Furisode - a halloween special

To celebrate this years halloween here is a story from the 19th century writer Lafcadio Hearn. 

"Recently, while passing through a little street tenanted chiefly by dealers in old wares, I noticed a furisode, or long-sleeved robe, of the rich purple tint called murasaki, hanging before one of the shops. It was a robe such as might have been worn by a lady of rank in the time of the Tokugawa. I stopped to look at the five crests upon it; and in the same moment there came to my recollection this legend of a similar robe said to have once caused the destruction of Yedo.

Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the daughter of a rich merchant of the city of the Shoguns, while attending some temple- festival, perceived in the crowd a young samurai of remarkable beauty, and immediately fell in love with him. Unhappily for her, he disappeared in the press before she could learn through her attendants who he was or whence he had come. But his image remained vivid in her memory, even to the least detail of his costume. The holiday attire then worn by samurai youths was scarcely less brilliant than that of young girls; and the upper dress of this handsome stranger had seemed wonderfully beautiful to the enamoured maiden. She fancied that by wearing a robe of like quality and color, bearing the same crest, she might be able to attract his notice on some future occasion.

Accordingly she had such a robe made, with very long sleeves, according to the fashion of the period; and she prized it greatly. She wore it whenever she went out; and when at home she would suspend it in her room, and try to imagine the form of her unknown beloved within it. Sometimes she would pass hours before it, dreaming and weeping by turns. And she would pray to the gods and the Buddhas that she might win the young man's affection, often repeating the invocation of the Nichiren sect: Namu myo ho renge kyo!

But she never saw the youth again; and she pined with longing for him, and sickened, and died, and was buried. After her burial, the long-sleeved robe that she had so much prized was given to the Buddhist temple of which her family were parishioners. It is an old custom to thus dispose of the garments of the dead.

The priest was able to sell the robe at a good price; for it was a costly silk, and bore no trace of the tears that had fallen upon it. It was bought by a girl of about the same age as the dead lady. She wore it only one day. Then she fell sick, and began to act strangely, crying out that she was haunted by the vision of a beautiful young man, and that for love of him she was going to die. And within a little while she died; and the long- sleeved robe was a second time presented to the temple.

Again the priest sold it; and again it became the property of a young girl, who wore it only once. Then she also sickened, and talked of a beautiful shadow, and died, and was buried. And the robe was given a third time to the temple; and the priest wondered and doubted.

Nevertheless he ventured to sell the luckless garment once more. Once more it was purchased by a girl and once more worn; and the wearer pined and died. And the robe was given a fourth time to the temple.

Then the priest felt sure that there was some evil influence at work; and he told his acolytes to make a fire in the temple- court, and to burn the robe.

So they made a fire, into which the robe was thrown. But as the silk began to burn, there suddenly appeared upon it dazzling characters of flame, the characters of the invocation, Namu myo ho renge kyo; and these, one by one, leaped like great sparks to the temple roof; and the temple took fire.

Embers from the burning temple presently dropped upon neighbouring roofs; and the whole street was soon ablaze. Then a sea-wind, rising, blew destruction into further streets; and the conflagration spread from street to street, and from district into district, till nearly the whole of the city was consumed. And this calamity, which occurred upon the eighteenth day of the first month of the first year of Meireki (1655), is still remembered in Tokyo as the Furisode-Kwaji,--the Great Fire of the Long-sleeved Robe."

Lafcadio Hearn – In Ghostly Japan (1899)

Following the Silver Trail

High up in the mountains where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge there is an area known as “The Golden Triangle”. This area was once the centre of all opium poppy growing in the country, today, however, this illicit profession has long since been replaced by tourist villages who’s roads are flanked by countless small restaurants and vendor's souvenir stalls that run along the banks of the Mekong River.

The Mekong has become home to one of the most enjoyable and popular tourist pastimes in this region - the boat tour. Wooden long-tail boats are available for hire here, and cruising up the river and its tributaries allows visitors a glimpse of village life in the many riverside settlements of the Karen hill tribes.

These semi-nomadic people, famous for their silverwork, migrated from Tibet around the 12th century and it is said that there are approximately 400,000 Karen Hill Tribe people living in the hills of Northern Thailand, and another 7 million in Myanmar.

I was privileged enough to visit Mai Le, a village near the border with Myanmar where I watched artisans carefully handcraft designs from scratch, using only high-content silver (97%-99% pure). The Karen employ traditional methods and tooling skills which have been influenced by centuries of tribe culture and art and you can actually see evidence of each piece having been formed by the hands of the craftsman.

Typically, this type of jewellery is engraved with plants, flowers, animals, or geometric designs, symbolizing their direct connection & historical links to both the land and water.

Bali: The art of decorative silver-casting
The art of metalworking arrived in Indonesia in the Bronze Age from Southern Chinese and Southeast Asian areas. Graves discovered from this period have revealed gold and silver necklaces, hairpins, beads and rings.

By the beginning of the 16th century Bali became a sanctuary for Hindus forced out of an increasingly Islamized Java. As the Majapahit Empire crumbled, there was a huge influx into Bali of Javanese noblemen and craftsmen and Bali became one of the main centers of precious metal craft.

The metal-smiths of Bali have been making beads dating back to this period; historically, they used silver to make bowls and items for their temple offerings, and gradually used silver to replace gold for the actual jewellery.

Balinese artisans begin by "casting" a base bead, this means pouring liquid silver into a mold to create the base piece, which is then decorated by soldering additional pieces of silver onto it.

After the beads are finished, they are cleaned with a solution made from tamarind fruit, then dipped into an antiquing solution. This last step in the process fills the grooves with a dark color to create a contrast between the high and low parts of the bead resulting in the distinctive style of the Balinese bead.