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- Clear Your Clutter updated edition 2008
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| Japanese clutter |
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I knew my books had been selling well there but no-one told me until I got there that my 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui' book was the No. 1 bestseller in the whole of Japan for quite a while, and is still very highly ranked. Published in November 2005, it seems to have hit a chord with Japanese people in the same way it did when first published in the West in the late 1990's. Japan has a reputation for Zen-style living so, being somewhat puzzled by this, I asked my Japanese organizer to arrange for us (my husband, Richard, and I) to visit some Japanese homes while we were there so we could see for ourselves what kind of clutter Japanese people have. We saw 3 homes in Tokyo and they all had the same theme - clutter in every room, much of it piled in corners in boxes. And these were the homes of wealthy people who knew we were coming to visit and had presumably tidied up before we got there. They didn't seem to "see" the clutter. They accepted it as normal. I hear from western friends who have lived in Japan for some time that this is widespread, and even worse in the homes of less prosperous people. The Japanese are avid shoppers and many homes are very small and not designed for western-style storage units to be installed, even if people were to see the need for them. In my 'Clear Your Clutter' workshop, the female participants came up with a clutter clearing question I have never encountered before - what to do with kimonos inherited from their mothers? These are expensive items that modern-day Japanese women rarely, if ever, use and yet they feel they cannot throw them away because it would be disrespectful and wasteful to do so. Asking for a show of hands, I discovered that nearly every woman in the class had at least one kimono that had been given to them, including one western woman who had only lived in Japan for a few months. It seems the mother of her Japanese boyfriend saw the opportunity to offload a kimono on to her. Another western woman who had lived in Japan for many years admitted she also had a kimono given to her in this way that she felt just as obliged to keep as all the Japanese workshop participants. My guess is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Among Japan's population of 127 million, this must affect millions of young Japanese women. Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2008
How interesting! I am Japanese, and love kimonos. I didn't expect coming to Feng Shui website and read how popular the kimono is in the world!!
If any of you can attend Japanese Yahoo auction, you sometimes get a good kimono. It is such a shame that not many Japanese don't wear it. anymore.... Kimonos are inanimate objects which do not care if they stay in your family. People and your experiences with them are most important in life, not stuff. Reuse the material for stuffed animals for homeless children or for shoes made from fabric.
Many local people, including Asians, in Hawaii frame beautiful antique items passed down to them through the years. We even see antique traditional Aloha shirts framed in shops, homes, etc. They're very valuable to their owners.
I would love to have a kimono! I think there are a lot of people in the U.S. who would buy and treasure them!
I took one of your suggestions recently and photographed some crystal bowls which were wedding gifts before giving them to the Salvation Army. Maybe the Japanese ladies could take the same idea and photograph themselves in the kimonos, keep the picture and then sell the kimono (what a great business venture for an American!) with a copy of the photograph, and the story of the kimono to go with it. They are beautiful as artwork framed on the wall, too. I have a bag with a piece of kimono fabric on it and it is so beautiful, I paid way more than I normally would for it. That's another idea - keep a piece of it. Or trade pieces with other women and make quilts for charity auctions. Turn them into something they would use. Make a skirt out of the bottom part - so many possibilities! What a gorgeous suit a kimono would make! Ooooooh such goodies to be created from such beautiful objects. There is something about women and fabric and sentimentality. I'm a quilter, so I have bins full of fabric (not as many as I used to). I have little bits from dresses I wore when I was little, pants I loved from junior high. And associations to fabrics I bought at different times of my life. I know lots of women with stashes of fabric. It sounds like the kimonos are the fabric stashes of the Japanese. It's like drinking tea out of your grandmother's tea cup - there's something wired into us as women, to treasure the beautiful feminine things we inherit. The modern trousseau. Why get rid of what's most important, why not get rid of something else to make room for the important? Hmm. The first time I saw your book, I sat in Borders and read the whole thing. Then I bought it, then I bought extra copies to loan out because I never loan books I want back, I give the title and author info out instead, and I wasn't giving up your book. But the urge to clear has to come from within and no one I've ever loaned it to read it anyway. I recently read the 4 Hour Work Week. And he talks about the 80/20 rule of business - 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. He applies the concept to stuff - you use 20% of your stuff 80% of the time. So now when I clutter clear, I call it "doing the 80/20." It took me 7 years of marriage to let myself get rid of those totally pointless, but beautiful bowls! We are 4 people and a dog living in 800 square feet, for goodness' sake! Thanks for your inspiration! Yours is the only newsletter I don't spam. I would love to see the Kimono in a large shadow box display.
