Costuming ideas from the Samurai Trilogy

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Does anybody know about the research that went into these films? (Classic trilogy featuring Toshiro Mifune as Miyamoto Musashi.)

I'm rewatching them, and I've noticed a lot of cool costuming that has me scratching my head.

For instance, a lot of non-kamishimo kataginu among middle and higer rank buke. Or maybe sleeveless dobuku. Anyway, I'm seeing a lot more variety of pattern and color in how the buke men's outfits are put together. Most examples of full mens outfits I see online are more spartan, (excepting, of course, some of the more luxurious Hitatare sugata).

Is it just that the clothing designers for these films opted more for dobuku sugata, and SCA buke prefer kamishimo?

Also there are a lot of (what seems to my inexperienced eyes) great repeating patterns seen in garments in these films cutting across social classes. Is it safe to assume that most of these graphics would be safe to use as inspiration for stenciling?

This shot of Mifune's Musashi near the end of the first film illustrates all of these observations/questions:

[Saionji Shonagon]

I confess I do not know anything about who the costume designer was. That said, you can find some fairly colorful examples of clothing in genre paintings from the 16th and 17th century. www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157603177707014/ includes some detail shots I took of a screen in the Asian Art Museum collection. "Palace and Horse Race at Kamo Shrine" c. 1615-1650, early Edo period, Brundage Collection, so it's slightly out of our period, but still worth a look.

www.tnm.jp/modules/r_collection/index.php?controller=dtl&colid=A11090&t=type_s&id=11 is worth rolling through for old time's sake, particularly the scenes of games.

Lastly, this is me with my Princess last year, rockin' a bit of plaid and shibori. The dobuku was made from an old African indigo caftan I scored at a flea market: www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/14668832406/

I suspect what we see in the SCA could be the product of people going with the safety of solid colored fabrics. At the other end of the spectrum are folks who chose modern Asian cottons, which unfortunately don't always look anything like period fabrics.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2014 11:35:35 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

I confess I do not know anything about who the costume designer was.

Hmm. Now that would be a book worth having, a history of the Toho Costume Company Limited including many detailed photos of some of its most famous costumes (inlcuding the rubber monster suits).

[Saionji Shonagon]

IMDB doesn't even list the costume designer. ;(

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Yes, cursory googling has turned up zilch.

Will have to rewatch with a hair trigger on the screen capture. So many designs which would lend themselves to stenciling. Fairly easy to cut, and large enough that you could do a whole garment fairly quickly.





Most likely the next couple weeks will be spent sewing, don't know how much painting I'll get to do.
Going to be reassessing sewing plans tonight. I had been thinking I needed several kamishimo hitatare and kataginu, these being kind of the required clothing for a sasmurai in public. Making a couple sleeveless dobuku (was already planning on a sleeved version for a warmer evening layer) would free up some wardrobe choices.

Sigh, so much to do in the next couple weeks, a lot will have to be completed to "good enough" standards rather than challenging my artistic inclinations.

[Deleted]

Jul 20, 2014 15:23:49 GMT -5 Mega Zenjirou Yoshi said:

Will have to rewatch with a hair trigger on the screen capture. So many designs which would lend themselves to stenciling. Fairly easy to cut, and large enough that you could do a whole garment fairly quickly.

Well, unless I miss my guess, a lot of that stuff is actually resist-dyed. It's a bit more difficult to learn, but it's a lot less work to dye a repeating pattern than to stencil one.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Jul 20, 2014 15:43:50 GMT -5 @ishiyama said:

Well, unless I miss my guess, a lot of that stuff is actually resist-dyed. It's a bit more difficult to learn, but it's a lot less work to dye a repeating pattern than to stencil one.

You still have to apply the resist. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

For the time being I will be stenciling.

I'd like to get around to resist dying eventually, but think that shibori will come before that. I've got the itch to try some shibori, don't know why, I just follow my obsessions where they lead me.