Official KIMONO SET

For Wearer's Height : 165cm ~160cm tall

This set is recommended for married women
Length: 165cm ( 65inches)

Breath: 66cm ( 26inches)

Material : Pure SILK

Family Montsuki Crest: YES

Designer piece: Designer Seal

Weight: 1020 grams

(Weighted even lighter than the Fukuro Obi.)

What is an Official Kimono?
There are two types of Official Kimono that are Black Kimono and Color-Kimono. On both types, patterns are restricted to the panels below Fukuro-Obi sash. Black Kimono is the most formal Kimono for married women, and its name "Kuro-Kimono"(black Kimono) is a shortened form of "Itsutsu-Montsuki-Susomoyo-Kimono"(Bottom patterned short-sleeve with 5 crests), and its name,"Black Kimono", has its roots in cutting off the swinging sleeves of unmarried women's formal Kimono. It's also believed that the first Kanji character, "Tome" whose meaning is "stay" comes from the sense that married women stay in the husband's family. Whether the wearer is married or not, Colored-Kimono can be worn as the most formal dress. One with 5 crests ranks as high as black Kimono. Even if it has one or three crests, it still can be worn as the highest dress among pre-formal dresses at a wide range of occasions. At the events of Imperial Palace, black Kimono is forbidden to wear and attendants must wear Colored Kimono instead.

The Sakura flowers are gold and silver silk-embossed giving you a touch of a 3-D felt.

This silk fabric material comes with flowers and squarish pattern shapes.

This is the Designer's Seal.

Proven to be a designer's kimono.

This is the MONTSUKI CREST
which is imprinted at the behind collar

This is a beautiful Pure Silk Fukuro Obi.

Material: Pure SILK

Length: 163inches ( 414cm)

Breath: 12.25 inches ( 31cm)

Weight: 1230 grams

This is the Obiage and the Obijime.

It comes in a set.

Material: shiny orange color pure silk

Weight: 100grams

This is to tie over the Fukuro Obi.

Japanese bag for Kimono and Yukata

These Japanese bag are recommended as a carrier when you wear kimono or yukata.

Japanese Yukata set

This set is recommended for young teen-girls and young lady adults.

These Yukata come in a set.

Consist of :

1) Yukata

2) Obi-set (pre-setup)

3) Geta

Material: Cotton
sleeve to sleeve: 135cm
sleeve length: 49cm
dress length: 163cm
bottom width: 146cm
weight: 500g

Suitable for lady/girl height of : 163cm and below.

Do you know Bronzes was an equivalent to Money?

Do you know that Bronze was an equivalent form of money?

Why not? If gold material even until today is a form of money.
certainly even silver; titinium; brass, copper ; iron and bronze materials can still be sold off to get back CASH/money.

Owing a huge vast of bronze vessels during those days in the period of Shang, Zhou,Han and Qin dynasties was an equivalent form of money.
Investment in buying bronze and other metal materials to forge out these bronze vessels are only those rich kings and dukes and marquis could afford. Eventually, smaller piece also made from bronze material into a form of small spade shape; small knife shape and small rounded shape were used also as a form of money.
Today coins were also made with a mxiture of bronze and nickel or brass.
And some used copper or aluminium.
And some used Gold and Silver and Titinium.
Ancient China also used gold and silver materials to made vessels products but because of limited of gold and silver. Bronze and Copper materials were the best choice.

Owing a large quantity of these bronze vessels was a symbol of power and authority and wealth of a person wealth.

As far as I know, Ancient China's era seem to have acquired alot of these raw bronze materials to made these bronze vessels. Many of these bronze vessels were unearthened when modern China today started to convert many of those lands into commerical and residential purpose.

Today these bronze vessels unearthen and once again able to see the light, these bronze vessels become a very hot collection items for antique collectors worldwide.

If you want to see large collection of these bronze vessels that displayed for public viewing, you can visit at a few museums like : Shanghai Museum; BeiJing Museum and Taiwan-Museum.

Very sorry, though I have several collection, unfortunately, I display some of these bronze vessels for " My eyes" and " My guests " only.
However, I will up-load my collection some day.
I am too lazy to snap some digital photos yet.
May try to snap whenever I take vacation leave.

Ancient China Bronze Age - Shang & Zhou Dynasties

The bronze age in China refers to the period between about 2000 and 771 B.C., when bronze was produced on a massive scale for weapons and ritual objects used by the ruling elite. Traditional Chinese histories, written in later centuries, speak of a series of ancient rulers who invented agriculture, writing, and the arts of government. The last of these legendary rulers, Yu, is credited with controlling floods and founding the Xia dynasty. Yu also cast nine sacred bronze vessels that became symbolic of the right to rule, and these were passed on to subsequent dynasties. While the account in the traditional histories is linear, with states following one another in a logical progression, the archaeological record reveals a more complicated picture of Bronze Age China.

Archaeological investigation has confirmed much of the legendary history of the dynasty following the Xia -- the Shang -- but the existence of Xia itself is still debated. Today, Chinese scholars generally identify Xia with the Erlitou culture, but debate continues on whether Erlitou represents an early stage of the Shang dynasty, or whether it is entirely unique. In any event, new prototypes emerged at Erlitou -- in architecture, bronze vessels, tomb structures, and weapons -- that greatly influenced material culture in the Shang and subsequent Zhou dynasties.

