HAKUBI

AND

THE FOUNDATION ON PROMOTING THE NATIONAL COSTUME OF JAPAN

AT

THE JAPAN FOUNDATION-TORONTO OFFICE

24 MAY, 1997

SPONSORED BY

THE CANADA-JAPAN SOCIETY OF TORONTO

From the morning lecture on The Tale of Genji given by Prof. Kenneth L. Richard at the University of Toronto, the Hakubi Group gathered at the Toronto headquarters of The Japan Foundation to prepare for a late afternoon kimono show of current fashions for young ladies and married women. Hakubi designed this show in a popular vein, so that a general audience, perhaps not too familiar with Japan or with the kimono, would be able to enjoy a hands-on demonstration of the dressing, wearing, and modeling of Japan's national costume.

The show began and ended with a Hakubi-mai, or Hakubi dance, in which two senior teachers and models from the main school in Tokyo demonstrated the process of putting on a kimono from the undergarment up, so to speak. A feature of the Hakubi-mai which everyone finds amazing is that several layers of garment, several sashes, the final cords around the obi or outermost sash, are tied in tandem, to the rhythm of an urban ballad, in the space of a mere three minutes or so. Dances of this sort are taught in the Hakubi schools in Japan, to enable women who have become so familiar with Western modes of dress that they have either forgotten or can not recall, how to drape and tie the traditional kimono. Not only do dances like these teach women how to remember the movements, but how to do them in a coordinated fashion that is fun, even a form of theatre. When two women stand together with the long strands of their obi slung over their shoulders, then suddenly fling the ends forward and around their bodies so that the sashes seem to tie themselves, one is reminded of their male counterparts in the so-called samurai melodramas who charge about with their swords drawn, a Japanese version of kung-fu. The dance these ladies do becomes a feminist statement to the power of a woman whose dress frees her rather than confines her.

The performance also featured models from the local community who volunteered their time so they could be dressed by the teachers from Japan. The sponsors of this day's event, the Canada-Japan Society of Toronto, even volunteered members from their Board of Directors to act as models. Models from Toronto included: Ms. Nana Iizuka of the Univ. of Toronto, Ms. Deanna Wong of Mitsubishi Canada Ltd., Ms. Jennifer Cho, Ms. Gwyneth Hall of JETRO, Ms. Lorraine Parker, and Ms. Margaret Buckworth and Ms. Ann Parkin of the Canada-Japan Society of Toronto. In response to the Canadian models, the Hakubi Group produced an obi tied in the shape of a red Canadian maple leaf (see the Hakubi pages elsewhere on this site for a photograph).

An audience of approximately 100 attended this performance of the Hakubi Group and most stayed behind for an informal reception held in the Japan Foundation offices. Several newspapers also covered the event and later published their accounts. Commentary in Japanese for this show was provided by Ms. Yasuko Osanai, Principal of the Hakubi School. Simultaneous translation was provided by Prof. Kenneth L. Richard. Mr. Takayoshi Mizushima, President of Hakubi, gave a short greeting and talk to the audience on the history of the kimono.