There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as , including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country.
Traditional Japanese fashion represents a long-standing history of traditional culture, encompassing colour palettes developed in the Heian period, silhouettes adopted from Tang dynasty clothing and cultural traditions, motifs taken from Japanese culture, nature and traditional literature, the use of types of silk for some clothing, and styles of wearing primarily fully-developed by the end of the Edo period. The most well-known form of traditional Japanese fashion is the kimono, with the term kimono translating literally as "something to wear" or "thing worn on the shoulders".Assmann, Stephanie. "Between Tradition and Innovation: The Reinvention of the Kimono in Japanese Consumer Culture." Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 12, no. 3 (September 2008): 359-376. Art & Architecture Source, EBSCOhost (accessed November 1, 2016) Other types of traditional fashion include the clothing of the Ainu people (known as the ) and the clothes of the Ryukyuan people which is known as , most notably including the traditional fabrics of and produced on the Ryukyu Islands.
Modern Japanese fashion mostly encompasses (Western clothes), though many well-known Japanese fashion designers – such as Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo – have taken inspiration from and at times designed clothes taking influence from traditional fashion. Their works represent a combined impact on the global fashion industry, with many pieces displayed at fashion shows all over the world,English, Bonnie. Japanese fashion designers : the work and influence of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo. n.p.: Oxford; New York : Berg, 2011., 2011. Ignacio: USF Libraries Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed November 2, 2016). as well as having had an impact within the Japanese fashion industry itself, with many designers either drawing from or contributing to Japanese street fashion.
Despite previous generations wearing traditional clothing near-entirely, following the end of World War II, Western clothing and fashion became increasingly popular due to their increasingly-available nature and, over time, their cheaper price.Rybalko, Svitlana. "JAPANESE TRADITIONAL RAIMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGENT CULTURAL PARADIGMS." Cogito (2066-7094) 4, no. 2 (June 2012): 112-123. Humanities Source, EBSCOhost (accessed October 29, 2016) It is now increasingly rare for someone to wear traditional clothing as everyday clothes, and over time, traditional clothes within Japan have garnered an association with being difficult to wear and expensive. As such, traditional garments are now mainly worn for ceremonies and special events, with the most common time for someone to wear traditional clothes being to summer festivals, when the is most appropriate; outside of this, the main groups of people most likely to wear traditional clothes are geisha, and sumo wrestlers, all of whom are required to wear traditional clothing in their profession.
Traditional Japanese clothing has garnered fascination in the Western world as a representation of a different culture; first gaining popularity in the 1860s, Japonisme saw traditional clothing – some produced exclusively for export and differing in construction from the clothes worn by Japanese people everyday – exported to the West, where it soon became a popular item of clothing for artists and fashion designers. Fascination for the clothing of Japanese people continued into WW2, where some stereotypes of Japanese culture such as "geisha girls" became widespread. Over time, depictions and interest in traditional and modern Japanese clothing has generated discussions surrounding cultural appropriation and the ways in which clothing can be used to stereotype a culture; in 2016, the "Kimono Wednesday" event held at the Boston Museum of Arts became a key example of this.Valk, Julie. "The 'Kimono Wednesday' protests: identity politics and how the kimono became more than Japanese." Asian Ethnologyno. 2 (2015): 379. Literature Resource Center, EBSCOhost (accessed October 31, 2016).
History Yayoi period (Neolithic to Iron Age)
Little is known of the clothing of the Yayoi period. In the 3rd-century (, a section of the Records of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Chinese scholar Chen Shou),魏志倭人伝 , Chinese texts and its Japanese translation there is some description of clothing worn in Japan. It describes broad cloth (possibly double-width), made into unshaped garments by being tied about the waist and shoulders. See "Explanation" button for relevant costumes.
Kofun period (300–538 AD)
Until the 5th century AD, there is little artistic evidence of the clothing worn in Japan. Kofun period clothing is known from clay sculptures used atop offering cylinders. These were used in the 5th and 6th century, though most have no sculpture on top. These figures likely do not represent everyday dress; they may represent riding dress. Many wear armour.
In the Kofun period, the right side was wrapped over the left (unlike in China), and the overlapped edge was secured with ties on the right side. Sleeves and trousers were tubular. Female figures often wear a skirt, with male figures wearing trousers tied with garters just above the calf, so that they balloon over the knee, allowing freedom of movement. , wrapped skirts, were worn by men and women, sometimes over (trousers).
Traditional Chinese clothing had been introduced to Japan via Chinese envoys in the Kofun period, with immigration between the two countries and envoys to the Tang dynasty court leading to Chinese styles of dress, appearance and culture becoming extremely popular in Japanese court society. The Imperial Japanese court quickly adopted Chinese styles of dress and clothing.. As early as the 4th century CE, images of priestess-queens and tribal chiefs in Japan depicted figures wearing clothing similar that of Han dynasty China. There is evidence of the oldest samples of tie-dyed fabric stored at the Shōsōin Temple being Chinese in origin, due to the limitations of Japan's ability to produce the fabrics at the time (see ).
