“Kimono Mom” shows Japanese home cooking

Moe, 33, a former maiko and geiko, shows how to cook homemade Japanese meals in English on her YouTube channel, “Kimono Mom.” Once worried about raising her child alone, she began uploading videos, something she learned to do through trial and error. Today, she is one of the leading figures who helped introduce the charm of Japanese cuisine to the world.

Born in Kyoto, she worked as a maiko and geisha for six years after dropping out of high school. But she quit her job when she got married and moved to Tokyo. She began posting videos to YouTube in February 2020, after she divorced and remarried. As of January this year, she has around 5.5 million followers on various social media platforms, like Instagram.

Here are excerpts from an interview with her:

6 years in the world of geishas

I film myself cooking in a kimono and kappogi apron and post videos on YouTube once a week. I sometimes cook oden stew with my 4-year-old daughter or pound steamed rice to make mochi with my whole family. So far I have filmed around 490 videos. Ninety-seven percent of my viewers on YouTube are from overseas, so many comments are written in English and Spanish. I feel like I have friends from all over the world while staying in my own kitchen.

I wear a kimono in the videos because I worked as a maiko and geisha. I was drawn to the hanamachi, or geisha district, because it cherishes history and tradition. I stayed in this world for six years until I retired after my first marriage at the age of 21.

Solitary parenting

Five years ago I remarried my current husband and our daughter was born the following year. At that time, my husband ran a restaurant. He had no days off and came home before dawn. So I took care of my daughter alone when she was born. Even though I wanted to work, my daughter was not admitted to a preschool. I had no one to talk to except my husband, and day after day I felt like I had lost all connection to society.

A turning point came when my daughter was about nine months old. An American YouTuber covered me to show how a Japanese mother spends her day. I thought I could do the same thing and post videos while raising my child at home. So the next day I started learning how to film and edit videos on my smartphone.

What I share is Japanese home cooking. My mother’s cooking comforted me when I faced difficulties. I also want my daughter to know what she ate growing up in the future.

The first video I posted was how I cooked fried stuffed lotus root for dinner. It took me a month to put it together, using up time when my daughter was sleeping.

When my daughter cried while I was filming, I stopped to comfort her and sometimes carried her on my back. I released these scenes as they were. Then I started getting messages not only from people interested in cooking, but also from mothers all over the world who were also raising children. It made me feel like I wasn’t the only one struggling to raise my kids.

Struck by the spectator’s words

Early in this career, I thanked viewers for their comments even though I was “just a housewife.” Then a viewer got offended that I was portraying the role of a housewife and told me not to say that.

I was struck by these words. I thought very little of myself, because I didn’t work after having my daughter. I realized that I should be proud to be a mother and convey messages that will cheer up the people around me, for the sake of my daughter and those who look forward to my videos.

I also launched an online shopping business in 2022 to help more people overseas enjoy homemade Japanese cuisine. In addition to earthenware pots, which allow you to cook rice without adjusting the heat, I also sell Japanese sauce that can be used by people with dietary restrictions, such as vegans and those on a gluten-free diet.

I want to help create a space where people from different countries and cultures can enjoy homemade Japanese cuisine.