Kimono furisode Japnese triditional dress

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The kimono (きもの/着物, lit. 'thing to wear')[a] is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased.[2] The kimono is traditionally worn with a broad sash, called an obi, and is commonly worn with accessories such as zōri sandals and tabi socks.

Kimono have a set method of construction and are typically made from a long, narrow bolt of cloth known as a tanmono, though Western-style fabric bolts are also sometimes used.[3] There are different types of kimono for men, women, and children, varying based on the occasion, the season, the wearer's age, and – less commonly in the modern day – the wearer's marital status. Despite the kimono's reputation as a formal and difficult-to-wear garment, there are types of kimono suitable for both formal and informal occasions. The way a person wears their kimono is known as kitsuke (着付け, lit. 'dressing').

The history of the kimono can be tracked back to the Heian period (794–1185), when Japan's nobility embraced a distinctive style of clothing. Formerly the most common Japanese garment, the kimono has fallen out of favor and is rarely worn as everyday dress now. They are most often seen at summer festivals, where people frequently wear the yukata, the most informal type of kimono. More formal types are worn to funerals, weddings, graduations, and other formal events. Geisha and maiko are required to wear a kimono as part of their profession, and rikishi (sumo wrestlers) must wear kimonos at all times in public.[4] Despite the small number of people who wear it regularly and its reputation as a complicated garment, the kimono has experienced a number of revivals in previous decades, and is still worn today as fashionable clothing in Japan.

A furisode (振袖, lit. 'swinging sleeves') is a style of kimono distinguishable by its long sleeves, which range in length from 85 cm (33 in) for a kofurisode (小振袖, lit. 'short swinging sleeve'), to 114 cm (45 in) for an ōfurisode (大振袖, lit. 'large swinging sleeves'). Furisode are the most formal style of kimono worn by young unmarried women in Japan.[1]

The sleeves, like all women's kimono, are attached to the body of the kimono only at the shoulder, with the inner edge left open past the shoulder. This both allows the underkimono (juban) to show when worn, and also allows the obi to be tied around the body above the hips. Furisode, like other formal kimono, are mostly made from silk, and are decorated in bright colours to reflect the wearer's youth. Furisode are often either rented or bought by parents for their daughters to wear on Coming of Age Day in the year they turn 20.

In previous decades, in particular before WWII, only young unmarried women wore furisode, as marriage signified the end to a woman's single youth and the beginning of her transition into married life; higher rates of marriage at a younger age left few women unmarried past their mid-twenties, meaning that furisode were never seen on older unmarried women. Though furisode were worn to formal events, informal furisode – sometimes featuring shorter sleeves and more subdued decoration – did exist, and would have been worn to less formal events, or as a part of everyday life.

In the present day, furisode are by default considered to be formalwear, despite the existence of some yukata (informal summer kimono) with furisode-style sleeves; the furisode is generally worn for formal social functions such as tea ceremonies and weddings.[2]

Formality guidelines for kimono have also relaxed, to the point that the divide between wearing furisode and other types of formal kimono is now one more of age, rather than marital status, with young women past their early twenties generally wearing shorter sleeved kimono instead. Both married and unmarried young women also have the choice to wear other types of formal kimono featuring shorter sleeves to formal events, such as the short sleeved irotomesode, as well as wearing formal Western clothing rather than kimono.