Kimono Menu – Tango Chirimen Real Kimono Experience

Experience Menu

Your experience with real Tango chirimen kimono will start at the former home of the Bito family who were raw silk chirimen merchants. This Former Bito Family Home is noted for blending Japanese-style and Western-style rooms when Western-style rooms were added in the 1920s. Designated as a Kyoto Prefecture Tangible Cultural Property on March 26th, 2002. Enjoy your real silk kimono experience and the atmosphere of the Former Bito Family Home.

＜Dress in Kimono＞
At Former Bito Family Home

Our entire selection is Tango chirimen kimono made of pure silk. See the kimono in person and choose which one to rent.

>Former Bito Family Home special page(Japanese)

＜Guided Walking Tour＞
Chirimen-Kaido

A local guide will take you on a walking tour of Chirimen Road (Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings). The guide will also explain about the Former Bito Family Home where you dressed in kimono./p>
＞Chirimen-Kaido special website(Japanese)

＜Food＞ Hare-no-Hi Gozen

Your meal will be served at the Former Bito Family Home on vermillion lacquerware used by the family. The multi-course meal is a Tango specialty called “Hare-no-Hi Gozen” made with local and seasonal ingredients, with a traditional main dish called “bara-zushi.”

＜Furoshiki＞ Lesson

Learn the basic manners of using the furoshiki wrapping-cloth, and learn the basic ways to wrap things with a Tango chirimen furoshiki.

＜Tea Ceremony＞
Etiquette Lesson

For the tea ceremony experience, besides drinking tea, you will also learn how to prepare the tea and proper etiquette inside the Japanese-style room.

Tango Chirimen Factory Tour(Optional)

Optional Activity

Your rental kimono is made of Tango chirimen silk crepe made in the Tango region. If you want, we can take you to a Tango chirimen weaving factory or dyeing factory. Perhaps you can order your own original kimono.

Watamasa, Tango Chirimen Maker

Yosano-cho Iwaya Tango Chirimen Manufacturing and Sales

About 10 min. by car from Yosano Station is Watamasa’s main factory in mountains full of greenery. It has been manufacturing Tango chirimen since it was established in 1918. Besides the company headquarters and factory, there is a second weaving factory and thread-twisting factory. It conducts factory tours for the public so we can better observe and understand this traditional industry.
Masateru Watanabe is the fourth-generation company president. He is the young hope for the company working to preserve conventional technologies and traditions. while still innovating to reflect modern society. Besides fulfilling custom orders for undyed white fabrics, Watamasa also designs, develops, and publicizes products. One main product is the shark komon kimono with a fine, fish pattern. It was one of the three common komon patterns used during the Edo Period. Watamasa’s shark pattern has small, stylish, swishing shark tails.
Functionality is also important and the company’s kimono neckband (han-eri) made of an innovative washable silk has become a hit product since it went on sale. Of the ten designs, the most popular one is the “koi-karakusa” foliage design with a lot of heart marks for a chic look.

Kobayashi Some Kobo

Amino-cho Kyotango brush dyer and dye artist

Kobayashi Some Kobo is Tomohisa Kobayashi’s coastal studio in the seaside town of Amino facing the Sea of Japan.　Kobayashi has been dyeing fabrics with a brush for 40 years, using white fabrics, gradations, and all kinds of colorful designs. But his centerpiece is his Tango Blue and dazzling blue. His gradations look like the blue ocean, blue sky, or horizon. A kimono dyed with his Tango Blue is really vivid and lustrous.
Kobayashi’s brush dyeing is all done by hand. With the white fabric stretched out on the loom’s temple in his factory, Kobayashi deftly strokes the wide brush on the material without any wasteful strokes. The Tango chirimen is thereby dyed quickly at an even speed with much precision.

Blue became faddish among Shimbashi geisha in Tokyo from the end of the Meiji Period and was even labeled as “Shimbashi color.” But blue faded easily, so it hardly became a standard color. After years of trial and error, Kobayashi succeeded in developing a durable blue pigment resistant to fading. This blue has an unlimited transparency and produces a vivid Tango Blue. that captures your heart.

Sample Itinerary
Time Schedule

10:00 am	Arrive at former Kaya Town Hall. Introduction to Chirimen Road (by tour guide) Walk to Former Bito Family Home.
10:20 am	At former Bito Family Home, select and dress in kimono. Kimono and dressing guidance.
11:20 am	Walk along Chirimen Road (with tour guide).
12:00 pm	Lunch at Former Bito Family Home (Hare-no-Hi Gozen).
12:45 pm	Furoshiki wrapping cloth lesson at Former Bito Family Home.
1:15 pm	Tea ceremony.
2:00 pm	① Walk along Chirimen Road area only. Change clothes→Service ends. – Fees ① Basic Service B (¥14000) ＋ tour guide (¥2000) ＋ Furoshiki wrapping-cloth lesson (¥1000) ＋ Tea ceremony lesson (¥2800) ＝¥19,800　　 ② Option to see the sights in kimono: 　Walk to sights.↓
4:30 pm	②-1. Option to return to Former Bito Family Home: Return kimono and change clothes →Service ends. – Fees ②-1 Basic Service A (¥17,500) ＋ Tour guide (¥2000) ＋ Furoshiki wrapping-cloth lesson (¥1000) ＋ Tea ceremony lesson (¥2800) ＝¥23,300　 ②-2. Option to change clothes at Amanohashidate area: Change clothes at the specified place or hotel. (Fee required)　　　 – Fees ②-2 Fee ②-1. plus ¥3,000 for a total of ¥26,300.

Experience Menu