MALE DRESS.
Japanese and foreign dress—Progress in the latter—Japanese clothes
indispensable—_Kimono_—Cutting out—Making of an unlined dress—Short
measure—Extra-sized dresses—_Yukata_—The lined _kimono_—The wadded
_kimono_—Under-dress—Underwear—_Obi_—_Haori_—The crest—The uncrested
_haori_—_Hakama_—Socks—How to dress Wearing of socks.
A stranger in the streets of Tokyo cannot but be struck by the number
of Japanese, especially men and boys, who are dressed in European
clothes. The western costume, if less picturesque, is certainly more
handy than the Japanese; it allows a greater freedom to the limbs,
whereas in the latter the long sleeves are apt to be caught by knobs
and corners and the skirt is always in the way when we wish to run or
walk fast. For this reason the European male dress is largely worn in
schools, government offices, and private places of business, which
are built in a style more or less foreign and furnished with chairs,
benches, and tables; for squatting is uncomfortable with foreign
clothes and, whatever the dress may be, is a more complicated way of
resting ourselves than sitting in a chair, besides requiring a greater
effort when we wish to rise. But there are further reasons for
the favour which European clothes enjoy in Japan. They last much
longer than Japanese, for silks wear out pretty quickly if they are
constantly in use and are, moreover, torn more readily. If they are
soiled, they have to be taken to pieces, washed, perhaps redyed, and
remade. Besides, a Japanese outfit of fair quality is more costly than
a European suit. And as the custom stands in Japan, we have to provide
ourselves with several Japanese suits; whereas so many changes are not
needed of European clothes, in respect of which the Japanese people,
as a whole, have not yet learned to discriminate so rigidly as when
their national costume is concerned. A man may, in fact, wear the same
frock-coat all the year round and make it last long by taking as
great care of it as he does of his Japanese clothes. All things
considered, then, European clothes are both more handy and economical,
and on that account preferred to Japanese on business and ceremonial
occasions.
In the early days of the new regime when European clothes were
comparatively rare and not unfrequently worn rather as a sign of
their wearers’ progressive spirit than for their convenience, it was
considered sufficient if they were simply European, no account being
taken of their cut or style. A man in a tweed cutaway or serge lounge
suit found ready access to an evening party or a semi-official
gathering. But as time went on, the frock-coat became the usual dress
on such occasions; still, silk hats were not yet generally worn, and
bowlers remained the common wear. The evening dress was the official
suit and was worn at one time even in the morning, if there was an
official ceremony at such early hours. It is only within the last
decade that silk hats have come into vogue; and they are now worn with
the frock-coat or evening dress at all parties and social gatherings.
But as they are still only worn at social functions, they last a long
time, and at garden parties silk hats of all ages and styles may be
seen.
The rapid encroachment of European clothes into Japanese society is
undeniable; and if we may judge from the steady increase of tailoring
establishments in Tokyo and elsewhere, they seem destined to command
a still greater popularity. But there appears to be little ground for
the prediction often made by European writers that the national dress
is doomed. For so long as Japanese houses remain radically unchanged
and we are forced to squat on the mat, Japanese clothes cannot be
dispensed with. European clothes are not comfortable to squat in; as
the body cannot be kept quite straight, the collar presses on the
throat, the waistcoat gets creasy, the trousers soon become baggy
about the knees, and the socks are but a poor protection against the
cold since they cannot be hidden as under the skirt of the Japanese
dress. In a room warmed only by a small brazier, we feel the winter
chill more severely in European clothes than in Japanese. In summer
no one who has once worn the Japanese _yukata_ would willingly
take it off, for it is the slightest possible consistent with decency
as it is nothing more than a single unlined dress. It is the coolest
imaginable. Other Japanese summer clothes are only less cool than the
_yukata_. Hence, a Japanese of the upper or middle class has usually
to provide himself with both European and Japanese suits, that is, if
he wears European clothes at all, and is put to double expenses in
the matter of clothing. And to be completely equipped in both requires
no light purse.
The ordinary Japanese dress is shaped like a gown with hanging
sleeves. As the exact shape of the _kimono_, as it is called, appears
unknown to those who have never seen it, we will here explain how a
_kimono_ is made.
The _kimono_ is made out of a piece of silk, cotton, or hemp cloth,
usually eleven inches wide and about thirty-five feet long. Cloths are
always made of nearly the same measure or of double the length just
mentioned, that is, if they are for making _kimono_. The length and
width may vary slightly, cotton cloths being for instance smaller than
silk. The cloth is cut out into two pieces each for the body, the
sleeves, and the gores, and one for the band and sometimes another for
the upper band, or into seven or eight pieces in all. The body pieces
are each ten feet long and the sleeve pieces three feet and a half,
so that the two pairs take up twenty-seven feet; they are of the same
width as the original piece. The remainder is cut into two strips,
usually six and five inches wide, of which the former is cut in two
lengths of four feet three inches each, if possible, for the gores and
the latter into a strip, five feet eight inches long, for the main
band, the remainder being used, if needed, for the upper band.
