This is my essay.








More than 10 years ago, I was asked to be a judge of a beauty contest. It was not an ordinary beauty contest. The judge should evaluate not only the women's faces or styles, but also their skills how to wear and to show their kimonos. Kimono is the Japanese traditional beautiful dress, made of silk with traditional designs. Kimono has a long tradition of maybe more than 1,500 years. Its traditional patterns, colors and designs are very wonderful. However the number of Japanese women, who wear Kimono has been decreasing constantly for the last 50 years. Nowadays it is only one or two times in a year for an ordinary Japanese woman to wear kimono.

There are some reasons, why kimono is almost extinguishing. One reason is that it is really expensive. Most of good Kimonos are made of silk and hand-made. Of course there is a variety of kimono price. The most expensive kimono for the wedding-use is maybe more than a few millions U.S. dollars. Even the ordinary one should be 30,000 to 50,000 U.S. dollars, which is the total price of kimono, such as a belt, the special underwear, a bag, a special slipper, etc... Another reason is that to wear kimono is quite difficult for an inexperienced woman, especially a young girl. However kimono is still very attractive for women, because of its beauty and formality. Although it is becoming quite rare for us to see kimono in our daily life, still now, most of women, who attend to wedding ceremony would wear kimono.

Returning to the original subject, this beauty contest is sponsored by the kimono manufacturer's association. The reason of their sponsorship is funny. When this kimono beauty contest is held in every year, a few thousands of applicants are applying. Of course all of them should wear expensive kimono. The applicants, who had already passed the first or second pre-contest, should change another kimono on every time. It means that they can produce new demands of kimono. Once a girl would be a champion's prize, for coming one year, she will have many chances to be invited ceremonies, events or some friendship occasions, as a "moving flower". It was true that some of champions in the past were focused by press, TV or movie people and they became film stars. For other participants to this contest should enjoy a temporary dream that she might be selected No. 1 beauty in Japan. So I think that this is the gives and takes relation between them which so far has been working very well.

The above-mentioned background of this contest will have an influence on the basic idea of this contest. It means that this contest will focus on not only the beauty of a girl, but also wearing kimono style. Although it was my first experience as a judge, I was willing to accept. When I told this story to my friends, all of them were envious and said, "In our daily life, there is no chance that we can meet such a number of beauties at once. So you are very lucky man." I thought in my mind, "But I have nothing to do with them. They are just passing by in front of my desk!" Anyway I thought I should enjoy this role. Finally the contest day, a Sunday, came. I went to the Mitsukoshi department store at Nihonbashi shopping area. The contest was held around this Srimahadevi statute as the top photograph.

The number of judges was five, including myself and the chairman of the committee. The number of beauties was 23, from 23 different districts of Tokyo. We sat down on chairs and look up the moving line of kimono beauties, walking slowly along the stairs. The judges give mark out of 5 points. It means the best point is 5, the worst point is 1. As it was my first experience, I asked the chairman whether there was some standard of marking or not. He said "No. We don't have any special indication on mark. You have a freedom. You should do it in accordance with your own decision, only considering for the purpose of this contest". Indeed, what he said was very clear and fair. Especially the fairness is the most important in these kinds of contests. Also he added , "But I want to advice you one thing. You would face very difficult situation whom you should choose. In such case, most of new judges would give them the same or similar score, such as all 4 or 5. However if all judges would take such attitude at the same time, we couldn't select any good champion. What I expect you is that you should give the highest point 5 to only one and 4 to two, and please give 2 or 3 to the rest. Otherwise, after we would total the marks, unexpected one might take the first prize." I think what he said was very reasonable. As I will have to select three girls from the first to the third prize, I will give them higher points. Well, I understood what I should do.

The contest started. The young girls who had Japanese kimono began to stand in a line. While I was only watching their kimono -- red, dark blue, tea, purple, green, gold and silver ... -- I was almost to feel dizzy. Such beautiful girls with wonderful kimono were walking gracefully. No wonder why the department store was full of a large crowd of people. From our back, many lights focused on these girls, which made the back side of our head too warm to tolerate. Under the bad situation, we judges had to concentrate in their faces, kimonos, styles, etc. Well, this is not an easy job.

The girls finished walking around the Srimahadevi statute. As the next step, they had to deliver one minutes' speech. The reason, why this speech was necessary, was very simple, because the champion should have a certain level of intelligence. But the time of speech is only one minute, which is not enough to judge their intelligence. So what we could do was only to exclude the worst ones. Actually they seemed to have prepared for their speeches. Most of their speeches were wonderful, except a few girls. I soon understood that their speeches were not always enough materials for the judge.

The speech time was over. From the place of microphone, all of them walked out gracefully and made a straight line. They were waiting for the announcement. It was the turn of the judges through giving marks. At first, I was wondering what to do. If there was the most beautiful woman like Yang-Kuei-fei or Cleopatra, I would give her 5 points. However such women should not appear in the present Japan. Actually they were not such type. All of them were charming and pretty, but not so mysteriously beautiful. Then what should I do?

In the end, I decided my own standard of marks. In short, I should choose such a girl who had something like the "aura", which the girl emits to surrounding. It was quite difficult to explain, but I thought I should give my best score to a very charming girl. For example, her smiling face was very good; her way of gesture was so graceful, and so on. Kimono fit to her very well. Frankly as her face was concerned, there were other girls, who were prettier than her. However in total, there was no other charming girl like her among them. I gave her 5 points and I gave another two attractive girls 4 points each. The rest were 2 points.

Five minutes later, the champion, 2nd prize and 3rd prize were announced. I was happy that the girl, to whom I gave 5 points, became the champion. Not only myself but also other judges evaluated her attractiveness.

Next year I was asked to be the judge of this beauty contest again. As I had experience of the last year, I selected the girls and submitted my marking sheet to the committee. The results made me happier than the last year. Surprisingly the two girls, to whom I gave highest points 5 and 4, had become the champion and 2nd prize each. Through this glorious result, I had a full confidence to choose an attractive girl. However regrettable enough, since then I have had no chance to make use of "the special skill of beauty selection".

(May 21, 2004)




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Essay of My Wonderful Life

(c) Yama san 2004, All rights reserved