The Miyahara Family

Today I have a story. It started a few months ago with a random email from a man named Robin Williams. He saw what I was I was doing with up-cycled kimonos and wanted to give me his grandmother’s obi for use in my work.  Although I had discussed cutting this Obi up, it soon became clear that I should preserve it. This was clearly something very special indeed! So, I wrote back to Robin, and asked him if he might share more details about his family with me.

This remarkable Obi features ancient Chinese characters, which, according to my friend’s mother, is actually one word, “longevity” written in many different calligraphy styles. It’s a very special and time-intensive skill and has a long tradition in China according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amongst friends, (we are no scholars) we think the calligraphy dates back to the Song Dynasty (970- 1279) or even further to the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC).

 

 

The Obi itself belonged to Rin Miyahara, who with her husband, Toshi Miyahara, were born and raised in Tokyo leading up to the Meiji Restoration (1868). The Meiji Restoration, consolidated the political system under the Emperor of Japan and led to the rapid industrialization of the country through Western ideas and production methods. Miyahara’s father worked as an interpreter at the Paris World’s Fair in 1867-- the first time Japan exhibited in Paris.  

  

According to Miyahara’s Kamon, or family crest, they were part of the Kazoku, or hereditary peerage of Japan. The Kazoku succeeded the feudal lords (daimyo) and court nobles (kuge), and were eventually abolished in 1947. Like all Kazoku without an official government appointment in the provinces, they were obliged to reside in Tokyo would have been educated at the Gakushuin.  The Gakushuin was founded in 1847 to educate the children of the aristocracy along with the emperor’s children.

 

 As Robin says, “from what I can decipher …[my grandparents] lived quite well.” Then the war came and his family lost everything. They moved to the countryside and according to Robin, this devastated his grandfather, so that he died soon after - from a lack of will to live or absence of ikigai.

  

After the war was over, Robin’s grandmother moved back to Tokyo and lived in a modest home. When she died the obi and note were given to his mother as a memento of her life.  As he remarked, “The few times I remember being with my grandmother, since I couldn't speak Japanese, we would just sit and smile at each other.  She seemed like a very quiet, gentle woman.”

Along with the Obi, was a lovely handwritten note written by Robin’s grandmother. The family could see that the calligraphy was beautiful but it was difficult to decipher as it was written in old Japanese. As my own father explained, it was a feminine-style hand, and very well done, so much so that the writer had a red signature stamp made.  After asking even more friends for help, we learned that it was a poem by Ono no Komachi, the famous waka poet of the Heian period and whose name today is still synonymous with beauty in Japan. The poem loosely translates to:

Since encountering my beloved
While I dozed,
I have begun to feel
That it is dreams, not reality,
On which I can rely.

 

Wow, can you believe this? There is just so much meaning to Rin Miyahara owning this Obi. To me, it was likely a hope for her to live a long-life (she lived until 96), with the repetition of the characters of longevity being a way of wishing the most perfect, full version of that word for her. The use of many different calligraphy styles to express it, could have been a nod to her own calligraphic prowess. And the poem itself—Ono no Komachi was famous for writing about love--could it have been an ode to her deceased husband or a message for her daughter after her own passing? Either way, we know that it is all so very special and I’m so happy to have been able to help facilitate uncovering all of this for Robin’s family.

TAGS:

FamilyKamonKazokuMeiji RestorationObi

Introducing the Haute Takes Podcast!

Next Post

Reviews (22 comments)

  • สล็อตแตกดี16/6 On

    https://github.com/aletahadleywgme1-sudo/aletahadleywgme1/issues/3
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslotdiamond168
    https://github.com/jillanahurdzt12a-sys/Jillana/issues/6
    https://github.com/gerriehorton20nnd-droid/Gerrie/issues/5
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslot168-tools

  • สล็อตแตกดี16/6 On

    https://github.com/aletahadleywgme1-sudo/aletahadleywgme1/issues/3
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslotdiamond168
    https://github.com/jillanahurdzt12a-sys/Jillana/issues/6
    https://github.com/gerriehorton20nnd-droid/Gerrie/issues/5
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslot168-tools

  • สล็อตแตกดี16/6 On

    https://github.com/aletahadleywgme1-sudo/aletahadleywgme1/issues/3
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslotdiamond168
    https://github.com/jillanahurdzt12a-sys/Jillana/issues/6
    https://github.com/gerriehorton20nnd-droid/Gerrie/issues/5
    https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pgslot168-tools

