The is the traditional clothing of Japan. Originally the word "kimono" literally meant "thing to wear" (ki "wearing" and mono "thing") but now has come to denote a particular type of traditional full-length Japanese garment. The standard plural of the word kimono in English is kimonos, but the unmarked Japanese plural kimono is also sometimes found.

Kimonos are T-shaped, straight-lined robes with collars and full-length sleeves that typically are wide. Both genders wear their kimono so that the hem falls to the ankle. Kimonos are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial) and secured by a wide belt called an obi, which is tied at the back. Kimonos are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially zōri or geta) and split-toe socks (tabi).

Today, kimonos are most often worn by women, and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of kimono called furisode, with almost floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Men wear the kimono most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Professional sumo wrestlers are often seen in the kimono because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public. They commonly wear the kind of casual Japanese attire that is referred to as yukata, which is of plain unlined cotton.

History

The formal Kimono was replaced by the more convenient Western clothes and Yukata as everyday wear. After an edict by Emperor Meiji, police, railroad men and teachers moved to Western clothes. The Western clothes became the army and school uniform for boys. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Kimono wearers often became victims of robbery. The Tokyo Women's & Children's Wear Manufacturers' Association(東京婦人子供服組合) promoted the western clothes. Between 1920 and 1930 the Sailor outfit replaced the undivided hakama in school uniform for girls. The 1932 fire at Shirokiya's Nihombashi store is said to have been the catalyst for the decline in kimonos as everyday wear. (It is, however, suggested, that this is an urban myth.) The national uniform, Gokumin-fuku (国民服) a type of western clothes was mandated for males in 1940. Today people often wear western clothes, and wear the easier to wear, cool and comfortable Yukata in special time.