The ultimate kansai-tying guide

First post of the year will be the promised Kansai-How-To (even though with a little delay...)
Happy new year and have fun, ganbatte!!!!

Kansai-tying:

The majority of us has been taught how to tie the men in kanto style.

Only few are using kansai tying method. Maybe due to the lack of knowledge regarding how to tie?

This post will be the ultimate how to, hopefully....



For using kansai style, we need some different himo then the basic ones always supplied.
Normally we get the himo in a length of 7 shaku, kansai tying requires 8 shaku himo (unless your head is really small).
Other than that, a different chichigawa is needed.
A single leather stripe (about 40 cm in length) shall be used.
Normally there is a slot next to the middle for the leather to interlock:

The swift and easy way 

Having our men basically pre-tied in kanto style, there is a simple way to pre-tie the kansai style as well.

I taped the right men himo white, so we don't get confused and tangled up.

Start with the men himo completely untied.


Cross both behind the head.
! Make sure you don´t cross too low !

This is OK

This is NO NO !!!

Now cross the himo at the front below the "chin"
! Don´t loose the tension, this is important !

Now bring the himo back again and cross over.
! They have to "lay" above the first strand that comes from the back !

Getting to the front again, heading for the top of the mengane.
! Now they have to lay "under" the first strands !

Here is where you push them through the top of the mengane.

Preparation is basically done.

A few pictures without the gnarly tape:

Here you can also see the proper height of the cross!

It is crucial that the himo don't have any slack. Otherwise we will loose everything we've just made.

That was the preparation.

Now to the men-tsuke:

(as a model for the pictures, Mr. LEGO-Skull has done an appreciable work!)

Please be aware that what you see being done by one hand, should be done simultaneously with both hands (sorry, I'm not capable of taking fotos with my mouth yet...)

1. Grap your men with both hands and push the himo up a bit.

2. Put the men on (I´d prefer chin first)

3. Now, the tricky part. The same way we prepared the himo, we have to tighten them a bit again.

Starting with the "first" strands.

Changing to the second strands.

Changing to the third strands and getting back to the forehead.

Pulling tight to get rid of the slack.

Make sure, you don´t loose the tension (but don´t pull too tight either) the whole time.
Also watch out that your himo don't sit too low now!


4. Now take the final strands and make a bow tie as usual in the back.
(Make sure all strands are tidy, well aligned and not twisted.)

Neat, no?

Congratulations! Kansai tying skills archived 

Happy skull is happy



As you can see, there is no magic.
Even if this might look a bit cumbersome, some regular practice (in front of the TV...) will make you tie as fluent as before.
The key is: "Don't loose patience!"



I hope this is useful to all of you out there. Please let me know if you have any further questions or if something is too hard too understand :D

Have a good one!