What about museums? what about theatres, schools - for when learning of other cultures, and I have also heard of a place in the States that accepts wedding dresses that I think they give away or have a very nominal fee. Could it not be done with Kimonos? Then there are others, like myself, who would love to make a wall hanging shadow-box-tapestry for a wall. Soooo many ideas - when it's someone else's clutter. Katrina from Canada
I believe that many Japanese women share this problem with Kimono clutter just because they no longer wear Kimono and do no know how. I am one of them and would love to learn how, once I have a chance to live in Japan again. Instead of seeing Kimono as clutters, we could see them as an invitation to learn how to put them on and enjoy. Never mind about damaging the material. While treating Kimono with care and love, we should enjoy what our body and mind enjoy (cool silk texture against skin, beautiful colors and patterns etc.)
Donations to interested museums around the world would be a valuable way to preserve and share the art and honor the maker of the kimono.
If they want to keep them in their original state they coudl have them cleaned and boxed to be stored as we do in this country with wedding dresses, or framed and matted as art to be hung.
what about using them as wall art. They are truly beautiful and I'm sure full of wonderful energy. To see one on the wall could be quite breathtaking if it is well presented.
I agree with the charity idea. They could be cut up and made into quilts, etc. and raffled. But, before you do, take a photo and snip just enough of the fabric out to make a small pillow to keep or use a piece of the fabric as a mat for a photo of the donor, etc (this way, the gift is still being honored).
With regard to the saris, I'm told it isn't such a problem. They still wear them, even in the US and the fabrics/style hasn't changed so it can be passed on indefinitely. But, I have seen beautiful quilts and even sheer curtains done in the fabrics. Display them on your walls! Get a beautiful picture taken with family wearing - then recyle into quilts. Donate to textile muesuems.
I feel the best way to honor someone is to honor the gift they have given you. Often times when working with clients, I suggest keeping one of the many items you have received (passing the other along) and giving it a place of honor in the home... perhaps hanging it as a piece of artwork. I don't know if a Japanese home has the wall space to do so... just my thought.
Take a photo of the kimono and then send it to a national Kimono storage facility. A business opportunity for someone who wants to offer this service. Or find a creative way to hang them in their new "world's largest airport" so visitors can appreciate the beautiful designs.
Or, if they must keep them in their homes, start a national Kimono week and encourage everyone to wear their Kimono at least one week out of the year. This could become a new type of tourist attraction. In Japan, there are creative people who remake kimonos and wedding gowns into their miniature versions. My 70-year-old mother recently had her kimono from when she was 20 years remade into 4 miniature pieces. I was given 2 of them, and they make elegant table top decoations.
My 70-year-old mother recently had her kimono from when she was age 20 turned into 4 miniature kimono pieces. I received two of them, both of which hang on miniature kimono hangers. I recently read an article in a Japanese newspaper about Japanese women having their wedding gowns, kimonos replicated into miniature sizes.
Here are two links which may be of interest to those with Japanese PC systems (in other words, PC systems which can produce Chinese characters): www.fussa-net.com/sgpuff (The kimono site even has an English link: www.fussa-net.com/sgpuff/eng/risou-eng.html How about if different women in Japan have open a type of museum/storage for their kimono. I don't know how viable this would be, but women that have them could put them on display with their story of who owns them and how they got them. Just a thought.
