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