It was a pleasure to once more attend and sell at the annual Cherry Blossom Day hosted in Salem, Oregon at the state Capital building. This growing Japanese festival is held on the lawn of the capital building, which is lined with many mature cherry blossom trees. This family friendly cultural event is ideal for all ages, and is growing. This year there was a full range of musical entertainment that included traditional musical instructions such as taiko, shamisen, and koto. Dearest to our heart was the kimono contest, which had a total of 18 people take part in the event this year. We sponsored this contest and offered the winner a gift certificate for use in our store. One of our favorite long time loyal customers took first place, and did so while wearing an antique taisho era black silk furisode. Throughout the day we were delighted to help many different people learn about wearing kimono in a traditional way, and assisted with a good many kimono dressings. Our sakura yukata were exceptionally popular, and sold out.
Here are only a handful of photos from the otherwise very busy day, we hope to return to the festival in 2020.
We are next at Shuto Con in Michigan, and following that we will be at Animarathon in Bowling Green, Ohio. You can shop for authentic Japanese kimono with us online, or in person.