Odori program sale

I'm going through my entire collection of things and am starting with my doubles of dance programs:

Clockwise from top left:
Miyako 1992 $15 Small marks on covers, spine in good condition.
Miyako 1994 $15 Small scuffs on covers, otherwise good.
Miyako 1931 $45 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and colour.
Miyako 1933 $45 Fragile condition, spine coming apart, inside pages have age spots and coloured.
Miyako 1971 $40 Fragile conditon, spine is coming apart, cover has some marks.

Clockwise from top left:
Kamogawa 1989 $15 good condition.
Kamogawa 1958 $20 fair condition. Crease on front & back covers, small scuffs on edges, inside pages are age coloured.
Kyo 1951 $35 fragile condition. Spine is fraying, small marks and age spots on covers.
Kyo 2009 $15 Good condition.
Kitano 1992 $15 Small marks on covers bt otherwise good condition.
Aiko no Kamogawa 1995 $15 Good condition.

Clockwise from top left: Onshukai from 1993, 
Kaomise Kabuki 1961,
Onshukai 1994
Onshukai, I can't read the date on this one but it must be early 1990's because Mineko (not Iwasaki) is still a maiko.
All good condition, the Onshukai have no English and only one photo of a maiko.
The Kabuki has an Eglish description of the acts.
$5 each

If you want to swap something instead I'll consider all offers :)

If these don't get sold in a couple of months I'll list them on ebay for auction.

I will also list some kimono and other stuff soon, will just take me slightly longer to sort through that stuff.

More uploads

I have been super slack lately and sick but I uploaded the 2003 Miyako today.
Hopefully get some other stuff up tomorrow...
Also if your interested a guy on Flickr has uploaded some photos of his grandmother and mothers' collection of hikizuri and accessories... Miyako maeri and Miyako gaeri are the accounts he uses, he doesn't have a pro account so there won't be any more uploads till next month but there are some beautiful pieces that have been shown so far!

I haven't had a chance to research more about my pine maiko hikizuri.
I think the last I wrote about was the portrait of Mamehiro asking if anyone could translate the text, well Toshiha from the IG forums had a co-worker translate it:


"She has a small, ideal looking face for a maiko. She is part of the same okiya as Mamehana, a shinjinrui maiko--she is a type of girl who talks softly."


It also says she is a "Shinjinrui Maiko" - shinjinrui is a sort of slang for a person who is born in Heisei period, i.e. it's saying she is young. (not just age wise but like she is a modern girl with modern speech too)."


Now there wasn't a Mamehana at that time but the is Mameka, these are also from the Bacchus magazine scans in my flickr:

Rosarote from flickr was kind enough to get the text for me:
舞妓になって十ヵ月。 〝新人類舞妓”の筆頭的存在。 とにかく賑やかさにかけては甲部随一。 たまたま同期だったことも手伝い, 豆花をリーダー格に、 まめ丸、 真嬉の 三人で 〝ハナ・マル・キ〝 トリオを結成。 お座敷の台風の目である。
From google translate: 
Ten months to become maiko. Presence of the head of "Maiko new humanity." Is busy during the best part anyway instep. To help readers rated, a bean flower, formed round beans, "Hana-Maru wood" trio of three people happy also true that it was by chance synchronization. Some in the eye of the storm of Ozashiki.


I think it mentions Mamemaru:

Again from Rosarote: Here's the kanji:

宝塚の大ファン。 が、 宝塚には入らず、 なぜか舞妓になってしまった。 ステージ に向かってキャーキャー騒ぐのが大好き。

According to Google translate, she was a fan of Takarazuka (I'm assuming that refers to the all-female acting troupe), but she decided to become a Maiko instead.

Also from the Bacchus magainze is a portrait of Mameha that I think mentions Mameka:

「熱しやすく冷めやすい性格」とは、 同じ置屋の姉妹舞妓・豆花の弁。 なんとなくジャネット八田に似た、 おっとり美形.

From google translate: And "personality easily warmed up but just as easily cooled down" is a valve of the same flower, beans Maiko Okiya sister. Janet somehow similar to Hatta, filled with beautiful unfussy.

Ummm, I take that to mean she's a bit shy, can be fun, like her sisters in the okiya. Is the description referring to this Janet Hatta?

So I don't really know...
But just because they are "Mame" maiko doesn't mean they are actual sisters... 


Mamemaru is wearing a similar kimono to this:

And I know maiko recently ( in the past 5 years or so) have been wearing a similar kimono, if not the same one. I don't know if it is the same kimono, if it is then Mamemaru isn't from the okiya I'm searching for as they have a kikyo mon and the maiko in the above photo has a tsuta (ivy) mon on her fan....

I just don't know! At least I found some maiko wearing my kimono :)

Miyako odori time- 都おどり and maiko hikizuri progress

1929 Miyako
1938 Miyako
1965 Miyako
1966 Miyako

Ta da! The 1965 and 1966 programs contain Mineko Iwasaki as a maiko, she is famous/infamous for being the geiko to talk to Arthur Golden for his book "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Also I found this:

From here.

So Mamehiro's oneesan is Yoshimame from the okiya Shibata, which could be Mamehiro's original okiya.