  • phae1234 On

    https://github.com/yitu-opensource/T2T-ViT/issues/82
    https://github.com/hpcloud/tail/issues/196
    https://github.com/src-d/kmcuda/issues/132
    https://github.com/DmitryBaranovskiy/g.raphael/issues/215
    https://github.com/jackying/h-ui/issues/45
    https://github.com/geometer/FBReaderJ/issues/513
    https://github.com/supercrabtree/k/issues/92976
    https://github.com/rafaballerini/GitTutorial/issues/250
    https://github.com/2dust/clashN/issues/382
    https://github.com/smartprocure/futil-js/issues/442
    https://github.com/Pure-D/serve-d/issues/419
    https://github.com/youranreus/G/issues/144
    https://github.com/kitsunyan/foxy-droid/issues/129
    https://github.com/youranreus/G/issues/145
    https://github.com/wiseodd/generative-models/issues/87
    https://github.com/youranreus/G/issues/146
    https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-Multi-language/issues/1186
    https://github.com/Twitter4J/Twitter4J/issues/416
    https://github.com/chxj1992/kline/issues/113
    https://github.com/qw3rtman/p/issues/43
    https://github.com/mbebenita/Broadway/issues/254
    https://github.com/ShaoqingRen/faster_rcnn/issues/204
    https://github.com/lvdmaaten/bhtsne/issues/94
    https://github.com/qqwweee/keras-yolo3/issues/789
    https://github.com/milesial/Pytorch-UNet/issues/536
    https://github.com/HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/A-LOAM/issues/75
    https://github.com/ialbert/biostar-central/issues/957
    https://github.com/OpenZWave/open-zwave/issues/2651
    https://github.com/Mzzopublic/C/issues/71
    https://github.com/simplescaling/s1/issues/135
    https://github.com/wiseodd/generative-models/issues/88
    https://github.com/fsprojects/FSharpLint/issues/853
    https://github.com/dwyl/english-words/issues/233
    https://github.com/segmentio/ksuid/issues/89
    https://github.com/Yalantis/uCrop/issues/1097
    https://github.com/rafaballerini/GitTutorial/issues/249
    https://github.com/henryjeff/portfolio-website/issues/49
    https://github.com/rupa/v/issues/29
    https://github.com/dlang/visuald/issues/325
    https://github.com/hpcloud/tail/issues/194
    https://github.com/cbuchner1/ccminer/issues/126

  • Laisri On

    https://one789bet.mssg.me/
    https://movie24h.info/
    https://movie24h.info/contact
    https://movie24h.info/huayThai
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-3
    https://portfolium.com/entry/truett-person-645-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-10-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2568
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-2
    https://portfolium.com/entry/jackson-williams-30129725
    https://portfolium.com/entry/thunder-thunder-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-4-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-10-25
    https://portfolium.com/entry/hehjdjdj-hehjdjdj-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-1
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/nsjdjdkd-wiwkkwlw-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-10-24
    https://portfolium.com/entry/balmiki-kumar-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-261
    https://portfolium.com/entry/cucu-darna-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-260
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-259
    https://portfolium.com/entry/rioqrandy-rioqrandy-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/sidiidf-sisieiiw-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-256
    https://portfolium.com/entry/balmiki-kumar-30129725
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2568-1
    https://portfolium.com/entry/jjskkd-ejejjf-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-264
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-5
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-4
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-266
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-6
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-267
    https://portfolium.com/entry/sadil-sultn-2568
    https://portfolium.com/entry/amel-darna-2025
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-7
    https://portfolium.com/entry/evan-darna-100
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-270
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top-7-2025-8
    https://portfolium.com/entry/ade-rizki-30129725
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top10-20
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-271
    https://portfolium.com/entry/top8
    https://portfolium.com/entry/1-272
    https://medium.com/trenoiye/ซื้อหวยออนไลน์เว็บไหนดี-10-เชื่อถือได้-จ่ายจริง-รวมเว็บหวยออนไลน์-0861729ff258 https://medium.com/trenoiye/หวยออนไลน์-เว็บแทงหวย-24-ชม-เว็บตรง-ไม่อั้น-หวยไทย-หวยลาว-bbe345b22fcb
    https://medium.com/gimiidadii/แนะนำ-10-เว็บแทงหวยออนไลน์-ที่ดีที่สุด-ได้แก่-77lotto-huay-ork-ufalotto-powerball-lotto-net-1a7c8c97d756 https://medium.com/gimiidadii/ซื้อหวยออนไลน์เว็บไหนดี-10-เชื่อถือได้-จ่ายจริง-รวมเว็บหวยออนไลน์-f945cb29c5e3
    https://medium.com/gimiidadii/หวยออนไลน์-เว็บหวยออนไลน์-แทงหวย24-ไม่มีเลขอั้น-หวยไทย-หวยลาว-44ba32159cf9 https://medium.com/naafessaa/หวยออนไลน์-เว็บแทงหวย-24-ชม-เว็บตรง-ไม่อั้น-หวยไทย-หวยลาว-ac7a417cd69a
    https://medium.com/naafessaa/ซื้อหวยออนไลน์เว็บไหนดี-10-เชื่อถือได้-จ่ายจริง-รวมเว็บหวยออนไลน์-93a833aaeead https://medium.com/naafessaa/️-️แทงหวยออนไลน์-24-ชั่วโมงแทงหวย24-เว็บแทงหวยยอดนิยม-ครบจบทุกหวยออนไลน์ง่ายๆ-acdc9c656847
    https://medium.com/qavviikhan/แทงหวย24-เว็บแทงหวยออนไลน์อันดับหนึ่ง-ซื้อหวยออนไลน์เว็บไหนดี-10-เชื่อถือได้-จ่ายจริง-895b0f709624 https://medium.com/qavviikhan/ซื้อหวยออนไลน์เว็บไหนดี-10-เชื่อถือได้-จ่ายจริง-รวมเว็บหวยออนไลน์-68fc296d571d
    https://medium.com/qavviikhan/แทงหวยออนไลน์-24-ชั่วโมง-หวยออนไลน์-ซื้อง่าย-เว็บแทงหวย-ตรวจหวยฟรี-24-ชม-cc0461e8c431 https://medium.com/shaniiibhi/หวยออนไลน์-ซื้อง่าย-เว็บแทงหวย-ตรวจหวยฟรี-24-ชม-b96efd2e8e51

Leave A Comment