The second Monday of January is a National Holiday of Seijin-no-hi, or Coming of Age Day. The age of adult in Japan is 20 years old. After you become 20 years old, you can drink, smoke cigarrets, and have the right to vote. On Seijin-no-hi, municipalities throughout Japan hold ceremonies for the new adults. The 20 years old attend the ceremony with dressed up; men wear suit and women wear furisode, or long sleeved kimono. So this weekend, you will see a lot of young women in goregeous furisode. The picture below is my 20 years old's (decades ago).
Furisode is very expensive. The total price for my furisode including obi sash, accessories, zori shoes was 1million yen. It may sound extremly expensive, but kimono is free-sized and easy to altering size when necessary. So it can be worn by others and usually kimono is handed down from generation to generation. Actually, I lent my furisode to the daughter of my friend last year. It was a wonderful experience for me. Nowadays, rental furisode at shops is very popular. But even rental ones, it costs 200,000～300,000 yen !
Furisode is the most formal style of kimono for unmarried women. Married women's most formal kimono (kurotomesode) looks much simple. Upper part of kurotomesode is just black coloured without any design and just down part has gorgeous design. That's because in Japan, to be humble is very important. But unmarried women, they must show themselves. So they wear long sleeved and from top to bottom with gorgeous designed furisode. Wearing furisode is very special for Japanese women. If you are in Japan in this weekends, please do not miss to see them.
Thank you for reading.
