OKEIKO 15

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OKEIKO15
Rankoh Fujima greets his viewers anew. He is wearing a black silk ‘montsuki’ i.e. crested garment with hakama. The crest (‘mon’) is the family crest (TN: in this case the Fujima family’s). This garment is called ‘itsutsumon’ (‘five crests’) as it has five family symbols on it, placed at  the left and right side of the chest, the center of the back and the two sleeves. The crests are resist-dyed. This is the official formal attire. In case of women, black with no pattern is a mourning dress, but for men it is the most formal attire. Hakamas resemble the shape of a culotte skirt. Now, what Rankoh has been wearing in the OKEIKO series is a yukata. Yukatas are  made of linen or cotton. Originally, they were worn for bathing and sleeping. Nowadays, we sometimes wear it when we go out in summer, such as to fireworks festivals, but it is still only an everyday wear. Nihonbuyo dancers wear yukata for ‘okeiko’, when they practice in the summer, since summer in Japan is very hot and humid.
(Mitsuko T. Sakurai)