JPG: Stories: Feature Story: Seijin-no-hi

Feature Story

Seijin-no-hi

By Keith Graff

16 Sep 2008

Every Tuesday is guy's day out for Mike and I. Just a couple of photographer hack wannabe's out and about with our cameras. The middle of September is usually the best time to be out and about on Okinawa. By now the summer heat is beginning to abate and the skies tend to be clear and the weather, with the exception of an occasional typhoon, tends to be much dryer than the sweltering sultry summer heat we've been forced to suffer through for the last three months.

Unfortunately for us, one of those late summer typhoons had been meandering through the region for a week now. It was a big slow moving storm that the week before had slammed the lee islands and then took two days to dance around Taiwan before hitting open water again. Instead of continuing west, and drowning out a few communist rats, this storm took a 180 and was making its way back toward the main island. Already the skies were dark and foreboding and the torrential rains that had subsided only a day before had returned.

Instead of spending the day sitting around and sorting through last weeks photos, we decided to take our cameras and look for an indoor venue to ply our trade. I suggested the large "Ichiba" market in downtown Naha. It's a conglomeration of hundreds of little mom and pop stores that cover several city blocks worth of the old downtown area. For years it's been the center of activity and as the years passed, large sections of it had been covered over to provide shoppers with a place to get out of the heat and shop in relative comfort.

We started the day by going to the famous meat and fish market and between the two of us, probably took a hundred photos of the hustle and bustle of this busy market. When we finished there, we checked out the local fruit and vegetable markets. From there, we were able to see that the weather had taken a turn for the better, so we hurried across one of the busy main streets to check out the old flower markets in the "Noren Ichiba" district. This area is uncovered and is the wholesale market for many of the shops and restaurants throughout the city. Likewise, it's a collection of very dilapidated buildings. If it weren't for all the high-rise apartment complexes around it, the place could be flattened by a light breeze.

Afterwards we took lunch and had one of the infamous "Goya Burgers" (that's going to be another story). It was just after taking lunch that Mike suggested that he'd like to see if we could find a Kimono shop. I knew of three such places but had never had the opportunity to photograph them while out shopping with the wife. Without her there to stop me for a change, we decided to give it a try. The first place was pleasant enough and looked to be an upscale shop. There were no customers inside but when we asked the clerk if it was okay to take a few pictures, she happily said yes. We took a few shots of some kimono's they had on display, thanked them kindly and made our way to the next shop.

Over the years, I've probably been through almost all of the market but the next place was somewhere where I'd never been inside. The downstairs didn't look very inviting but what a surprise when we took the escalator up to the second level. Located here was a gathering of a dozen or so small Mom & Pop Kimono shops known as kimono kitsuke. They literally had hundreds of kimonos' on display and were just as agreeable as the previous place for us to take photos of their wares. Perhaps they thought from all the equipment Mike was carrying with him that we were professionals. Oh, if they only knew the truth of the matter.

After a few minutes taking photos near the entrance, we wandered around the partitions and to our surprise we found a mother picking out a Kimono for her daughter. There was already a tourist from Hong Kong snapping pictures with his top of the line Cannon. Mike has a decent Pentax but to be honest, I felt half naked with my little Sony Cyber-shot H7. We always ask first and seeing that our tourist friend was greedily snapping away, had no trouble what-so-ever getting permission to shoot more photos of a lovely young girl being fitted by two kindly looking ladies.

Mike speaks a bit of the local dialect and in a few moments had all of them laughing hysterically and signing away model releases. If anyone had observed us as we shot our photos and moved about the small shop they might be forgiven for thinking that we were really professionals working for an advertizing agency. What we discovered was that this young lady was being fitted for her coming of age ceremony which normally takes place in January.

For years it was celebrated every January 15th. I know because it is also my father-in-law's birthday. It's called Seijin-no-hi, a Japanese national holiday which honors people who have reached, their twentieth birthday. Twenty is the age of majority in Japan, and anyone who's reached this age is subject to adult laws, gained the right to vote in elections and to partake of adult beverages. According to my mother-in-law, as a result of the holiday falling on the 15th of January for so many years, my father-in-law never grew up. He made it a point to always celebrate his 20th birthday and did so for almost 50 years. You can imagine his dismay when the holiday was officially changed to fall on the second Monday of January!

Women celebrate that day by donning furisode kimono, which are kimono in which the sleeves are much longer when compared to the kimono worn by mature, married women. Kimonos are extremely beautiful and most young woman cannot put on a kimono by themselves. So, they go to a kimono kitsuke who dresses them. They also go to a hair stylist to have their hair set the day before or in the early morning hours on the day of. Kimonos' are made from fine silk and ones worn for formal ceremonies are quite ornate. Many have fine embroidery and it's not uncommon for it to contain genuine gold and silver in the thread. As such, an authentic Japanese kimono can cost as much or more than a new car. Renting of Kimonos' is the norm for most young people.

The mother of this young lady was obviously proud of her daughter and was sparing no expense to make sure her coming of age day was going to be one that she would remember for the rest of her life. As for her daughter, although she was a bit bashful at first, as soon as she got used to our presence, she warmed up beautifully and her smile was infectious. She tried on two different Kimonos' while we were there. Although both we and Momma liked the red best, she decided on the other. I guess children all over the world have a little rebel in them when it comes to the opinion of their elders.

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