Now those Disney kimono don't seem so strange

Deb's post about Dinsey wedding gowns reminded me of something I once saw at a department store in Hiroshima.

Most big Japanese department stores have a kimono section, and I always liked to take a look at them. But in this one store, I saw a big advertisement for DISNEY PRINCESS KIMONO! They had the Little Mermaid one on display. It was a beautiful kimono (see link for images...warning, site is animation intensive and navigation is a bit tricky), but I thought it was really funny that there were Disney furisode.

Kimono lesson: the furisode is a long-sleeved kimono worn only by unmarried adult women. A young woman will normally wear a furisode for the first time at her coming-of-age ceremony, the year she turns 20 (legal age of adulthood in Japan). Traditionally, wearing the furisode was a signal that the woman was officially "on the market", that she was "out" in the society/debutante sense. Today there aren't many furisode wearing occasions, but families will have studio portraits taken of their daughter in her furisode for her coming-of-age and use these pictures in her matchmaking portfolio.

So the furisode is sort of like an Western prom gown or debutante ball gown, only more so. It's a garment that says "Here I am -- I'm not a girl, I AM a woman, I show honorable respect for the traditions of my culture, and if you're looking for a lady then I might be the one." I thought it was pretty funny that there was a whole line of furisode that added to this message, "Oh yeah, I really like Disney animated movies too!"

But this is nowhere NEAR as funny as ACTUALLY GETTING MARRIED in a Disney Princess-themed garment. Take that, Japan! Our women can be even MORE obsessed with cuteness than yours are!