A Buyer's Review of ICHIROYA Kimono Flea Market

While shopping for an uchikake, I recently stumbled across the online Japan store, ICHIROYA Kimono Flea Market. So after searching up a few blogs across the internet of prior customer reviews to insure everything was trustworthy, I set off to picking out the items I wanted for my ensemble and ordered them.

So here's my buyer's review of the site from my personal experience.

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Selection

10/10

Ichiroya has the largest kimono selection I've seen in an online store easily accessible to the USA. It's literally massive. Every variety of kimono and obi are there, plus tons of accessories and miscellaneous goods related to kitsuke. You can absolutely find every element needed to put together an ensemble, regardless of what kind you're coordinating.

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Ease of Access

10/10

Perhaps it's just me, but Ichiroya's website does feel a bit shady at first with its bare bones structure and layout. But the more I used the platform, the more I fell in love with its meticulously designed sorting and organization features that set it apart from the competition of other online kitsuke stores. The makers of the site were clearly experienced in the art of kimono, and because of that, they set it up so you can find what you want when you want with minimum effort.

When you're as picky as I am, their indepth search function is a blessing. You can customize the color, fabric, age of product, price, condition, and more. You can even specify the sleeve length which especially comes in handy for Westerners due to gals and guys like me who are 5'5" and taller often needing a sleeve to sleeve length of 55 CM or more if you want the sleeves to be particularly modest and not show too much skin.

Also, they have sorted tabs for you to browse through if you want a specific kind of kimono or garment. Their tabs are incredibly helpful and seriously save time on browsing.

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Customer Service

10/10

In an age of automated responses and super busy sales people, it's nice to encounter a store for once where people care. And Ichiroya is one of the few businesses that do indeed care for their clients. After ordering your products, they'll send you a calculated shipping fee via email with a cost breakdown of all your items. Did they forget something, such as listing 1 datejime when you wanted 2? Respond to the email, and they'll kindly recalculate the information and fix the error.

Now that sounds all fine and standard, sure, but what really blew me away was when after ordering and all of my products arrived I realized I forgot a korin belt and wanted to make my life easier with an obidome kanagu, so I ed them through email asking if they carried those products.

The sales associate who responded gave me links to all the korin belts they carried, and what really made me gasp was that they also ed which customer I was. They knew I individually bought most all the kitsuke items from them, and made a brief comment acknowledgeing that.

ing your customers is absolutely precious and makes me want to purchase again from them even more now.

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Quality

10/10

You know what quality of an item you're getting when you order from Ichiroya, because they painstakingly review and mark on a diagram every single flaw the product has in addition to taking photos of the major flaws to show you. Which when buying second hand items is very helpful.

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Shipping

8/10

Unfortunately due to the corna virus, Japan has stopped ing most shipping options to the majority of all countries. Which means most Japan online stores don't offer USA shipping right now. But let's say you're impatient like me and you want your kimono NOW regardless of the price. Lucky for you, Ichiroya offers 6 day or less shipping via DHL. (Which actually means usually you get your items in two days or less, cause they're that insanely fast.)

Now this also means that shipping through DHL is twice the price of standard shipping. But right now, you either get your product through DHL from Japan or you don't get it at all, so it's an iffy give and take.

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Prices

9/10

Ichiroya offers great prices, depending on what you're buying. Honestly some of their deals are so good you can't find a better option anywhere else. However, the store also sells vintage products, so if they're selling a rare item it's bound to be more expensive. I suggest just putting your budget into the search function if you don't want to be tempted by high price, rare kimono.

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All Around Score

10/10

I highly suggest purchasing from Ichiroya if you want a gorgeous traditional Japanese garment. Just maybe wait until after Japan re-opens their standard shipping if you want a better deal on shipping costs.

Thanks for reading! Was this helpful? If so, let me know in the comments below and I may do more Buyers Reviews of other kimono online stores I've purchased from.

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