yukata

She has a clear preference for the casual Yukata, made of unlined, summer-weight fabric with shorter sleeves, despite the urging of her sensei to up her game.

After the war, the Takekawa family, including Beth’s father, Yukata “Dutch” Takekawa, resettled in Minneapolis, one of the few U.S. cities allowing resettlement for Japanese Americans.

Noted for her bold, unisex prints for both kimono and yukata, a lighter kimono, and her refusal to accept conventional limits on wearing them, Takahashi this year was part of an exhibit at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

She also has a contract to provide yukata for a new, luxury hotel as Japan gears up to host the Olympics.

She persisted until she was selling 100 to 200 made-to-order yukata a month - remarkable success in an industry so steadily declining that sales now hover around 16 percent of what they were in 1981, according to government data.