P6+Kimono

Appearance and Dress: The Kimono //Nate J., Owen G., Sophia F., // Introduction Appearance was important in Ancient Japan. It could be the cause of a great dis-honor or compliment. For the nobles, that is. The peasants just cared about functionality, not the beauty of elegance of their appearance.

Clothing follows Money In the Tokugawa shogunate, the wealthier people had better clothing. A good example is the type of cloth used. The haves (nobles, merchants) wore silk. The have-nots (peasants, artisans) wore rough cotton or hemp. The rich didn’t have to work in the field, so they cared more about looking good and used their money for that. Poor people had to work hard and cared about practicality. Therefore, while the rich were perfuming their clothes, the poor were wearing straw coats so they could work in the rain. Merchants wives used enough grease and enough hairpins to keep their hair in place for ten days. At the same time peasant women were wearing headscarves to keep their hair out of their face while they were working. When at formal occasions noble women would wear 12 layers of gowns each gown one inch shorter than the last on the sleeve, all colors perfectly complimenting. At this same time peasants were wearing cloths of a great variety of colors, blue and white. The contrasts could go on, but the point is that the richer the wearer the nicer clothes.

The Kimono The kimono was the standard garment in the Tokugawa time period. It was so common, that the Japanese word for clothing was kimono. The kimono was considered one of Japan’s most beautiful treasures. It was a long flowing robe with a sash called an obi. The style and the cut of the kimono were simple, but the gown itself was made of elaborate weaving and dyeing. There are many different type of kimono but the formal one is the one that would be seen the most often. An unmarried woman would wear a kimono called a //furisode //  which has long sleeves and are very vibrant. Married women would wear a kimono called a //tomesode //  which had shorter sleeves and the colors were more subtle. There are also special kimonos for sacred ceremonies called //tsukesage, komon //  and //homongi // . A child’s kimono is just a smaller version of an adult. It even has the same elaborate silk and accessories that the adults have and sometimes it is even more colorful than the adults. It can take more than an hour to prepare a young girl in a fancy kimono. Very small children wear a garment called a //hanten //  which is made of cotton and is more like jacket. It is as colorful as a kimono but is very easy to put onto a child. The traditional wedding dress is called a //shiro-maku. The kimono a sacred part of Japanese history and will continue to be the standard clothing troughout Japan // .

Nobles Appearance for nobles was one of the most important traits because the nobles had to the law of Miyabi. Miyabi states the nobles must follow the law of courtly manners and in Japan this law was taken to the extreme. When at formal occasions women would wear 12 layers of gowns each gown one inch shorter than the last on the sleeve. Not only this but the color of each gown must work well with the other colors of the gowns. The color of clothes also applied when nobles wrote letters; the color of the envelope must go with the letter. This is true with all elements of the Japanese nobles culture. If the colors did not match, the letter would be returned which was a very large dishonor to a noble. Many other little details were important to nobles like their teeth should never be seen. To hide their teeth nobles would cover their teeth with tar. But one of the most important part of appearance in Japan was make-up. Noble women would cover their whole faces in white powder. Then apply rouge on their cheeks and lips. To make their nails what they considered beautiful they covered their nails in vegetable dye. Other important part of a women’s face was her eyebrows which woman completely shaved off then repainted with black powder. Their eyebrows were called “moth wing” eyebrows. Women’s hair was also considered important for their appearance. Women would grow out their hair very long because it was considered beautiful then put their hair up in fancy styles with jeweled combs. After nobles did all of these things to enhance their beauty people thought that they lived such a good life and were so beautiful that they called them “dwellers among the clouds.”

Merchants The merchants could care about how they looked because they had the money to look good and feel good. Merchants made money off of selling products, in other words they had lots of money. Because of merchants wealth they were able to wear soft luxurious clothing also including silk. Merchant’s wives looked much like nobles because they also put their hair up with grease in elaborate designs with pins and combs. They also wore lots of make-up including powder faces, and rosy cheeks and lips. All in all merchants were very wealthy so they wore soft clothing lots of make-up and practically like nobles.

Peasants Peasants did not care about appearance as much as others because the entire goal of their life was to please the people above them by growing rice and other foods. Peasants wore clothes that were functional and comfortable for farming in the fields. Both women and men wore trousers and jackets as everyday outfits. Women might have also worn head-scarf’s and aprons as well. Most clothing was made out of banana fiber, hemp or rough cotton dyed blue from the indigo plant. Some women wore clothing done in a block printing design in blue and white on cotton. When it was rainy or muddy in the paddies, peasants would wear clogs also known as geta. When it was not rainy or muddy in the fields, peasants wore more basic sandals called Tatami sandals which were basically a rice straw woven sandal. The reason peasants did not believe as much in style because they had to be functional to get their job done.

Conclusion Japanese people wore many types of clothing, depending on their class. The class dictated the clothes. Practically the only trans-classal clothing was the kimono. There were many variations of the kimono, but it was a staple of Japanese society. The kimono is so important to Japan that it has been called one of Japans treasures.

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Citations

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Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">New York : The Penguin Group, 1999. Print. “kimono.” //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Kimono, Kimono Fabric & Japanese Clothing. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Japaneese kimono.com, Web. Feb. 22, 10.

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