We now pass on to the making of the male unlined _kimono_, as
naturally it is of the simplest form. In the first place, the length
of a _kimono_ varies with the size of the wearer; it is not only
his height, but his condition as well, that has to be taken into
consideration, for broad shoulders, a thick chest, and rounded hips
require more cloth, longitudinally and laterally, than a body of the
same height but with less flesh. The usual length is about four feet
six inches for the average Japanese whose height is five feet
three or four inches. The two body pieces are first placed side by
side and sewn together half the length, the edge sewn in being about
half an inch; and then at the end of the seam the pieces are cut two
inches and a half and folded down at that width all along to the free
ends, so that when they are spread out, there is a channel five inches
wide along half their length. They are then folded in two so that the
free halves are exactly over the sewn halves. The outer edges are then
sewn from the end up to a point a foot and five inches below the fold.
The sewn halves form the hind part and the free halves the front of
the _kimono_. Next, the pieces for the gores are sewn on from the end
along the free edges of the body pieces. The skirt is stitched, and
the _kimono_, which is now an inch or so less than five feet, is
tucked in to the required length at the hips where the tucking would
be concealed under the _obi_, or sash. The edge of each gore is
stitched to a certain height which depends upon the length of the
_kimono_, and from this point to the top of its juncture with the body
piece the gore is turned, and the triangle thus formed is folded again
and again so as to be enclosed in the band which is next sewn on over
the folded edges of the gores and round the breast and neck of the
body pieces. The band itself is made by folding the band piece
lengthwise into two and turning in the edges. The upper band which
serves as an anti-macassar is then sewn over the main band around the
neck. The sleeves have in the meantime been sewn into oblong pieces a
foot and seven or eight inches long by ten inches wide. The outer edge
has been sewn together for nine and a quarter inches from the bottom,
the remainder being hemmed round to allow the hand to pass through;
and the inner edge, of which two and a half inches have been stitched
at the lower extremity, is now sewn on to the body piece.
The dress is now complete. Sometimes when the cloth is slightly short
of measure, it cannot be made in the way just described. The body
pieces are taken at lengths which admit of but little tucking at the
hips; and the gores are cut slantwise, leaving no triangular pieces
to be folded in. But in that case, when the dress is remade, the
same parts of the gores will be exposed, whereas if the gores are
oblong, they can be reversed so as to expose the parts which were
formerly folded in and are therefore practically new.
[Illustration: THE _KIMONO_, REAR AND FRONT VIEW.]
These dresses can be taken to pieces and remade so long as the cloth
is not worn out; and as they can be made to fit most persons by
judicious tucking in or letting out, they are often washed and remade
for others than the original wearer. As the maximum length of the body
pieces is about ten feet, a cloth of the usual length would be too
short for those who measure more than four feet ten or eleven inches
from the nape of the neck to the ankles. A spare person, five feet
eight inches in height, might just manage to make himself a dress out
of a cloth of the usual length; but a man of a greater stature or of
the same height with more flesh would have to get a cloth specially
woven for him or buy a double length. Moreover, if a cloth is too
short for the height, it would also be in all probability too narrow
for the sleeves, which would then require a strip to be sewn on to
cover the arms.
The unlined dress of coarse bleached cotton, known as _yukata_ or
bath-dress, is the simplest and most comfortable for summer wear. It
is worn immediately next to the skin without underwear of any
kind, and is washed whole every few days in midsummer. It is commonly
white or blue with stripes, spots, or other simple designs. If the
dress is of silk, hemp, or of a better kind of cotton, an underwear of
bleached cotton is put on. This resembles the _kimono_ in form, only
that it is much shorter, coming down only to the thighs, and has open
sleeves and no gores. The unlined _kimono_ is worn when one goes out
in summer; the _yukata_ is mostly for home wear or put on for a walk
in the evening. The unlined clothes are worn through midsummer from
the middle of June until the latter half of September.
