From: John Rasmussen <lictre@mailbag.com>
Subject: Re: [FFML] [question] Japanese funerals

On Sun, 14 Jun 1998, Caroline Ann Seawright wrote:

and would it be completely unheard of
for a girl to be buried/cremated in her weddin kimono?

Cremation, I believe, is common.

Actually, if I recall correctly, it's the law in Japan.  No more

burials.

Don't know if the girl would really be cremated in a wedding

kimono, but I

had it happen in my 'fic, so... ^_^;;;

There are some references to kimono usage on the body prior
to burial/cremation.  I assume that once a kimono was worn
in this fashion, it would be burned and not resold to a gaijin.

It would be SurReal if someone bought such a kimono by mistake
and the spirit was so outraged that it haunted someone.

Anyways, in the literature from one of the wedding Kimono shops
(ack, the prices are high and custom duties...), there seems to
be quite a few ways to wear Kimono, including corpses.  "A
kimono is worn wrapped left side over right, for both men and
women.  It is only seen right over left on a corpse."   So, I would
assume that back when burials were done, the kimono would be
buried with the body.  None of my literature from the antique
kimono shops indicates that _wedding_ Kimono was used in
final burial preparations.  I assume that would be insulting to the
marriage?

If you do collect antique wedding Kimono, make sure that you
get an "old" one since the new ones have embroidery put on
by machine, instead of the traditional manual method.   There
seems to be flexible interpretations at the stores (for the
gaijin I guess) that the word antique means anything over ten
years old (unlike the USA where antique is a legislated term
for consumer protection).

Problem is, wedding kimonos are *damn* expensive...

Not too bad.  At one department store, new daywear
kimono (posed on mannequins) was priced between 50,000
and 60,000 yen.   Although not collectible like the antique
wedding Kimono, they look nice, but are so sheer that I can't
imagine anyone wearing them (I am not hentai enough <g>).

The antique wedding Kimono I bought after a week's hunting
used a lot more silk fabric and was heavily lined with other
silk fabrics.   It would be suitable for burial, and I suppose
cremation would reduce the amount of silk ashes to a very
small amount.

At 09:37 AM 6/14/98 -0400, John Rasmussen wrote:

In fact, most women only rent the Kimono, since actually buying one

would

cost in excess of 10,000 DOLLARS, which would make it over a million

yen.

After a number of rentals (I don't know how many) or if the
wedding kimono gets stained (like by wine), the item can be
retired to a used kimono shop where you can buy it for far far
less.   As I understand it, gaijin like to visit such stores and
buy them like artworks to hang on the walls of their homes
back in the states (like I did).   If you get some, they will be
the most expensive clothes you own but can't wear.