Post by Noriko on Dec 27, 2010 15:40:30 GMT -5
Home for the holidays with not much to do so I organized some of my notes:
In my mundane life and in my SCA life, I tend towards utilitarian clothing. Granted, I was originally attracted to a Heian persona because of the beautiful clothes and overall aesthetic but I soon realized that while I adored Heian style, it didn't exactly work for me. I drop food in my lap, get sleeves caught on door handles and enjoy helping out in the kitchen. So what was I to do? I went commoner with a kosode and wrap skirt.
Much has been written about the kosode and its construction and I will leave that to the experts but through my explorations, I have found that the simple "wrap skirt" is not so simple and that there are actually various kinds found through history. The garments under consideration here are the shipira and the mobakama. All of these garments would have been worn by a commoner or non-noble woman but despite similarly shaped garments, these women would have lead completely different lives.
Throughout the early periods of Japanese history, a pleated wrap skirt was known as a mo. Mo was a somewhat generic word meaning pleats and all pleated wrap skirts would use this name. This wrap skirt was worn in the Kofun period as the sole lower body garment and came to mid-calf and was worn with a short robe-like top (kinu) over it.
A second type of pleated skirt came over with Chinese during the Asuka period and due to being a pleated skirt was also called a mo (though with a different charachter). It reached to the floor and robe-like top now came to the wearers knees. Chinese style was also disseminated throughout the non-noblility as well. This model of a performer or entertainer- she is certainly a commoner but her profession calls for a slightly more colorful ensemble and her performance may also have some ritual context. It resembles a pared down version of the ornate Chinese style, with a skirt called a mo, and sort of kosode (a naii) is worn as an undergarment.[1] From the early Heian, this mo skirt would evolve in two different directions.
Nara Period:
Noblewoman:
Commoner:
For the aristocratic wormen, other garments such as the kosode and kinu lengthened and started to form the basis of the outfit and the mo was now moved to the outside as a sort of secondary skirt. By the mid-Heian, the kinu lengthened into a full body garment and the mo became a vestigial "backwards apron"-like garment which was worn over robes in formal situation.
Heian Period:
Noblewoman:
For non-nobility, the mo retained its skirt like shape and the kosode became an outer garment (much sooner than it would among the nobles). A long wrap skirt, called a mobakama (note the word "mo" here), would have been worn by retainers to upper-class women and dates to the late Heian or Kamakura period. The mobakama also reaches to the edge of the kosode. The colors and fabric also indicate a person with a patron who could spend money to dress their servants so nicely[2].
For women with no connections to the aristocrats, we have the shipira which is shorter than the kosode, coming to about mid calf, and is nearly the same color. Note that while this garment is called a shipira, the character used is the same for that of mo. While not quite a peasant, this woman is most likely a member of the artist or merchant class. Her wrap skirt is shorter and less full than the mobakama but as a commoner with no connections to the aristocracy (nor, like the Nara woman, an actress or person involved in a ritual), it makes sense her outfit might be a bit plainer[3]. On the other hand, the shipira, with its shorter length, could merely be an apron, with only the most fleeing of relation to the earlier mo (and thus I am making much ado about nothing!). By the Kamakura, the commoners have abandoned the longer wrap skirt for a sort of hip wrap (yumaki) or wide sash. The aristocrats as well would also bid farewell to their mo as the power fell into the hands of the samurai and their more austere ways of dress. The mo would remain as a garment of extreme formality for court women and slowly fade away, only to be brought back on occasion for ceremonial use.
Retainer:
Commoner:
[1]I'm pretty sure she's a commoner since the translation I was able to hash out mentions a farming village. However, the exact details are a little hazy. Feel free to correct me on this one.
[2] Examples:
www.fashion-kyoto.or.jp/orikyo/maturi/index05.html
www.iz2.or.jp/mushinotare/shopping2.html
[3] From my experiments, the mobakama also uses much more fabric- the pleats are smaller and closer together, compared with the shipira's wide, boxy pleats.