The lined _kimono_ differs from the unlined in having a lining, which
is usually of dark-blue silk or cotton. The lining is first made
separately from the covering, and its pieces, which are similar to
those of the other with a slight shrinkage in the measurement to allow
for its being the inner side, are stitched together, except at the
edges of the sleeves, skirt, gores, and the inner border of the body
pieces, which are sewn on to the corresponding parts of the outer
cloth. The band of the latter covers both cloths; and at the opening
of the sleeves a stiff piece of cloth trims the edges as that part
is apt to be rapidly worn out from the movement of the wrist. The
underwear is the same as in the case of the unlined _kimono_. The
lined _kimono_ is worn for a shorter time than the unlined, in fact,
for about a month at the transition from the unlined _kimono_ to the
wadded and _vice-versa_. The lined _kimono_ was not recognised by
the old-time etiquette which did not sanction any intermediate dress
between the unlined and the wadded; but of its comfort as a
_demi-saison_ costume there can be no question.
The wadded _kimono_ is the most important of all as it is worn for a
longer period than the others. It is simply the lined _kimono_ wadded,
and is made similarly to it. When the two halves, the outer and the
inner, have been stitched separately, they are first joined together
at the skirt, turned inside out, and spread on the floor. The wadding
is then put on the outer half, the lining is brought over and sewn on,
and finally the whole dress is turned back the right side out. The
lining is made narrower than the covering as it remains inside, but
is slightly longer to allow for the bulge of the wadding. The
wadding may be of floss-silk as when it is desired to keep the dress
thin and light; or it may be of ginned cotton with a thin coating of
floss-silk; the floss-silk is needed because if the wadding were
only of cotton, it would fall in the course of time and gather at
the skirt, whereas the floss-silk adheres to the cloth with such
pertinacity that part of it oozes out through the texture of the
cloth and forms little white lumps on the outside.
The wadded clothes are worn double in midwinter. The under-dress is of
slightly smaller dimensions than the upper. It is usual to make its
body of a less stiff material than the other, for if it were as stiff
or thick, it would be uncomfortable to wear. Hence, the gores, the
skirt, the band, and the wrist-ends of the sleeves, that is, the
visible portions, are made of stiff stuff; but the rest is of softer
silk or cotton.
Under the lower _kimono_ is worn a doublet, thickly wadded and coming
down to the knees. It is made of inferior silk and has a black silk
band. Under this is the same underwear as in the case of the lined
_kimono_. The doublet has sleeves like the _kimono_. The merino
undershirt is now frequently worn instead of the Japanese underwear;
it is certainly warmer than the other which lets the wind and cold
enter through its open breast and sleeves, but it cannot be said to
add to the picturesqueness of the national costume. Merino drawers
are also worn; they are useful as the skirt is often on a windy day
blown aside and exposes the legs to the cold.
[Illustration: THE _OBI_, SQUARE AND PLAIN.]
The _obi_, or sash, is about four inches wide and varies in length
from twelve feet and a half to fourteen. It is usually of the same
material on both sides and can be worn either side out. It is stitched
along one edge and stiffened with a padding. This is the regular sash,
commonly called the square _obi_; but when we are at home, go out for
a walk, or visit an intimate friend, we prefer another kind of sash,
which is a piece of white crêpe, about ten feet long and varying in
width from a foot and a quarter to two feet, and stitched at the ends
to prevent their fraying. It is much more comfortable than the other.
The _haori_, or outer coat, is worn over the _kimono_. It comes down
only to the knees or a little lower. It has no gores in front like the
_kimono_. The neck-band runs down to the skirt. The _haori_ is open in
front and the band falls straight from the shoulders on both sides, so
that there is no need for gores in front which are required only for
folding over; but there is a narrow gore on either side coming down
from the lower extremity of the sleeve to the skirt. The sleeves of
the _haori_ are just large enough to enclose those of the _kimono_. At
the skirt the body pieces are turned in and form the lining of the
lower part of the _haori_; and so the full length of a cloth, that is,
about thirty-five feet, is taken in the same way as in the making of
the _kimono_. The upper part of the _haori_ and the sleeves are lined
with another material; that for the upper part is often of bright
colours or embroidered; it is, in fact, the only portion of the male
dress where the usual rule of sober colours is not strictly adhered
to, and people who aspire to be chic sometimes use for the lining a
more expensive material than the outer cloth. Unlined _haori_ which
are made of silk gauze or similar thin stuff for summer wear, are
woven shorter than the others to dispense with the skirt-lining. The
_haori_ for winter wear is sometimes wadded with a thin layer of
floss-silk. About fifteen inches down the neck, a small loop of the
same material as the _haori_ is stitched on to the band on either
side, and to this a silk cord is fastened and tied in the middle to
keep the _haori_ from slipping off. Sometimes the cords are made in a
knot or a bow and fastened to the loops by hooks at the ends.
[Illustration: THE _HAORI_.]
