ABOUT MAIWAI

MAIWAI -萬祝- Festive Kimono

The fishing industry has long flourished along the coast of Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.

During the Edo period (1603-1868) the culture of MAIWAI (festive Kimonos to celebrate a good catch) developed among the fisherman who lived by the sea in this area.

Originally MAIWAI meant just celebrating a good catch, but over time it came to mean the kimonos that ship owners would distribute to fishermen for celebration of an especially good catch.

Actually it was not kimonos but cloth that was distributed, and fishermen's wives used to make this cloth into long or short kimonos.

Then everyone would wear the same kimono for celebration.