Kimonobox, The Story

Kimonobox

By Jill Arase Illustrations by

Tomomi Sarafov

Digital publishing in 2009 by Kimonobox Copyright Š Kimonobox

Kimonobox What is in the box?

Charlotte and Tom discover family treasure

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

It was red and black, with pink cherry blossom flowers painted all over.

The box had 3 drawers with black handles and it smelt different to other boxes.

Charlotte thought it smelt like sweet flowers from the garden. Tomo disagreed.

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. Charlotte 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 different 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 curious 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 photographs 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 kimonobox.

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 photos. They took off the special wooden geta sandals and helped pack away the long silky kimonos.

The children closed the drawers to the kimonobox. 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. Š Kimonobox