Traditionally, cleaning your kimono involved more than just dunking it into a tub of water. Instead, you would completely take it apart, patch any holes, wash the silk and spread out the wet panels on boards so it would dry flat. Then, you would resew it back together.

I usually do not like to take apart kimonos, they are sewn together with many, many seams and it feels like it takes forever to remove all the stitching. But sometimes the fabric is so beautiful that I’ll break my rule and take one apart. After, I wash the rectangular panels and hang them up to dry. A quick run over with an iron [nope, no wooden boards for me] and I’m ready to go.