Green Linen Hitatare

Fancy Kamakura Style

October 2012

This is meant to be a recreation of the green hitatare kamishimo that is dated in Mitsuo Kure's book as being "Mid-Kamakura", only without all the fabric painting. It's called "everyday wear" in the Japanese Costume Museum in Kyoto.

The fabric is a nice heavy green linen from "fabrics-store.com". I didn't want this project to wait around for me to braid the trim, so all that is store bought.

I had enough extra fabric to make a kataginu, but I think it might look a little funny to wear an unadorned kataginu with hakama that have kotsuyu.

I also made the hitoe undershirt and the under-hakama that go with it. This type of hitatare is unlined, so it requires that fuller undergarments be worn.

One thing about the hitoe and under-hakama, I wanted this layer to be as light as possible, so I went with the lightest weight linen I could find on "fabrics-store.com". This was a mistake. Their lightest weight linen is lightweight because it has a very open weave, gauzy in texture. You'd be better off going up a bit in weight, but with a higher count of finer threads. The resulting fabric would probably be thinner, easier to work with, and smoother.

Anyway, here's what it looks like with the underlayer on, but before the hitatare kamishimo goes on:

I did eventually complete all the braiding for the decorative accents. The two round braids with the loops at the ends are for the munahimo that tie the hitatare closed across the chest. The two flat braids are each about 7 feet long and a half-inch wide. They are used for the sodetsuyu lacing at the end of each sleeve. The kotsuyu decorative knots are made from 15 inches of braid each, which was braided in two very long braids that I then cut apart. All of the braiding is 16 strands of silk yarn.