藍染浴衣と喜如嘉の芭蕉布

今年の夏も備後屋オリジナルの本藍染浴衣と沖縄県大宜味村喜如嘉の芭蕉布の帯を着ることができました。

とは言っても、もう9月の半ばだのに、長襦袢も着ずに浴衣に夏帯って‥もし着物警察に捕まっていたら大変なことになっていました。

50年程前に祖母が締めていた人間国宝・平良敏子さんの芭蕉布の帯を昨年復活させ、今年もなんとか着られてとても幸せです。

芭蕉布とは、糸芭蕉というバナナに似た植物の繊維を用いた沖縄特産の織物。

柳宗悦先生が「今時こんな美しい布はめったにないのです。いつ見てもこの布ばかりは本物です。その美しさの由来を訪ねると理の当然であって、どうしても美しくならざるを得ない事情にあるのだとさへ云えるのです。」と芭蕉布物語の中で表現するほどの珠玉の布であります。

This summer I was once again able to wear Bingoya's original indigo-dyed yukata and a Bashofu obi (sash) made from Kijoka bashofu cloth from Ogimi Village, Okinawa Prefecture.

That said, it's already mid-September, and I'm wearing a yukata with a summer obi without even a nagajuban (undergarment)...if I'd been caught by the kimono police, I'd be in big trouble.

Last year I revived a Bashofu obi made by Living National Treasure Taira Toshiko that my grandmother had worn for about 50 years ago, and I am very happy to be able to wear it again this year.

Bashofu is a fabric unique to Okinawa that uses fibers from a banana-like plant called thread banana.

It is such an exquisite fabric that Master Yanagi Muneyoshi described it in the Story of Bashofu as "It is rare to find such beautiful fabric these days. No matter how many times you look at it, this fabric is the real thing. When you ask where its beauty comes from, it is only natural, and you can even say that there must have been some circumstances that made it inevitable that it would become so beautiful."

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