I have three suggestions. First the kimono can be placed in a shadow box and used to adorn the walls. Second, they can be cut up and used to make a pray shawl for the prayer table. Third if you have a large number they can be cut up and made into a quilt for your bed. Each solution honors the kimono while making something useful out of it (them).
Although the thought of cutting up kimonos is abhorrent to me personally, I have to agree that re-using the material is practical. But I would suggest re-using it to make different types of clothes rather than as cushion covers and the like. An obi could become a beautiful scarf, and the upper and lower portions of the kimono, respectively, could become a jacket and skirt. Barring those ideas, having them displayed in a large shadow box, sort of like a wedding dress, would be lovely too, particularly is someone has a large collection of kimonos. As for saris, the same can be said - they can be cut into different patterns to make other clothing; I've even seen saris hung simply from rods to make lush, rich window dressings or bed canopies.
Trade aid could provide women in developing countries with thousands of Kimonos to sew into cushion covers, purses, dresses...
I have always thought that there should be MORE opportunities to wear beautiful clothing, instead of letting it sit at the back of a closet.
Perhaps a nice solution for any woman who wants to hold on to a kimono (or sari, or beautiful formal gown) is to create events at which she and her friends, and possibly even daughters/granddaughters/nieces, etc, can wear and enjoy them...perhaps a variation on a tea party, fashion show-brunch, or a group effort to make a video showcasing beautiful costumes - and those who wear them. Using kimonos and saris in this way is all about making connections with people and enhancing family and community relationships. Turning them into striking wall art, either cutting them up or retaining them in entirety, is another way to enjoy a beloved kimono. And I definitely like the cushion idea, too, because it is functional as well as beautiful. Creating new fashions to wear is another way to use kimonos or saris. Starting a kimono or sari exchange online might be a fun endeavor, too - for fun or profit (or both). As for other types of clutter, we all have to decide what/how much to keep of those things we deem to be "supplies." Creating attractive organizing spaces makes this behavior much more pleasant than stashing it in boxes in corners of rooms, but of course there has to be a limit on the amount! When we have more than feels good in our space, we can let all or some of it go. In many places in the United States, we are blessed with "freecycling" groups. We help each other to re-use things. For example, I might type a message to the group that says something like this: Offer: Box of women's clothing, or Offer: Exercise machine, and so on, and usually someone wants it and picks it up from my doorstep...and I know that it is going to someone who will use it and be blessed by it...and who knows how to pass it along in due course. Many times, they send a nice thank you note to say how much they like it and what they plan to do with it. Some items probably go through many, many "re-uses" in this manner. Because it is mutual, one can also post emails for what you want: Want: Pet carrier. Want: children's books. Want: working washing machine. People in these groups are gracious and happy to share valuable-yet-unneeded items as long as they feel it will be wanted and used. It is a wonderful way to stretch the budget! I am from Japan and I think one more factor that is contributing to Japanese people's habit of amassing clutter is the "mottainai" concept. It may be not so much among the younger generation but certainly in the older generation. This is probably causing the difference in the concept or the definition of 'clutter' held by Japanese people. My mother hesitates to throw out most things as rubbish because she may be able to reuse them in future. Papers, empty gift boxes, wrapping papers, paper bags, plastic spoons, the list goes on. As far as she is concerned, they are not "clutter" for her.
I would be tempted to use the beautiful material for something else. My grandmother made cushion covers for all of the women in our family this past Christmas using the material of my deceased grandfather's beautiful silk neckties (he took pride in picking his ties out himself). The cushions are very treasured by all of us.
Interesting post. I am looking forward to your creative solution. In India, women would have this issue with saris. Any ideas?
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I received a wonderful welcome in Japan for my first ever workshops there in May and June, which were a great success and a really interesting experience for me. Not knowing a word of Japanese, I taught through a professional interpreter (a lovely woman called Junko Sunamura, who I first met at my UK workshops in 2004), and made all the arrangements with the organizer through other Japanese translators.