Archaeological evidence about the Shang comes mainly from excavations at Zhengzhou and Anyang, both in Henan province. Zhengzhou (the type site of what is called Erligang culture) is assigned to the period 1500 to 1300 B.C. and Anyang (ancient Yinxu) to the period of roughly 1200 to 1050 B.C.

Remains at Zhengzhou include the foundations of city walls, large buildings, bronze foundries, and bone and pottery workshops, as well as a number of burial sites. By 1500 B.C., Shang burial traditions were becoming well defined. The deceased lay in a wooden coffin at the bottom of a shaft. Below the coffin chamber was a sacrificial pit (yaokeng) containing the body of a sacrificed man or dog (probably a guard). Surrounding the chamber was a platform (ercengtai) that held grave goods and more human sacrifices. Sacrifices of humans and animals were also placed beneath the foundations of buildings at this time. Bronze vessels included in burials were much larger than those created previously, and more varied in shape.

Archaeology has now revealed that important regional centers existed alongside the Shang, including those centered around the site of Dayangzhou, south of the Yangzi River basin in Jiangxi province, and the site of Sanxingdui (see More About The Finds at Sanxingdui), just north of the modern city of Chengdu in Sichuan province.

Dayangzhou produced a large burial chamber filled with hundreds of ceramics, bronzes (both weapons and vessels), and jades. Some of the bronzes could be related to types found at Erligang, but others, such as the meat-cooking vessels and bronze bells, were unique to Dayangzhou. Dayangzhou was also distinctive for its use of human heads, ram heads, deer, and especially tigers in design.

What is " Ancient China Bronzes"?

(Bottom ) Shi Qiang Bronze vessel with Chinese oracle writing inscribed (PAN)H 16.2 cm, D 47.3 cm Middle Western Zhou Dynasty (end of 10th century B.C.)From Hoard 1, Zhuangbai, Fufeng, Shaanxi ProvinceExcavated in 1976-1977

Market Auction estimated price worth: US$20,000

(Above) Bronze owl-shaped vessel (ZUN)H 46.3 cmLate Shang Period (c. 1200 B.C.)From Tomb 5, Xiaotun Locus North, at Yinxu, Anyang, Henan ProvinceExcavated in 1976

Market Auction estimated price worth : US$25,000

Bronze vessels were used during the Shang and Zhou periods in ancestral rituals. Ancestors, it was believed, could intercede on behalf of the living, provided they were honored and respected. The bronze vessels were kept in ancestral halls and used during a variety of feasts and banquets. Most bronze vessels were used for food or to heat or cool a millet-based wine. Others served as water basins or jugs. Wine vessels dominated during the Shang, but ritual changes in the middle of the Western Zhou period resulted in a shift toward food vessels.
These Shang and Zhou bronze vessels were the most highly esteemed objects of their time, usurping the position held by jade in the late Neolithic period. In addition to their functional and symbolic role in support of lineage rites, bronzes also exemplified the latest technical and artistic developments. Early bronze vessels, including the jue, gu, and ding (above), were based on Neolithic pottery prototypes. But as bronze technology improved, vessels took on shapes and decorative schemes that were unique to the medium.

Dayangzhou produced a large burial chamber filled with hundreds of ceramics, bronzes (both weapons and vessels), and jades. Some of the bronzes could be related to types found at Erligang, but others, such as the meat-cooking vessels and bronze bells, were unique to Dayangzhou. Dayangzhou was also distinctive for its use of human heads, ram heads, deer, and especially tigers in design.

Ancient China Bronze Casting Technology

Three ritual vessel shapes. The GU and JUE are wine vessels. Both are very ancient forms that were in use from the Neolithic-Erlitou period ( more than 2,000 BC ). The DING tripod was used for cooked food.

In the center, upside down, is the model for a wine vessel. The two sections of the mold, made of soft clay, are pressed against it to transfer the vessel's shape and decoration. The model is then trimmed away to form a core. The mold-pieces are reassembled around the core, leaving a space, which is filled with molten bronze.

Bronzes were made in ceramic piece-molds (right). The process began with a model, to which soft clay was applied. These clay pieces were removed in sections to form molds, which were reassembled around a core, whereupon molten bronze was poured into the space between the mold and the core. After cooling, the mold pieces were removed. Pre-cast sections of a bronze could be attachedan infinite number of variations could be created on the basis of a few standard shapes. Originally these bronzes were bright and shiny (their present dark patina is a result of burial and age).

Surface decoration could be made by carving into the mold (for raised relief) or into the model (for recessed designs). The narrow bands that characterized early bronze designs gave way to more expansive decorations, which by the late Shang period covered the whole vessel. A common Shang motif is the Taotie. ( Refer to another of my article about : What is " Taotie"?

Other zoomorphic designs consisted of various animal parts flowing into one another. By the end of the Western Zhou period, this imagery had begun to turn into purely abstract patterns, the meaning of which will probably never be known. They may have been symbolic of the spirits of the ancestors, protective devices, clan or lineage motifs, or perhaps they were associated with mythical beasts or supernatural entities.