Shibata nameplate from a few years ago

I know of three okiya in Gion that have the kikyo mon: Shibata (柴田) , Arai (新井) and Tsurui (つる居), MissMyloko believes that the Tsurui okiya opened in the late 1990's: Here is the discussion on Flickr.

So I can cross off Tsurui as they wouldn't have existed in the 1980's, that's not to say that the okiya my hikizuri belonged to hasn't closed.

I haven't found much information on Yoshimame, from my 1960's Miyako odori programs when she was a maiko I can't clearly see her okiya mon but it looks like its kiri...

Here is the best photo I can find, I mean you can't really see but it doesn't look like kikyo...

I think I'll have to take this to the forums, I'm stuck!

Piecing together a maiko hikizuri's history.

I recently posted a photo of an unnamed maiko-san wearing the first maiko hikizuri I ever bought.

From this book Here.

I think the book was published in 1978 so I then had a look at my Miyako odori programmes around that time and came up with a few surprising results.

From the Miyako odori program for 1963 Here:

With all the maiko portraits I used for this you can see the crane motif on her left shoulder, that is how I am identifying them as my hikizuri, I could very be wrong about all of this.

From the 1970 Miyako odori program:

From 1975 Miyako odori program:

From the 1982 Miyako odori program:

So there we go, four different maiko supposedly wearing my hikizuri.

Very curious. Senko and Teruji really make this a puzzle, because their names aren't similar, however I feel confident saying Mameharu and Mameryo were sisters because they have the same "Mame" in their names. 

I know that isn't always the case but mostly its how it goes.

Mameryo also wore this hiki here:

I also found some other "Mame" girls possibly wearing this hiki:

Possibly looks like the same hikizuri? If it is then there are another two maiko-san that are possibly sisters.

Mamehiro seems to be the only one still working, however what I can find about her says that she's affiliated with the Niben yakata in Gion, I don't know if that is the yakata that she was a maiko in as Niben has a Hanabishi mon and as a maiko she is clearly wearing a kikyo mon.

More photos of Mamehiro as a maiko:

From Here. If anyone could help translate the text above that would be very helpful :)

If the portrait of Senko from 1963 is my hikizuri that would put the age of the hikizuri at 49 years of age, at least. 

So if this hikizuri was in use for about 20 years between 1963 and 1982 possibly longer but I haven't anymore evidence just yet.

Some time between mid 1980's and 2010 the hikizuri was sold/given away/somehow made its way to a henshin studio in Kamishichiken: Katsufumi

I seem to have lost links to the original pages that contain the following photos, if you know them please let me know and I shall link it up...

Here  is a random Japanese blog with a henshin wearing this hikizuri, the date of the blog entry is January this year but unless they stole it from my mum's house (!) its an old photo ;)

What an interesting. busy life its had. There are a few yakata in Gion it might have belonged to, I won't know for certain though until I get more information.

If anyone knows what okiya Mamehiro belonged to as a maiko that would be very valuable information!

Gion odori time! (祇園をどり)

So Gion Higashi (East Gion) isn't as large/popular as Gion Kobu, why I don't know. Gion Higashi is a Hanamachi (flower town) that there isn't much information about, past and present.
I only have a few Gion Odori programs in my collection as I don't see them for sale very often.
Today I'm uploading some early Gion odori:

7th Gion odori-1961
8th Gion odori-1962
11th Gion odori-1965
24th Gion odori-1980

Here is the folder with all my other Gion odori programs, enjoy!

Much the same...

As yesterday, I planned on doing heaps of scanning, ended up only really doing a bit because it just sucks the life out if me!! Gah, So boring!!!
I did make yummy mini muffins ( lot of m's just there) banana and choc chip, no pics cuz they taste good, look bad, so the bf will take them into work tomorrow, hopefully keep him happy during the day.
I wore kimono again! Yay! Still only messy, around the house kitsuke but it went alright:

Seeing as its the second day of Autumn down south I wore awase today, and was very comfortable. Usually when I wear awase I get hot and bothered very quickly but today was good.
Yes that is a summer obijime but its the only one I have with me...
The obi and kimono I bought in early '09 as a bundle from this selller on ebay... who either stopped using or got kicked off ebay just after I bought the bundle... I wasn't too happy with most of the items, not as good quality as what I was told.
Anyway! First time actually wearing this obi:

I think its a cotton obi? The texture is really strange, its like its crinkled or something, was very disappointed when I received it so its spent the last few years going to be given to my mum for her crafts, but somehow it came with me when I moved? Odd.

kimono:

I didn't like it when I first got it (design wise) only good thing about it was that its in great condition and doesn't fit too badly, its short but ok in the arms. But now I really do like this one!

My crappy photos really don't show off it, but its lovely, just trust me.

Yet more odori programmes...

So I had a fun filled day at home doing odori programming and because I was just at home I decided to don a yukata, its messy kitsuke but was nice to just toss it on.
Actually I was pretty pleased how it turned out considering I really did just toss it on lol...

Crap-o-lah photos because I didn't think to take photos in the day so this is in the bathroom, the colours are all off. The back shot looks greyish but its all purple. The obi is a reversible hanhaba, one side is the purple with chain pattern and the other is hakata which is sadly, very stained. 

I was going to try to clean it but I haven't done anything about it yet...

Anyway odori programmes:

1966 Kamogawa

1966 Kamogawa Autumn