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Non-Japanese Wearing Kimonos: Reddit Controversy (Boston, Fall, 2015)

June 24, 2016 • Yoko Lewis

Maybe this is old news to some of you, but we just came across a fascinating discussion in the Reddit's /japan sub-reddit. Here is the opening comment:

Is it actually offensive for foreigners to wear kimonos? (self.japan)

submitted by Autumn-Moonlight

So, I'm an American I've been told recently by a friend that it's offensive for people that aren't Japanese to wear a kimono, and I was wondering if that was true. On one hand this friend is one of those people, she phrased it more like "White people wearing kimonos is racist," and then she said something about cultural appropriation. On the other hand I thought about people that aren't Native American wearing feather headdress and how stupid that looks. I really like how kimonos look and I've always wanted to try one on, but I wanna be respectful too.

Best of all for us was the excellent opinion piece published in the Japan Times:

Of kimono and cultural appropriation

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