KOBE KIMONO STREET - Prologue.

KOBE is the prefectural capital of Hyogo.


Kobe is well known as busy & old port town that have beautiful night view.
It has about 1.5 million people, and it's 6th city ranked in order of population.
20-30 minutes from Osaka by train, a lot of tourist spots are waiting for you.


The most famous cities at west Japan are Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.
(At east Japan, Tokyo and Yokohama and Nagoya are famous.)




And this city is also known with the Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit Kobe area in 1995.
It registered 7.3 on the Richter scale, was heavy calamity, and it gave serious damage to cities around Kobe.
More than 6,000 people died, 40,000 people got injured, 650,000 houses and buildings broke, 13,000 houses burned, and highway fell down.

At that time, I was living in country side of neighboring city of Kobe.
My body jumped high on the bed, bookshelves were running to my bed, and a lot of tablewares broke at the kitchen.

Now, Kobe is reconstructing.
Streets are recovering their lifeness day by day.
I'm still living in same town, and I often visit Kobe.

► Official Kobe Tourism Site

There are two major shopping streets in Kobe.
At this area, a lot of brand-new or antique kimono shops are clustered close together.
Maybe it is more many than the longest shopping street of Japan that is in Osaka!
(The shopping district in Osaka have 2.6km distance and 600 shops.)

I think this area is one of the best place to get kimono in west Japan.
So, I name this area "KOBE KIMONO STREET" and will present kimono shops in there for people who visit Kobe from foreign countries.

...Oh...Who read this post and visit there, what a little likelihood! (^-^;
But I'd like to write about this heaven!





The names of these shopping streets are "Sannomiya Center-gai (right)" and "Motomachi Shoten-gai (left)".

I'll show you all kimono-shops that from east end of Sannomiya Center-gai (right end of the map) to west end of Motomachi Shoten-gai (left end)...maybe it is all.
Almost all of these shops can't deal with foreign customers.
But if you visit there directly, you can find wonderful kimono and maybe can talk with staffs in broken English and Japanese.

About some shops that declined to be taken photos, I can't show outward appearance of these shops.
Though I asked "Can I take photo?" to all shops, some of them couldn't decide about it without owner's decision, especially at chain stores.

About some shops that specially kind to me, I may write more comment.
When I visited these shops and talked about this blog, though several shops considered me to suspicious, basically they were very favorably.
I believe they will be friendly to you too.



If you get some chance to visit to around Kobe, Osaka or Kyoto, please extend your journey to these shopping streets!

KOBE KIMONO STREET - Prologue.
KOBE KIMONO STREET - 01 (Sannomiya Center-gai 1).
KOBE KIMONO STREET - 02 (Sannomiya Center-gai 2).
KOBE KIMONO STREET - 03 (Motomachi Shoten-gai 1).
KOBE KIMONO STREET - 04 (Motomachi Shoten-gai 2).
KOBE KIMONO STREET - 05 (Motomachi Shoten-gai 3).
KOBE KIMONO STREET - Epilouge.