The finished obi, which ended up being almost 13 feet long (it has to be that long because
it has to be wrapped twice around the waist with enough left over to tie the knot with)
Aw, isn't it pretty? ;)
Looks pretty good from the side...
The shell knot in back.
Close-up of the obi cord and our substitute for a bustle sash (a white silk scarf, it
kinda worked...) Hmm the obi isn't lying quite as smoothly as it should, we'll have to work on that...
Lauren the photographer :)
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The Ultimate Question: How does Kaoru get dressed in the morning?!?
By: Jessica Entis and Lauren McSorley, June 2001
We attempted to answer this question at this year's MARCON. MARCON is a yearly sci-fi convention in Columbus, Ohio.
The costume: One cotton Yukata from Epcot (bought in Japan)
One 13 foot Maru Obi
Two excited Kenshin fans
The problem: One 13 foot Maru Obi
We had been planning the Kimono Debacle for over a year. Oh yes...Someone would be in a kimono at Marcon this year...Oh yes. With a book purchased from Epcot in Florida and a yukata also from Epcot we were all set...Or so we thought. We lacked the bustle sash and the obi cord, not to mention the obi. Fortunately there were patterns in the book for the obi and off we went to the fabric store. It was there, we had found it. The perfect fabric: $18.99 a yard. Holy deer in headlights Batman! But it had the perfect colors and dragons and it was all pretty! Soooooooooo. $50.00 in fabric later (brocade and interfacing) and a couple of harrowing hours after that (Jessie learned to sew and iron (sort of)) we had a brand spanking new obi. Then there was the obi cord. Well that one was easy; we went to Meijer and picked up a curtain cord and snipped off the huge tassels. Now we had all of our materials. We were ready for the convention, but the fun was just beginning.
Saturday morning: 7:30 Breakfast
8:00 Commence the tying of the obi
10:30 Finish tying the obi
I bet you're wondering what happened between Eight and Ten aren't you? Hmmmm? Well we'll tell you. It was at about eight o' four or so when we realized that no matter how we tweaked it, the yukata was just too small on top. Apparently the people in Japan didn't make allowances for a D cup...Oh well. How does this affect the Yukata? Actually it doesn't make it impossible to wear or anything, but you don't get that keen extra fabric folded under the obi for effect. Once again...Oh well.
8:15: the narration
"See...I think we need to fold this in half after all...See the one on the cover of the book is like this too..."
"Ummmm Jess, I think this needs to be longer or something..."
"Yeah, I think so too."
"Let's look at the book again. Ummmm, come closer to the television I have the book over there."
"Yeah ok, this needs to go here."
(1) Drape the short section (te) over the point of your left shoulder from back to front. The folded edge of the obi faces downward, the unfolded edge toward your head.
We got this one wrong the first time and had to start all over. Be careful!!!
(2) The long trail section (tare) of the obi is wrapped around the waist twice. After the first time around, insert the obi stay (obi ita) in front.
It probably took us five attempts to get the wrap right in the first place. Then we came to another one of those magical things we didn't even have. I can only imagine that the obi stay would have been helpful...Given that we'd had one.
Then...Lo and behold...We were on the wrong damn page. We couldn't even tie the obi that way because we didn't have the trappings for a drum knot (like the one Tomoe wears). We lacked the Obi stay, we lacked the cool "Magical obi aid" we didn't have the obi sash, we didn't have any magical tape...Yes ladies and gents "Magical tape" it's in the book. Not that they had any "Magical tape" in the Mejii era...Dear god what did women do before "Magical tape"? On to the shell knot!
9:15 or so....
(2) Fold the excess length of the trail section up and under, so that it is 5-7 cm. Longer than the short section. Fold the short section in half lengthwise.
Yep back to step two...This is a lot easier that it looks but a lot harder than it sounds...Does that make sense? It did take a long time to actually get this length right. This section is really important because if you get it wrong no matter what you do...You have to start over! By the way, you already have the obi long section pulled around yourself twice. That's the problem with starting over...You'd be surprised at how long that actually takes to do. Poor single Japanese girl! The obi should be snug but not overly so, it's an obi, not a corset.
(3) Tie the obi, pulling the trail section up to your right shoulder.
This part was easy; it went something like this:
Flip over shoulder
"Hey Jess hold this"
(4) Lower the trail section. Smooth out the wrinkles in the knot.
Dear god, I promise I will never do anything bad again if you just help me now. I am really glad for diagrams right about now. I don't think that I would have gotten to step four without them. Seriously, this isn't that complicated, it's just that the folds were hard to manage and they never really said that you needed to bring up the other side...The diagram shows where you bring the long end under and up but they never said it in the book. I guess I was supposed to "Guess".
(5) Unfold the short section so that the reverse side shows. Measure off the short section so that 3 cm. Are below the bottom of the obi.
Gee where did I leave that tape measure???
(6) Fold the trail section obliquely toward the left.
I am glad I went to High School...
Mirriam-Webster says this:
Oblique \o-'blek\ adj 1: Neither perpendicular nor parallel: Slanting 2: Not straightforward: Indirect
(7) Pass the short section through the loop made by the trail section.
Simple enough right? Wrong. Just don't panic. Things will clear up in eight, and lots of practice. I mean that can't be it right?
(8) This completes tieing the shelfish bow. This bow may also be tied in front and brought around to the back.
Okay...That was it after all...Ummm Ok....That's it? I looked at it sideways a couple of times and decided that the picture looked perfect because someone drew it. Actually it looked quite good. We secured it with the obi cord and smiled a lot.
*Just as a note I thought that you should know that married women and unmarried women wear their obi cord in different places. Cord in middle: unmarried. Cord below center: married.
All in all it was a good experience, and with only a little help by visual aid I can now just tie it up. Next year at this time I want to have all the extra "Magical" equipment so we can do something more complicated. That and we decided we are going to make our own kimono, this way we can allow for extra room up at the top : ). Oh yeah...And Jessie can go through having to tie one too...Revenge is sweet, sweet, sweet!
But we're still not sure how Kaoru dresses herself...
Our source books:
"The Book of Kimono" by Norlo Yamanaka (source of the obi-tying instructions above)
"How to Make Your Own Japanese Clothes" by John Marshall (where we got the obi pattern)
Note from Jessica: Kimono are really comfortable to wear, actually, despite being a royal pain in the butt to put
on (err, not that I was doing any of the real work since Lauren was the one figuring out the obi...) We have no idea
how single women in Japan get themselves dressed; without the two of us working together it wouldn't have happened at all. But once it's on, the obi makes a great backrest; you can sit for hours, though chairs are a bit awkward (kneeling on the floor is much more comfortable). Oh, and we discovered the perfect padding to use under the obi to make it lie smoothly--baby diapers (Lauren's son's diapers to be precise). Seriously. Owari!
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