Kimonobox

By Jill Arase

Illustrations by Tomomi Sarafov

Digital publishing in 2009 by

Kimonobox

Copyright © Kimonobox

Kimonobox

What is in the box?

Charlotte and Tom discover family treasure

The box had 3 drawers with black

handles and it smelt different to

other boxes.

In the corner of the room there was an old box.

It was red and black, with pink cherry blossom

flowers painted all over.

Charlotte thought

it smelt like sweet

flowers from the

garden. Tomo dis-

agreed.

Charlotte the box

just smells old," he

said.

The box had come from Japan a long time ago.

Aunt Emmy called it her Kimonobox.

The children were curious. Tom and Charlotte

had never seen inside the Kimonobox before.

They wondered if it held treasure.

Standing on tiptoes, Tom slowly slid the top drawer

open. The smell from the box was stronger now.

Charlotte peered in.

The drawer was full of colourful pieces of cloth. Char-

lotte fingered them lightly while Tom pulled out what

looked like a couple of long coats. One of the coats

had beautiful butterflies painted along the bottom.

Tom and Charlotte had never seen such lovely

pieces of silky cloth before.

What an interesting treasure box this was!

新婦の親族 左から: ここに親族の名

前や思い出を書

き込んでくださ

い

The children looked into the second drawer.

A pair of black wooden sandals sat neatly in paper.

Just then the door opened.

In came Aunt Emmy.

Things from the kimonobox were all over the

floor. Oh, what a mess!

“Sorry Aunt Emmy, we were looking for

your treasure” Tom and Charlotte said.

Aunt Emmy

wasn't cross. She

said,

“These are my

treasures. Look I

will show you

them.”

With that Aunt Emmy picked up one of the long

coats called kimono and began to dress Charlotte.

“This is a silk kimono. It comes from Japan. This

box is full of things from Japan. It is full of my family

treasures.”

“Charlotte, I am going to make you look like a

Japanese princess.” Charlotte beamed.

Then Aunt Emmy looked across at Tom. She

passed him a pair of wooden sandals.

“You can try these on your feet. They are

called geta”

Tom stepped into the geta. The sandals felt

strange. It was much harder than wearing beach

sandals.

The geta were very

difficult to walk in

and made a noise.

Clack, clack, clackety clack.

“I feel like I am walking the plank”, he said

with his arms out to the side, laughing.

Charlotte tried them on too. She looked different

because she was dressed in the beautiful butterfly

kimono. But her feet sounded just like Tom's

feet.

Clack, clack, clackety

clack.

Aunt Emmy looked at the kimono and geta

thoughtfully.

“Treasure can mean different things to dif-

ferent people. These are my treasures.”

Sitting on the floor with the geta still on his

feet, Tom looked inside the third drawer of

the kimonobox.

Tom was curi-

ous about this

drawer. It had a

box inside with

Japanese writing

on it.

“What's in this

box” he asked.

“Ah, this drawer holds the most precious

treasures of all. The writing on top says photo-

graphs and inside are pictures from long ago.”

Sitting together Tom and Charlotte looked

through an old family album with Aunt Emmy.

“These photos

were taken when

my mother was a

little girl "said

Aunt Emmy.

“Look in this

photograph you

can see my

mother as a

young girl. She

is standing next

to the kimono-

box.

Tom and Charlotte looked at the photograph.

There was the box. It had the same lovely cherry

blossoms painted down the sides.

What a wonderful treasure.

Carefully, Charlotte and Tom picked up the pho-

tos. They took off the special wooden geta sandals

and helped pack away the long silky kimonos.

The children closed the drawers to the kimono-

box. Aunt Emmy looked happy.

“Thank you for

sharing my treasures

with me,”

she said.

Tom and Charlotte

were happy too.

Finding treasure was

fun.

One day Tom and

Charlotte would visit

Japan for sure.

© Kimonobox