In this memory, I am five years old.
In the winter, my mother, brother, and I visit my grandmother’s house again. One day, while my brother and I are sunbathing and playing on the couch in the corridor facing the south windows of the house, my grandmother appears with a beautiful red kimono in her hands.
“This used to belong to your mother when she was your age,” she explains to me as she spreads out the kimono in front of us. “Would you like to try it on?”
I forget whatever has been occupying my mind. Wearing this kimono? Like a real princess?
“I want to wear it!” I jump to my feet with excitement.
“Then come this way, I’ll help you.”
I follow my grandmother into the adjacent room, where she skillfully wraps the kimono around my body, adjusts the length, then pulls together the two sides of the front and secures them with a thread. Finally, she covers it with a beautiful belt.
“There you go,” she looks up at me with a smile. “See how pretty you look!”
I shuffle to my grandmother’s mirror. As soon as I find my reflection, my face shines with delight.
“I look like a princess!” I exclaim forgetting everything else. “Look, I’m a princess!”
“That’s right, you are a proper princess,” comes back my grandmother’s voice. “Wait here for a moment. I’ll also wear a kimono so that I can look good sitting with you.”
With that, she disappears into her room, leaving me in ecstasy. When she returns, however, I lose words at the sight of my grandmother dressed in kimono. Hers has a darker colour. But how to express it, she looks really classy in this costume!
“Oh, don’t you two look fabulous!” My mother comes in with her camera. “Sit there together so that I can take a picture of you both!”
Even I, who normally is not eager to pose for a photoshoot, quickly follow her instruction. My grandmother and I sit on the floor with our hands folded elegantly on our laps.
When my mother tells us to smile, I smile tightly. Being a real princess here, I dare not open my mouth. My lips are tightly pressed together as I smile at the camera. My grandmother finds my princess gesture funny. She is almost laughing as my mother releases the shutter. This is the picture of a princess and her grandmother in kimono.