I love it when someone is so excited about their order they blurt it out!
photo via Hoarder Rehab, my last obijime available here
cute kokeshi fabric purse made with obijime, here
I am so happy this light blue obijime caught someone's eye and is just right in many ways. Her story brought many memories back to mine!
The Nihon Matsuri was last month and the next one is April 25, 2015. If you are in the Los Angeles area the biggest Matsuri Festival is Nisei Week. Click on the highlight for more information.
The 2014 Nisei Week Japanese Festival is a nine-day event first held in 1934, and is recognized today as one of the longest running ethnic festivals in the United States. This event will take place in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district from August 9-17, 2014.
photo via Hoarder Rehab, my last obijime available here
cute kokeshi fabric purse made with obijime, here
How to tie an obi using your obijime, here
Many matsuri's, especially the hanamasturi, hinamatsuri and Obon bring back fond childhood memories of my Buddhist grandmother supervising carnival booths, learning Japanese dance at summer's dusk, getting ready for the big Obon dance day, carnival games, delicious seasonal foods and running around way past our bedtimes til we passed out!
Every year, my parents took me to the "free" Japanese dancing lessons every week, maybe even twice a week. The lessons started in the spring and ended when it was too dark to see even with all the parking lights lit. I'm not sure if the lessons are still free, but I did find this schedule if you'd like to prepare and join in this year, here.
My Grandmother belonged to the Buddhist Church in Anaheim. I can't find the date for their Obon this year, usually my brother sends me a link a week or two before the festival date. End of June, perhaps. Traditionally celebrated in July in Japan.
This is how I remember it looking as a kid.
Obon is a Japanese custom to custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian
custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people
return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors'
graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the
household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500
years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.
Before the festival we would go visit our ancestors grave, give their areas a good cleaning, burn incense and leave them flowers, somewhat like the Day of the Dead. At the Obon, we'd eat their favorite foods and ours too!
I remember my brother and I walking and running through the empty exhibits of bonsai, ikebana and other Japanese cultural art examples. Both my Grandmother's and my Great Grandmother's practiced the art of flower arranging or ikebana and had quite the collection of folk art baskets, metal and glass vases. Maybe that's where I got my affinity for collecting vases, planters, glass and metal flower frogs.
I think the Obon and other masturis is also where my love of carnival toy prizes began. I was especially good at winning goldfish from the ping pong ball throw and even if I didn't win, the consolation prize was just as good! Usually a plastic bangle bracelet! Remember those?
There's a picture of my of my brother with my aunt with the biggest teddy bear ever! My aunt's boy friend won and it was at least 2 times bigger than my little brother! I wonder where that photo is now.
I also remember eating the Botan rice candies and loving the prizes from the box too! I still have my little car prize and do remember playing with the fan that open and closed until it fell to pieces!
photo via beachykeen1, here
prizes sold in 2009
When I was a little one, my aunt was a princess of the Queen's court in the 23rd Nisei Week festival, but I don't remember going to it at all. I do remember going to the Obon every year due to my Grandmother's involvement and tradition to honor our ancestors. And also because many of my friends would join in and my parents would take a car load of us to all the dance practices.
This is the closest photo I could find of what it looked like for me as a kid.
photo via bebelovesokazu
I remember all the fuss and hours of getting ready for the big night of dancing and either my Grandmother or her friends dressing me in layers and layers of my kimono and tying it with so many obijime's I thought I couldn't breath from all the tight knots and the heat! All the make up, hair do with kanzashi and trying to walk around in tabi socks and geisha slippers! How to tie an obi using your obijime, here
I still have my tabis from that time and they are discolored because I used to kick off my getas and dance in my tabis around and around the circle until my make up would sweat off and I could no longer hold my arms up for my favorite Coal Miner's dance!
I still have my tabis from that time and they are discolored because I used to kick off my getas and dance in my tabis around and around the circle until my make up would sweat off and I could no longer hold my arms up for my favorite Coal Miner's dance!
I don't know what happened to my kimono, nor why I never had a lighter yukata for the summer months, but I still have my childhood kanzashi and pre tied obi and it's box! And of course, the tabis, unless someone wants to order them with my lacquer getas from the 70s. Those are still practically brand new, however the tabis are not.
photo via VintageToGoEasy, geta and tabi available here
photo via VintageToGoEasy, geta and tabi available here
I've tried everything to get the stains out!
My childhood kanzashi almost left to be in Puccini's, Madame Butterfly in San Jose, California to their Costume Director, but she was kind enough to let me think it over and keep it in the end. The story is here.
photo via Hoarder Rehab
Which reminds me to write it on my list of an art project day for the near future. So keeping this triggered the keeping of my childhood pre-tied obi too.
photo via Hoarder Rehab
How to tie an obi using your obijime, here
The traditional obon dance expresses joy for the
teachings offered by the Buddha. The movements depict the livelihood of
the villagers such as fishermen, coal miners, and farmers. Your
participation with other temple dancers is welcome.The bazaar-carnival will feature many games for the young and old. We will have handicrafts and farm fresh produce at bargain prices. Delicious Asian dishes such as beef and chicken teriyaki, sushi, udon (Japanese noodles), won ton, chow mein, corn, teriburgers, oriental chicken salad, Okinawa Dango (donuts), Imagawa Yaki (Sweet bean dessert), oden, soft drinks, snow cones and other treats will be available.