All photographs courtesy of the Japanese Costume Museum.
In my mundane life and in my SCA life, I tend towards utilitarian clothing. Granted, I was originally attracted to a Heian persona because of the beautiful clothes and overall aesthetic but I soon realized that while I adored Heian style, it didn't exactly work for me. I drop food in my lap, get sleeves caught on door handles and enjoy helping out in the kitchen. So what was I to do? I went commoner with a kosode and wrap skirt.
Much has been written about the kosode and its construction and I will leave that to the experts but through my explorations, I have found that the simple "wrap skirt" is not so simple and that there are actually various kinds found through history. The garments under consideration here are the shipira and the mobakama. All of these garments would have been worn by a commoner or non-noble woman but despite similarly shaped garments, these women would have lead completely different lives.
Throughout the early periods of Japanese history, a pleated wrap skirt was known as a mo. Mo was a somewhat generic word meaning pleats and all pleated wrap skirts would use this name. This wrap skirt was worn in the Kofun period as the sole lower body garment and came to mid-calf and was worn with a short robe-like top (kinu) over it.
A second type of pleated skirt came over with Chinese during the Asuka period and due to being a pleated skirt was also called a mo (though with a different charachter). It reached to the floor and robe-like top now came to the wearers knees. Chinese style was also disseminated throughout the non-noblility as well. This model of a performer or entertainer- she is certainly a commoner but her profession calls for a slightly more colorful ensemble and her performance may also have some ritual context. It resembles a pared down version of the ornate Chinese style, with a skirt called a mo, and sort of kosode (a naii) is worn as an undergarment.[1] From the early Heian, this mo skirt would evolve in two different directions.
Nara Period:
Noblewoman:
Commoner:
For the aristocratic wormen, other garments such as the kosode and kinu lengthened and started to form the basis of the outfit and the mo was now moved to the outside as a sort of secondary skirt. By the mid-Heian, the kinu lengthened into a full body garment and the mo became a vestigial "backwards apron"-like garment which was worn over robes in formal situation.
Heian Period:
Noblewoman:
For non-nobility, the mo retained its skirt like shape and the kosode became an outer garment (much sooner than it would among the nobles). A long wrap skirt, called a mobakama (note the word "mo" here), would have been worn by retainers to upper-class women and dates to the late Heian or Kamakura period. The mobakama also reaches to the edge of the kosode. The colors and fabric also indicate a person with a patron who could spend money to dress their servants so nicely[2].
For women with no connections to the aristocrats, we have the shipira which is shorter than the kosode, coming to about mid calf, and is nearly the same color. Note that while this garment is called a shipira, the character used is the same for that of mo. While not quite a peasant, this woman is most likely a member of the artist or merchant class. Her wrap skirt is shorter and less full than the mobakama but as a commoner with no connections to the aristocracy (nor, like the Nara woman, an actress or person involved in a ritual), it makes sense her outfit might be a bit plainer[3]. On the other hand, the shipira, with its shorter length, could merely be an apron, with only the most fleeing of relation to the earlier mo (and thus I am making much ado about nothing!). By the Kamakura, the commoners have abandoned the longer wrap skirt for a sort of hip wrap (yumaki) or wide sash. The aristocrats as well would also bid farewell to their mo as the power fell into the hands of the samurai and their more austere ways of dress. The mo would remain as a garment of extreme formality for court women and slowly fade away, only to be brought back on occasion for ceremonial use.
Retainer:
Commoner:
[1]I'm pretty sure she's a commoner since the translation I was able to hash out mentions a farming village. However, the exact details are a little hazy. Feel free to correct me on this one.
[2] Examples:
www.fashion-kyoto.or.jp/orikyo/maturi/index05.html
www.iz2.or.jp/mushinotare/shopping2.html
[3] From my experiments, the mobakama also uses much more fabric- the pleats are smaller and closer together, compared with the shipira's wide, boxy pleats.
All photographs courtesy of the Japanese Costume Museum.
