Most people have pursued fashion by reading fashion magazines, haven ﾕt they? From some point in time, however, they come to put higher priority on their own tastes rather than on trends. Fashionable styles and colors may lose almost half their value unless they are suited to you.

There is a sentence in the book by the woman writer Chiyo Uno saying, “For dressing up, you should spend time and effort, not money, and devote yourself to it.” Don ﾕt you think that we will be naturally good at using accessories such as scarves, jewelries, belts, bags, and shoes if we spend our time and effort and devote ourselves to dressing up?

　People in the Edo period enjoyed fashion trends in accessories as well. Among the accessories, it is said that tenugui, a thin hand towel made of cotton, was a matter of artistic taste. So the book Tenogoiawase introducing new patterns of tenugui is said to have sold well during the Edo period. Thus tenugui was just the same as a scarf we wear as an accessory now.

　Chikusen, located in Nihonbashi-Kofunecho, is an old, established store selling yukata (an informal cotton kimono) and Edo-komon (a fine pattern on kimono material in the Edo period) founded in 1824, passing down to our generation the taste of Edo people for fashion.

　Chikusen handles other small goods such as tenugui and furoshiki (a cloth wrapper) as well. Those items are available at department stores in Nihonbashi or other name-brand department stores across Japan, and you will be welcomed when you visit the main store in Nihonbashi-Kofunecho. The prices are reasonable, so you can easily enjoy Edo fashion.

　Ibasen, another old, established store selling accessories was founded in 1590 as a purveyor to the Shogunate of Edo, making a good trade in Japanese paper and bamboo products. (The rest is omitted.)