Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No. 490

Marie Antoinette wearing Galli dress


When I find kimono with bara(rose)motif, I feel so great. It does not just mean it might make money. Roses are just so special.

We can buy roses easliy now, but during Taisho to early Showa, roses were very special, they were beyond reach which gave people longing western atmosphere.

There were roses in Japan also but  gorgeous kind like `La_France'  were not in Japan. Gradually, royal families and noble people people became patron for growing roses and became so popular among ordinary people also. People loved roses, including Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and Ichiro Hatoyama. They built `Rose gardens' also.

Roses are most popular flowers nowadays too but the roses on old kimono really show the longing feelings of that time.

This meisen we recently obtained is filled with roses - buds to fully bloomed roses. The love of roses is shown so honestly.

　（Wiki参照）

by kakeyzz----

The breed improvement of roses is amazing, it is just like a scence history itself.

Before 1900, there were no yellow roses and blue roses (by Suntory)came just so recently. The blue roses were produced by gene manipulation, actually the color is more like purple. There are not yet real blue roses-the roses with sky blue color. No black roses either.

 Can we see the roses with those color in future? I hope I am alive then and can see them in person!