The _haori_ worn on a visit or on formal occasions is usually black
and adorned with the family crest. The crest is found on three or five
parts of the _haori_, one in the middle of the back over the seam,
and one each on the back of the sleeve, and if there are five crests
altogether, one each on the breast of the body piece between the band
and the sleeve. The crest is of various forms and is about an inch
from end to end. It is invariably white; the white cloth is specially
dyed for the purpose so that the crest is the only portion left
undyed; but sometimes ready-dyed cloths with white disks for the
crests are bought, when the crests have to be drawn on them, or if
they have no such disks, the crests are sewn on.
_Haori_ for common wear have no crests and are plain, twilled, or
striped and of sombre hues, though not necessarily black. Those for
home wear are often much longer than ordinary _haori_ and are thickly
wadded with cotton. They are also without crests.
The _hakama_ is a sort of loose trousers. Either leg is made by
joining along the nape five pieces of cloth about a yard long, four of
which are of the full width of the cloth and the fifth of half that
width. The skirt is sewn by turning in the edge three times to stiffen
it. The two legs are joined in such a manner that the half-width
pieces form the inner side and the lowest point of the fork is about
twenty-two inches from the skirt. In front a longitudinal plait is
made an inch or so to the left so that its edge is in the middle;
two more plaits are made to the left and two to the right, and a third
on the latter leg under the middle fold. A similar but deeper plait is
made behind on either leg, that on the right having its edge in the
middle. These plaits are not stitched, but merely hot-pressed so that
they can be opened at will; and as they are much deeper at the skirt
than at the top, they give free play to the legs when walking and make
the _hakama_ appear to fit more closely than it would without them.
The upper half of the _hakama_ is open at either side, the fork at
which is of about the same depth as that in the middle. The top of the
front half which is about a foot wide, is sewn on to the middle of a
band which is folded and turned in to the width of half an inch and is
about eleven feet long, thus leaving a free end five feet long on
either side of the front half. The back, the top of which is narrower
than that in front, is surmounted with a piece of thin board on which
the cloth is pasted with starch mucilage. This board has also a narrow
band, two feet long, on each side. The _hakama_ is lined or unlined,
but never wadded.
[Illustration: THE _HAKAMA_.]
Socks are made with a thick cotton sole and a cover of common cotton
or calico, black or white, which comes up only to the ankle-bone. They
are split between the big toe and the next for holding the thong of
the clogs. They are kept from coming off by two or three small metal
clasps catching a cord behind the heel.
[Illustration: SOCKS.]
Now the Japanese suit is complete. In summer we wear the _yukata_, or
the coarse unlined cotton _kimono_, at home, or an unlined dress of
cotton or other material with underwear when we go out. We always put
on our clothes by folding the left over the right. The clothes are
folded one by one, that is, the underwear is first folded left over
right, over it the doublet, and lastly the _kimono_ which, if double,
are folded in pairs. The principle in putting them on is that their
bands shall alternate right and left and the folds form gradations
widening with the outer garments, so that from the bands one can tell
the quantity of clothing a man has put on. We wind the _obi_ over the
_kimono_. If it is the unlined crêpe, we merely wind it round and
either tuck in the ends under the folds or tie them behind; but if it
is the square _obi_, we leave behind one end about ten inches long and
winding the _obi_ twice round, fold the other end, the tip of
which is tucked under the fold, at such a length that a foot or so of
the doubled end is left over. The two ends are tied together in a
double knot with the two extremities slanting upward one on each side
of the knot. The knot is tied behind over the spine, the _obi_ being
wound just above the hips. Over the _kimono_ we wear the _haori_. The
_haori_ is neither a greatcoat nor a coat properly so called; for we
wear it on all occasions and indoors, and yet we may on informal
occasions take it off without breach of good manners. Indeed, a man
who walks abroad without a _haori_ would be in an entirely different
position to one who goes about in shirt sleeves. The crested _haori_,
which is invariably worn on formal occasions, is a ready means of
identification; and accordingly, when we are unwilling to attract
attention or to risk recognition, the uncrested is commonly put
on. The _hakama_ is worn when we have to be properly dressed, on
occasions, that is to say, when one would wear a frock-coat or an
evening dress; at schools and in government offices the _hakama_
is indispensable when Japanese clothes are worn. In putting on a
_hakama_, the front band is first brought flush with the upper edge of
the _obi_ and the ends are each passed once and half round the body
and tied behind under the knot of the _obi_; and then the board at the
back is perched over the same knot to prevent its slipping down, and
the ends of its bands are tied in front.
The socks are worn with all clothes except the _yukata_; but many
people go about barefooted, save in winter. The white is the colour
worn on formal occasions; but the black is popular as it wears better
than the other and does not betray the dirt when it is soiled. Only
young children wear socks of other colours, such as red and yellow.