À la recherche du temps perdu — Haikara-san's Yagasuri
Haikara-san. How nostalgic.
A shōjo manga from my school days.
In 2017, it came back as an animated film.
A manga of Taishō romance, but above all a love story.
Next to the anime Demon Slayer, also set in the Taishō era, it feels like an entirely different age.
In Haikara-san, petals fly everywhere, and your heart skips a beat.
The man the heroine marries is a total heartthrob.
The heroine moves freely between Japanese and Western clothes.
At the time, Japanese women still wore kimono as a rule.
Her clothing shows the era well.
Most often she is drawn in yagasuri, the arrow-feather pattern, with hakama.
Yagasuri lines up the feathers of arrows.
An arrow, once shot, never comes back.
So it came to be seen as an auspicious pattern: go straight ahead, and never turn back.
Schoolgirls of the Taishō era chose it for their graduation kimono.
A wish that things would go well after school, too.
Yet at times she goes on a date in a charming dress.
A big sailor collar, or frilly lace.
Among her kimono, there is one with a large swallow in flight.
She rides a bicycle, swings a bamboo sword, and speaks up loudly for women's rights.
From kimono to Western dress.
Women, more active.
From a life of sitting quietly, to skirts swirling as she strides down the main street.
That was the Taishō era.
Hair cut short, from kimono to Western dress.
An age when wearing wasai visibly declined.
You may never wear a kimono. But you can wear the art of Wasai.
On ne porte pas forcément un kimono. Mais on peut porter l'art du Wasai.
— PASSIONEER
Comments