were improved. Let me introduce them one by one.
1) "Order history"
You see "Order history" to click on the right top corner of
the top page. It is former "Items on hold".
You can log in to your account with your email address and
password as usual. Then you see all the orders you have
placed. Click "Detail" button to see detail of each order.
You see the thumbnails, item# and price of items you
purchased. Sorry, you can't jump to item description pages
by clicking the thumbnails. We don't have large enough server
to keep all the information forever. However, we could at
least show thumbnails for you to review your order history.
When you have items on hold, you can check out from this "Order
history" page now.
2)Information area
We put the information area on the top page to announce
latest information.
3)Serch by size
You can search kimono which fits you by putting your
size on the "Search" page. Now, you can specify size.
We hope you like our new functions.
We have been trying to improve usability of our site.
If you have any questions and concerns, please feel free to
contact us anytime. We are happy to hear your opinion.
Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.688
Hello Mina-san!
This is Yoko writing this week's Newsletter. Ogenki desuka?
The top photo was taken at a narrow path when I take Marin for a walk. Do you see the beautiful 'Ume' (plum blossom)?
Hope you are seeing some signs of Spring in your country too!
Today, I would like to write a little bit about our national flower, 'Sakura'(cherry blossom).
Sakura first starts blooming in Okinawa and make its way up Honshu(main island) to northern part of Japan.
Sakura in our area starts blooming in late March or early April, and when we see Sakura beautifully blooming, we then know that true Spring (Haru) is here.
As many of you may know, pretty much everything starts in April in Japan.
School year ends in March and starts in April and even jobs, they have entrance ceremonies in April.
So, Sakura has been symbolizing farewells and new starts among us for generations.
That is one of the reasons why Sakura has deeper meanings to us as it reminds us of bitter and sweet memories. (tear)
There will be Sakura events held everywhere next month on. Ohanami, Sakura viewing, is so much fun!
We put a large blanket underneath a blooming Sakura, and we enjoy snacks and drinks as Sakura petals fall.
The Sakura trees near my house will be illuminated by lanterns soon. (below is a photo from last year)
The three most famous Sakura sights in Japan are Takatoujyoushi Park in Nagano, Hirosaki Park in Aomori, and Yoshino Mountain in Nara.
The Yoshino Mountain in Nara are known for more than 30,000 beautiful Sakura trees planted at high elevation and its view is like mountain of pink!!
It is definitely a sight to see!!!
Oh by the way!, have you noticed we are having extra sales lately?
You can buy Kimono, obi, fukusa and more charming items at a really good price, some are under $20 or even $10!
They sell quite fast, so make sure to wake up early (or stay up late?) to check our daily listings!
For your information....., our new releases are listed at about 5:45 am, Japan Time.
We are not sure that time that is in your country, but we hope you can be near a PC when they are being listed!!
You can also check only the sale/extra sale/final sales items from the pull down which was added just recently.
Good luck!!!!
Sale
https://goo.gl/GiY0Kd
Extra Sale
https://goo.gl/BVQbiW
Final Sale
https://goo.gl/cBfM0w (not many now)
Thank you for reading til the end.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.687
This is Hikone castle-Mitsue took the photo for the last newsletter and Yuka forgot to put this photo on top, domo sumimasen, so sorry about it and, for those who has not read the last newsletter, here is the one, please enjoy the article about Hikone castle.
Here is this week's newsletter:
Dear Ichiroya newsletter readers,
Hello! This is Nagisa from Ichiroya. As Mitsue mentioned last newsletter, March is a graduation season. Unfortunately, I have to tell you sad news today. Mei quit Ichiroya. I guess that there are lots of fans of Mei's interesting newsletter. We miss her, too! She's going to a country which has a lot more sheep than people on a working holiday from next month. Good luck, Mei chan! However, spring is not only parting season but also meeting season in Japan. Some new staffs joined Ichiroya! Have you noticed newcomer's names on the item description page? Please look forward their newsletters!
By the way, 6 years have passed since my last graduation from university. 6 years! Unbelievable! The university I used to go to is located at Nishinomiya, Hyogo. It took me 2 hours by train from here, Tondabayashi to there. And now, my commute time is only 15 minutes by bicycle. (moreover, electric one!) So that, I'm getting bigger and bigger since then. May be, I've gained 10kg or so. Oh my goodness!
However, I don't like to get some exercise. I've taken a part in a running event called 'Color Me Rad' with my friends. Recently, various types of running events are held in Japan. Color Me Rad is one of them. We were completely covered with colorful powders like this!
On another occasion, I climbed Mt.Kongo which is located between Osaka and Nara. It is 1,125 meters high, and it took me about 2 hours to get the top of it. When I climbed Mt.Kongo, the top was still covered with snow. The view from there was also beautiful like these items!
<< Obi >>
<< Kimono >>
Speaking of mountain, Mt. Fuji is the Japanese symbol, isn't it?
This is the real view I saw from the top of Kongo-zan.
And they are my companions of the mountain-climbing. Have you ever seen 'photo:ozaki' and 'photo:okamura'? I climbed with them! Mr. Ozaki is not only one of my coworkers, but also a musician! He has written a song for Ichiroya. Have you ever heard this song? If No, please check it out here! I'm sure you'll like it!!
Here is our them song!
