「戌年」Happy New Kimono Year!

by Anji SALZ on Jan 23, 2018 0 comments

Happy New Year also on my blog!

Thanks so much for reading in the past year and here is to hoping you are having an awesome 2018 – hopefully in kimono!

My start in the year was rather unspectacular as I got pretty sick on new years eve and just spent it watching TV with my Japanese family (and killing a bottle of Sangria by myself.. to kill the germs of course haha)
After the new year rang we went out to the nearest shrine and temple to pray for the new year. As I’m Christian I am praying to my own god but I like to go to Japanese shrines anyway.
After midnight people already line up at there to do “Hatsumode” (初詣) the new years prayers to wish a successful new year. It is a strong tradition so naturally the first 3 days of the new year there are endlessly long lines at all shrines in the city.

このブログでも「2018年明けましておめでとうございます！」

2018年は素晴らしい一年になりますように。たくさん着物を着る年になるといいなぁ（笑）

年末にまたヒドイ風邪を引き、お正月は少し寂しかった。一応、大晦日は、日本の家族とゆっくりなにかと話題になったダウンタウンさんのわらってはいけない罰ゲームの番組を観たり食べたりしからの、夜中の初詣。その後の三日間はほぼ布団の中に過ごしました。寝正月。

I went a few days earlier to take pictures because I needed them for my column (I write once per month for Mainichi Weekly Newspaper) – and I am glad I did because I mainly spent my new years recovering from the cold.

まともな初詣ができなかったので、毎日ウィークリー着物コラムの為に少し早めに初詣の写真撮りに行って本当に良かった。ま、その代わりに風邪治したあとで東京谷中の七福神巡りをしてきた。初詣というと神社のイメージが強いけど、これは北区（東覚寺）、荒川区（青雲時、修性寺）、台東区（天王寺、長安寺、護国院、不忍池弁天堂（ここは桜や蓮で、有名だよね））のお寺を回る散策です。全部訪問して2－4時間くらいです。ぜひ挑戦してみてね。

I barely wear formal kimono or have the chance to do so but it felt good to dress up in a fancy and traditional kimono for a change.

やはり正式の着物を着る機会は少ないのでドレスアップできて嬉しかった。付け下げも帯も平安時代の美人柄にしました。そして一年ぶりの白い半衿と足袋かな？普段は派手な柄で遊んでますけど。

Another Japanese tradition are “Nengajo” (年賀状) which are new years greeting cards. That’s some serious business as most people feel obliged to send them and so most people spend days printing out their own design cards and writing dozens of addresses for days before new years. Also if you get such a card and you didn’t send that person one – the basic rule is that you have to send a belated card back as a thank you.
To be honest with you, I hate these nengajo as I don’t like the pressure to have to send something so I don’t participate haha. I think many young people don’t care much these days.

After all this talk let me show you a fun way to do a new years card!!
Photographer Irwin Wong whom I worked with on previous shoots (e.g. the Dirndl vs. Kimono shoot) is doing some super creative cards each year with family and fellow creators.

For this year he asked me if I can do kimono styling for him and his wife like in the movies “Ghost in the shell” or “Blade runner”. I was super excited to get such a creative and different job opportunity!
His wife got the Geisha Robot makeover – and to be honest it was quite a task to build the collar like in the movie and get other details right. My husband helped me build the prop for hours into the night.

日本の、お正月の文化だと年賀状も大事ですね。皆さんは忙しかったでしょう。手紙を送りあう文化は素敵です。でも・・・バレンタインの義理チョコ的な「やらないといけません」的な事はやはりドイツ人の私には少し向いてない（笑）。ま、基本的に手紙など全然送らない人ですし・・許して下さい。ははは。

ところで、写真家・撮影者のIrwin Wongさんは毎年とても面白い年賀状を作ってます！（こんな年賀状なら私も毎年送りたくなるかも？）いつも奥さんと友達が集まって映画のポスターみたいな作品を作ってます。
今回は「ゴースト・イン・ザ・シェル」の芸者ロボット（天才タケシ師匠も出ていた、実写映画版のほう）や「ブレード・ランナー」のイメージした年賀状を作りたくて、着物スタイリングについてアンジーに声をかけていただいちゃった！ある意味、いつもとは別次元のすごくクリエティブな撮影なので大変嬉しかったです。

前の夜、うちの旦那に手伝ってもらって夜中まで芸者ロボットの襟を作ってみた。

The shoot itself was amazing as there were so many creatives in the room and Irwin had thought of many cool details.
Japan has a yearly cycle of animals (like a zodiac sign) and 2018 is the year of the dog. Irwin always includes the yearly animal in his shoots, so this year we worked with the cutest puppy!! Everyone looked really cool.

撮影の当日もとても楽しくて、そして今年は「戌年」なので可愛いワンちゃんとの撮影になった。きゃー