" How to wear a yukata "

                Yukata, is something every Japanese girl loves to wear.  It is very 
            tradtional and it changes us into an "elegant" girl!! Every year, I go and 
            see the diplays of fireworks at many places. I always wear "yukata" when I 
            go to the displays of fireworks.  However, my mother has always dressed me 
            the "yukata", and I have never had a chance to wear it myself. 

                     Since my mother has become a professional of a school that teaches 
            how to put on a kimono properly, my mother wears the kimono four days a week.  
            I observe my mother when she starts wearing her kimono because it is very 
            interesting for me.  This has made me curious of how she can wear those 
            kimonos in just a few minutes!

                     This has triggered me on wanting to learn the creative process of
            "how to wear a yukata".  Since my mother is the professional, my mother has 
            tought me how to wear the yukata.  I had a feeling that there would be more 
            to it than just wearing it since it is something traditional.  
            I have predicted that there are some history behind it.

                      In the process of wearing the yukata, I have noticed that it is 
            worn by the measurements of your hands, your body, parts of the yukata 
            itself, and by using the width of the "obi".  This has really striked me 
            in a sense that wearing a yukata is a creative process because it is all 
            worn by the WISDOM that the ancient Japanese has created.  Ancient Japanese 
            were creative and intelligent.  No one today could have thought of those 
            creative processes that they have thought of in the old days.  As the old 
            saying goes, "obaachan no chie" which means grandma's wisdom, it represents 
            that the elder you are, the more wisdom you have from their experiences of 
            their long living lives.

                       Learning how to wear the yukata has taught me that there are 
            creativity everywhere!! Even in the yukata itself has abundant of 
            creativity!!  You just have to learn how to pay attention to your everyday 
            life.  It will be always there for you,  pay attention very carefully, and 
            your "heart" will answer it for you.

Written by Eriko Miyamoto
based on the her portfolio project of 1998



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