A Maiko is an apprentice geisha practicing in kyoto. These women wear different kanzashi to match each month called kisetsubana.

Each month has a collection of motifs the Maiko will wear, that coincides with the flowers and events around kyoto at that time. They even wear a different style depending on what stage of their training they are at!

Here I'll be working to make a set of each kanzashi worn in every month by the maiko. Most months have at least 2 different motifs, but some have as many as 4 of 5!

Photo by Lubomir Cernota

This first project is to build a complete calendar of maiko kanzashi. Since even though all the maiko wear kanzashi with the same selection of flowers, not all kanzashi makers interpret each flower in the same way. I thought it might be interesting to see how my own interpretations turn out?

I also hope this gallery will build into one of the most complete maiko kanzashi calendars on the web.

Check back often to see how it grows!