What Is a Kanzashi? A Guide to the Traditional Japanese Hair Ornament
A kanzashi is a hair ornament worn with kimono. The word covers a wide range of objects — combs, pins, dangling metalwork, silk flowers — but they share one purpose: they're made to be seen in the hair, not hidden by it.
In Japan today, kanzashi are worn mainly at three life moments: Seijin Shiki (the Coming of Age ceremony, at 20), weddings, and Shichi-Go-San (a childhood milestone celebrated at ages 3, 5, and 7). You'll also see them at summer festivals, paired with a yukata.
We make kanzashi by hand in Nishijin, Kyoto. This article is a plain look at what a kanzashi actually is — the types, the technique, and what separates a well-made one from a poorly made one.
Types of kanzashi
Kanzashi aren't one shape. The word groups together several distinct forms, sorted by structure rather than occasion:
- Hana-kanzashi (花簪) — a kanzashi built from fabric flowers. This is our own specialty: silk squares folded into petals, one at a time, and assembled into a flower. The technique is called tsumami-zaiku.
- Bira-kanzashi (びら簪) — a kanzashi with thin metal strips that hang and sway with movement. Often combined with a hana-kanzashi flower at the top.
- Tama-kanzashi (玉簪) — a simple pin topped with a single ball, traditionally coral, jade, or glass. Quiet and minimal by design.
- Kushi (櫛) — a decorative comb, worn as an accent rather than for holding hair in place.
- Hirauchi (平打) — a flat, disc-shaped metal kanzashi, engraved or worked with a family crest or pattern.
A single kanzashi often combines more than one of these — a hana-kanzashi flower mounted above swaying bira strands is a common pairing. There is also a long tradition, still followed by maiko and geiko in Kyoto's hanamachi districts, of wearing hana-kanzashi that change with the season. That world has its own customs and its own history, and it isn't ours to explain here — we'll only note that it exists.
What makes a hana-kanzashi: the tsumami-zaiku technique
Tsumami-zaiku (a Japanese art of folding small squares of silk into flower petals) is the technique behind every hana-kanzashi we make. There's no mold and no machine stamping the petals into shape. Each one is folded by hand with tweezers.
Every petal comes down to one of two folds: maru-tsumami (rounded, for soft flowers like plum and cherry blossom) or ken-tsumami (pointed, for crisp flowers like chrysanthemum). We've written a separate article that breaks down exactly where these two folds diverge.
A single square of silk becomes a single petal. A full kanzashi can call for a great many of them — some of our pieces use more than 120 petals on one comb. Each one is folded, trimmed, and set by hand before the piece is assembled.
Maru-tsumami vs. ken-tsumami: the two basic folds
How to tell a well-made kanzashi
Kanzashi vary a great deal in quality, and most of that difference isn't visible at a glance in a photo. A few things are worth checking:
- The fabric. Pure silk holds a fold and carries light differently than synthetic fabric does. Synthetic fabric can look similar in a photo, but it doesn't hold its shape the same way over time, and it tends to look flatter under direct light.
- How the petals are set. On a well-made piece, the petals are mounted at a consistent angle and height. Uneven spacing or petals leaning in different directions usually points to a rushed assembly.
- What's underneath. A finished kanzashi is only as good as the comb, pin, or base it's built on. Cheap findings can undercut an otherwise well-made flower.
None of this is about one workshop versus another — it's simply what to look for, whoever you're buying from. We've written more detail on both of these points separately.
Silk vs. synthetic fabric in kanzashi and tsumami-zaiku
Kanzashi bases and findings, explained
Where kanzashi are worn today
Kanzashi haven't stayed in the past. In Japan today, they're worn at:
- Seijin Shiki — the Coming of Age ceremony, worn with furisode (a formal kimono with long sleeves) at 20.
- Weddings — worn with the bride's kimono, often in white or gold tones.
- Shichi-Go-San — a family celebration for children at ages 3, 5, and 7, marked with a visit to a shrine in kimono.
- Summer festivals — a simpler kanzashi paired with a yukata.
Outside Japan, kanzashi are increasingly worn on their own — as a hair accessory with Western dress, not only with kimono. There's no rule against it. A well-made hana-kanzashi is, at its core, a silk flower built to hold its shape in hair.
About Oharibako (Kyoto)
Oharibako has been making kanzashi and kimono accessories in Nishijin, Kyoto, for 80 years, now in its third generation. We are one of only two shops in Kyoto certified by the City of Kyoto for hana-kanzashi under its Certified Kyoto Handcraft Store program.
We source our pure silk — habutae and chirimen — from within Kyoto Prefecture, and we assemble it using itowaku (a Nishijin thread-spool technique), a distinctly Kyoto method of construction. Every step happens in our own workshop: dyeing, cutting, folding, and assembly. Over the past ten years, more than 10,000 people have made a kanzashi with us in our hands-on classes.