Memoir (15) by Professor Joe Watkins, University of Arizona, USA
A friend and I were walking along Tanuki-koji, a covered shopping arcade in south Sapporo, when a beautiful young woman shuffled past, a parasol held high. She wore a kimono, a bright red obi (a wide sash) and getas on her feet. My friend didn’t notice her, but I was immediately struck by the contrast between her appearance and the appearance of the other people around us. I found myself wondering about so many things: Did she dress that way every day, or was that day something special? Was her style nostalgia, or a nod to her historic culture? Was her clothing a proclamation of Japanese nationalistic pride, or something else entirely?
I have encountered many people here in Sapporo who wear kimono on a daily basis, and also know that kimono is such a traditional clothing of Japan that it was worn consistently until a couple of decades ago. Still, I wondered whether this young woman was participating in a nostalgic past, acknowledging a nationalist ideal, or whether she just loved the idea of kimono and its accoutrements.
I have a couple of yukata (Japanese bathrobes) and enjoy the comfort they offer, and I also own some haori (short Japanese silk jackets) that I wear at home in Arizona, but I would not be comfortable wearing traditional Japanese clothing in public. I will never know the motivations of the young woman in the kimono and geta, but I hope it is more of a connection with her national past than an outward manifestation of a statement of nationalism. Cultural identity, in whatever form, is something we all offer to the outside world, and no one can REALLY know what is going on in our minds or what we choose to tell the outside world through our attire.
geta