Asuka period (538–710 CE)
The Asuka period began with the introduction of Buddhism, and the writing system of Chinese characters to Japan; during this time, Chinese influence over Japan was fairly strong.
Judging by the depictions in the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandala, during the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), male and female court dress were very similar. Both wore round-necked front-fastening with non-overlapping lapels, the front, collar, and cuffs edged with contrasting fabric, possibly an underlayer; the skirt, above knee-length, had a matching edge. Below the and extending below it to about knee length, a more heavily pleated contrasting skirt called a was worn. Below the , men wore narrow with a contrasting lower edge, and women wore a pleated long enough to trail.
The Takamatsuzuka Tomb () is a major source of information for upper-class clothing of this period. By this time, the lapels overlapped (still right side over left), and the and were edged with pleated frills, replacing the . (black gauze caps stiffened with lacquer) were being worn by male courtiers, and were regulated in the 11th regnal year of Emperor Tenmu (~684 CE); this fashion persists in formal use into the 21st century.
Nara period (710–794)
Nara-period upper-class clothing was much simpler than some later styles, taking no more than a few minutes to don, with the clothing itself allowing for freedom of movement. Women's upper-class dress consisted of a left-over-right lap-fronted top (over a similar underrobe), and a wrapped, pleated skirt (). Women also sometimes wore a lap-fronted overvest, and a narrow rectangular stole. Men's upper-class dress had narrow, unpleated (single-panel) (trousers) under a loose, mandarin-collared coat (), with elaborate hats of stiffened open-weave black cloth (). Clothing was belted with narrow sashes.
Nara-period women's clothing was heavily influenced by Tang-dynasty China. Women adopted collars, which overlapped like modern kimono collars, though men continued wearing round mandarin collars, which were associated with scholasticism, only later adopting . Lower-body garments ( and ) had been worn under the outermost upper-body garments, but now, following the newer Chinese fashion, they transitioned to being worn on top (again, by women, but not yet by men).
In 718 CE, the Yoro clothing code was instituted, which stipulated that all robes had to be overlapped at the front with a left-to-right closure, following typical Chinese fashions. China considered right-over-left wraps barbaric. This convention of wear is still followed today, with a right-to-left closure worn only by the deceased.
In 752 CE, a massive bronze Buddha statue at Tōdai-ji, Nara, was consecrated with great ceremony. The ceremonial clothing of attendees (probably not all made in Japan) was preserved in the Shōsō-in. Most of them close left-over-right, but some abut or overlap right-over-left. Collar shapes include narrow, round or v-shaped. There is craftsmen's clothing in (domestic bast fiber), with long, round-collared outer robes. Richer garments in silk are ornamented with figural and geometric patterns, woven and dyed; some have flaring sleeves. Aprons, , leggings, socks and shoes have also been preserved.
Social segregation of clothing was primarily noticeable in the Nara period (710–794), through the division of upper and lower class. People of higher social status wore clothing that covered the majority of their body, or as Svitlana Rybalko states, "the higher the status, the less was open to other people's eyes". For example, the full-length robes would cover most from the collarbone to the feet, the sleeves were to be long enough to hide their fingertips, and women carried fans to protect them from speculative looks.
Heian period (794–1185) During the Heian period (794-1185 CE), Japan stopped sending envoys to the dynastic courts. This prevented Chinese-imported goods—including clothing—from entering the Imperial Palace and disseminating to the upper classes, who were the main arbiters of traditional Japanese culture at the time and the only people allowed to wear such clothing. The ensuing cultural vacuum facilitated the development of a Japanese culture independent from Chinese fashions. Elements previously lifted from the Tang Dynastic courts developed independently into what is known literally as "national culture" or , the term used to refer to Heian-period Japanese culture, particularly that of the upper classes.平安時代の貴族の服装 NHK for school
Clothing became increasingly stylised, with some elements—such as the round-necked and tube-sleeved jacket, worn by both genders in the early 7th century—being abandoned by both male and female courtiers. Others, such as the wrapped-front robes, also worn by men and women, were kept. Some elements, such as the skirt worn by women, continued on in a reduced capacity, worn only to formal occasions; the grew too narrow to wrap all the way around and became a trapezoidal pleated train. Formal (trousers) became longer than the legs and also trailed behind the wearer. Men's formal dress included collars and very wide sleeves.
The concept of the hidden body remained, with ideologies suggesting that the clothes served as "protection from the evil spirits and outward manifestation of a social rank". This proposed the widely held belief that those of lower ranking, who were perceived to be of less clothing due to their casual performance of manual labor, were not protected in the way that the upper class were in that time period. This was also the period in which Japanese traditional clothing became introduced to the Western world.