Of course, not only the Song Dynasty, but also the costumes of all dynasties have been respected and loved in today’s society, and they have a unified name – Hanfu. 24-25 In the Han dynasty, women were not the only ones who used cosmetic powder, men also used it and this custom of men applying powder did not decline even during the Six dynasties period. Cosmetic powder is known as fen as it was made by the pounding and crushing of rice grains or qianfen (lead powder) in China. 133-136 China considered right-over-left wraps barbaric. Nara-period women’s clothing was heavily influenced by Tang-dynasty China. From this point onwards, the basic shape of both men’s and women’s kimono remained largely unchanged. By the 1890s, appetite for Western dress as a fashion statement had cooled considerably, and the kimono remained an item of fashion. During the Meiji period, the opening of Japan to Western trade after the enclosure of the Edo period led to a drive towards Western dress as a sign of “modernity”. The Meiji period had seen the slow introduction of kimono types that mediated between the informal and the most formal, a trend that continued throughout the Taishō period, as social occasions and opportunities for leisure increased under the abolition of class distinctions.
In 1869, the social class system was abolished, and with them, class-specific sumptuary laws. Businessmen, teachers, doctors, bankers, and other leaders of the new society wore suits to work and at large social functions. 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”. The kosode resembled a modern kimono, though at this time the sleeves were sewn shut at the back and were smaller in width (shoulder seam to cuff) than the body of the garment. Richer garments in silk are ornamented with figural and geometric patterns, woven and dyed; some have flaring sleeves. Today, the vast majority of people in Japan wear Western clothing in the everyday, and are most likely to wear kimono either to formal occasions such as wedding ceremonies and funerals, or to summer events, where the standard kimono is the easy-to-wear, single-layer cotton yukata.
With Western dress being considered street wear and a more formal display of fashionable clothing, most Japanese people wore the comfortable kimono at home and when out of the public eye. Elements previously lifted from the Tang Dynastic courts developed independently into what is known literally as “national culture” or “kokufū culture” (国風文化, kokufū-bunka), the term used to refer to Heian-period Japanese culture, particularly that of the upper classes. The structure of the jiaolingyouren yi (交領右衽 衣; jiāolǐngyòurèn yī) may have some differences and variations in terms of features depending on time period and styles of upper garment. 132 Kimono retailers, due to the pricing structure of brand new kimono, had developed a relative monopoly on not only prices but also a perception of kimono knowledge, allowing them to dictate prices and heavily promote more formal (and expensive) purchases, modern qipao as selling a single formal kimono could support the seller comfortably for three months. 67, 76 traditions of kimono bridalwear for marriage ceremonies were also codified in this time, which resembled the bridalwear of samurai-class women. Below the hirami, men wore narrow hakama with a contrasting lower edge, and women wore a pleated mo long enough to trail.
This reconstruction is probably outdated; the hō should be shorter, with a short pleated frill beneath, as in the women’s costume. Below the ran and extending below it to about knee length, a more heavily pleated contrasting skirt called a hirami was worn. The skirt is long enough to touch the top of its wearer’s feet. A number of different fashions from the West arrived and were also incorporated into the way that people wore kimono; numerous woodblock prints from the later Meiji period show men wearing bowler hats and carrying Western-style umbrellas whilst wearing kimono, and Gibson girl hairstyles – typically a large bun on top of a relatively wide hairstyle, similar to the Japanese nihongami – became popular amongst Japanese women as a more low-effort hairstyle for everyday life. As neither Japanese men or women commonly wore kimono, having grown up under wartime auspices, commercial kitsuke schools were set up to teach women how to don kimono. However, kitsuke standards were still relatively informal, and would not become formalised until after World War II. This was also the period in which Japanese traditional clothing became introduced to the Western world.
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