Types of kanzashi

These drawings turned out completely different from what I'd planned! Originally I'd wanted to draw all the hairstyles worn by maiko and geiko, then is realised that HakugiMasshiro on Deviant Art had done such an amazing job of that already! By then I'd started a list of all the different types of kanzashi and hairstyling items used on the hair of maiko and geiko, and I found even more on the Immortal Geisha site, so I decided to draw these instead.

I found lots of information about the different types of kanzashi at Immortal Geisha, and Kanzashicore.

I'm not sure that this is the definitive list - I still haven't found the name of the red ribbon worn at the front of a maiko's hair, or of the silver tie that sticks up at the back of a geiko's hair! And I'm sure there are many more I've missed! But I've had a lot of fun looking at pictures of all these kanzashi and other items, and they've given me lots of ideas for craft projects and tutorials this month!