Hikizuri similar to Miyako Odori "blue line"

I won this hikizuri on eBay. Hikizuri means "trailing skirt" and they are worn for dancing, most famously by geisha and maiko (I don't claim this is a maiko hiki - it is polyester, for starters, and it doesn't have the shoulder or sleeve tucks you would expect). But nice to have in the collection anyway.



It looks like the ensembles worn for the Miyako Odori in Kyoto - click here for some more information & pictures from Mboogiedown's great blog. However, you will notice that it is different from my kimono - my hiki has an all-over komon pattern, whereas the real Miyako Odori hikizuri have a different design on the "skirt" area (i.e. arranged as are eba komon designs).


The exact detail of the Miyako Odori kimono and obi have changed over the years - I found various pictures on the internet - try searching with "Miyako Odori" under Google images and you will turn up quite a lot of pics. Main differences seem to be with the lower part of the hikizuri design, although there was one set that were green rather than blue backgrounds. Also from Mboogiedown's blog -

Heisei 20 (this year) -

Heisei 5 (1993)

Showa 59 (1984)


Showa 53 (1978)


I also noticed that the obi designs changed - from formal chrysanthemum (almost like karabana - imaginary flowers) to maple leaves! The obi are tied in a darari style, but without the very long ends that maiko usually wear.

To go with my hikizuri, I looked around for a suitable fukuro obi to remake in a pre-tied darari style. Fukuro obi are too short to make as a true darai, but Ichiroya have sold darari tsuke (pre-tied) obi made from fukuro obi, so I figured I could make one too. I would have liked to find a fukuro obi with the genji guruma (carriage wheel) design shown in the 2008 ensemble above, but couldn't find anything like it - rather frustrating because I have another fukuro obi with the same motif but with white bands in the background!

Here is the raw material - a second hand fukuro obi with a suitable pattern. Since the design change, I felt it was more important to go for the same style of design rather than the same motif itself.

I'll cut it and pre-make the obi musubi (bow) like this -
Pre-sewing the obi bow like this means I can get by with considerably less length than a darari bow tied with a suitable obi (which would need to be over 6 metres long, while fukuro is only 4.2 metres, and usually only 60% patterned too).