January 22, 2010

Toji Markets

Yesterday was market day in Kyoto. Despite the light rain, we made our way to the Toji Temple at sunrise and, as usual, it was an interesting and rewarding day.

One of my aims was to buy some girls' kimono as the demand for this colourful fabric has increased in recent months. We were lucky enough to find some reasonably priced ones at a stall near the entrance and despite the odd mark or two, they appear to have lots of usable fabric.

Even though its been a year since my last visit to this market, I met up with a few familiar dealers who offered me some well priced silk bolts. I was also tempted to buy a beautiful length of katazome cotton for my own textile collection, but I somehow resisted. I did, however, buy an unusual piece of woolen fabric which featured rabbits - moth eaten but charming.

I love to make flowers from kimono fabric. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas and Toji didn't disappoint me. I met the maker of the lovely flower bag and flowers below and look forward to adding clips to the flowers so that I can wear them.

I Love Off-cuts!

When we were strolling through Gion a few days ago I came across a shop that had a small basket of blue Nishijin silk offcuts - probably only enough to make a cushion but I'm looking forward to getting home to have some fun with these. I've already had them laid out on my hotel bed.

Other Fabrics

I promised my daughter, Claire, that I'd keep an eye out for some modern Japanese cottons for her. Fabric shops are few and far between in Kyoto, but we found a shop on Shijo Dori which met our needs. I'll have to ship these home Claire, so have a good look!

Chicago

No, I'm still in Kyoto. We came across a shop called Chicago in the Teramachi yesterday and we went back today to have a closer look today. Downstairs is full of modern second hand clothing and the top floor is full of kimono. Yesterday we picked up a few interesting silk bolts and today we added a haori. I also visited a few vintage button and bead shops in the same area. The buttons and beads were beautiful but way outside of my budget.


We are going home tomorrow - leaving the current 3 degrees C and landing in a forecasted 38 degrees. Our daughter Jane has been at home looking after KimoYes, and no doubt she will be pleased to se us! Next week I'll have fun putting up lots of "new" KimoYes fabrics and garments on the website.