The Hondo(sanctuary) will be open to any interested visitors and hosts from the Buddhist Education Center will be available to answer any questions. Books on Buddhism are sold at the entrance of the Hondo.
Yep, I looked just as surprised and happy every Girl's day and Children's day
when my grandmothers would gift me something towards my kimono costume
photo via Hoarder Rehab
Back to the obijime: An obijime is an obi cord, worn through the center of the obi’s rear
knot and around the centre of the sash, tied at the front with the ends
tucked into itself at the sides. It helps hold the obi’s rear knot
(musuba) and the sash in place.
I have no idea what happened to my sash either. I never had a yukata that I remember as a child, but in my teens when my family visited relatives in Japan, they did present me with a complete yukata outfit and the lacquered getas shown above were part of the outfit. I remember using their traditional bath or ofuro and then my great aunt dressing me for a formal dinner party.
The Japanese bath is a long ritual that entwines with relaxation and therefore is not so related to cleaning. Washing if done before hand and the bath water is usually set at a high temperature so the steam and warmth of the bath is relaxing.
My Grandparents had a traditional Japanese American bathroom where a large shower area was not only a place to shower, but to sit on a stool, scrub wash and rinse with a bucket. The shower area was connected to a very deep tiled bath tub with steps that were also used as benches, so one could sit at different levels in the water.
This is the best picture I could find that looks most like the one in my Grandparents house,
except there's was all in 1950s small blue tiles. Their bath was as deep, but sunken and level with the ground with several steps all around it. The stools and buckets pictured are like the ones we used as children.
photo via MachWerx
My Grandfather liked his water ultra hot and steaming and many times I
could only get my feet wet or sit on the first step. He would laugh and
often say a bath is not a bath unless it turns your skin red. He also
made the best bubbles for me to squish out of hand towels.
photo via Hoarder Rehab, my last obijime available here
cute kokeshi fabric purse made with obijime, here
How to tie an obi using your obijime, here
Saying Goodbye: This obijime story brought back more memories than I'd ever thought I could remember, so maybe the dehoarding really is uncluttering my mind, while letting my childhood memories rise to the surface to be remembered again.
What I Learned:
1. Why I bought so many obijime at the time is still a mystery to me, but I vaguely remember I was going to use them as curtains tie backs and never did. I seem to have many ideas about what I'm going to do with my stuff and it never gets off the ground!
2. I've been in denial about another melt down and it has finally surfaced enough to hit me square in the face as stuff is piling up again! Just as I was making enough room in the house to clear out the back of the truck and not use it as storage!
Even when mr oz questioned me and gently said, "do you think you are starting to hoard again?" I just shook my head no, but his words stuck with me and now two weeks later I realize the space I was making for the boxes in the truck is full from my unconscious denial of retail therapy stemming from another family holiday, EASTER!
All I can say is that I need to figure something out for the next family celebrations which is a string of family birthdays this summer!
3. On a top note, I'm doing better than my last melt down, here and my creative project days are helping me immensely as an alternative to spending my time hoard buying, but I must admit a lot of my buying are for the multitude of "ideas" that churn in my head towards my creative art days, so it seems I still have some kinks to work out in my rationalization, justification, denial sense of "reasons" to shop til I drop!
So in teacher talk, we'd call it, a transfer or scaffolding of ideas into new ones. As a hoarder, I've just found another different outlet to buy buy and more buy! Which means, what I really need to do is focus on my goals and hold on to them, even in times of crisis!
Side note: I couldn't resist some bread over the Easter celebrations and the gluten does not seem to help my buying moods, but seems to heighten it into what some might call a slightly "manic" buying frenzy mood!
What foods are difficult for you to resist during celebrations? Mine is anything with gluten, especially if I'm hungry and a basket of bread is staring me in the face and in my haste due to stress forgotten my snacks! Although I must say, I think I've learned my lesson and gluten was not worth eating.
I even bought more washi tapes too! ho hum...
Inspired by mom who loves whimsical cats!
Available here
Thank you Etsy buyer from Hoarder Rehab for being so excited about your find you let me know about it! Thank you so much because look at all the memories and insight it has brought to me!
Thank you Etsy for your continued support as I keep moving one way or another as I figure out the mysteries, sharp turns, baby steps forwards and sometimes backwards in my Hoarder Rehab adventures!
Thank you US, Spain, India, Germany, Australia, China, Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine and many others for stopping by and encouraging me to stay on my Hoarder Rehab journey!
My NEW GOAL is to have 175 items listed on each shop and one has just been met at The Destiny of Things, so I'll be listing at
least 1 new item daily on each shop five days a week!
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab with 165 items , The Destiny of Things-175 items , VintageToGoEasy - 153 items and now JunkDrawerLove - 126 items! Thanks for looking! Maybe you'll find something to take home and share
your story too!
Related Stories:
1. My last melt down was over a year ago, read about it here
2. Not My Childhood Kanzashi Story here
Most Read Story of the Day: Native American Butterfly Money Clip: The Destiny of Things, Story LXIX
All Time Most Read Story of Week, Month and All Time: My Louis Vuitton Collection the end of mine for the beginning of someone else. The last piece of my LV collection, my 80s LV gold cornered wallet is available here at The Destiny of Things!
"Therapy only works when we have a genuine desire to know ourselves as
we are, not as we would like to be." ---Dr. Lector conversing with Jack
Crawford.
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