Please Help! Persona, Court Rank and associated shenanigans

[Hakuga]

Dear All,

I plan to attend a formal Baronial event in mid-July. This would necessitate the making of new clothes, namely a hogo/hoko or ikan ensemble. However, as both ensembles have robe colours that varied with court rank in period, I am a bit at loss as to what I should do. My persona is a first generation Minamoto in mid-900's, but I am:

a) Under 20 years of age. 
b) very new (as in less than 3 months) to the SCA.

What colour (and corresponding Court Rank) should I choose for my robe, if any? Am I thinking too much?


Thanks in Advance

Hideaki

[Saionji Shonagon]

You don't have an AoA, however, general SCA practice is that we are all ladies and gentlemen. In your place, I would go with 8th rank. If you're thinking THIS much this soon, the AoA will happen sooner or later.

Koki-hanada (dark flower field) is a nice deep blue. Should look great!

www.sengokudaimyo.com/garb/garb.chart_ho_colors.html

[Yamanouchi Eidou]

Also make sure that the pants are a different color than the ho.

[Please Delete]

The Hoko or Hogo Sugata and the Ikan Sugata are usually for higher ranking individuals, anyway--but nobody in the SCA will really care about that if you can pull it off, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I recommend black for most hoeki-no-ho. It will be good throughout most of your SCA career and you won't need to make another.

That said, most "formal" SCA occasions are more like very fancy banquets. As such, a hoi, kariginu, or noshi is often more appropriate AND has the benefit of not really tying your outfit to a particular rank.


Does that help at all?


-Ii

[Hakuga]

Il-dono, Saionji-dono and Yamamouchi-dono, thank you so much! After a bit of planning, I've decided on the kannoushi sugata as my outfit for this occasion. However, are there any specific irome no kasane-like conventions of seasonal colouring & pattern combinations I should be aware of? For example. would someone in a suo-coloured noushi and dark green sashinuki be considered badly dressed in midwinter?

Hideaki

[Please Delete]

That combination sounds fine. Seasonal combinations appear to have been used for noushi, but I don't know of any hard and fast rules. Also, we only know the combinations that were written down, so there were likely other fashions that came and went, so don't get too hung up on it if there is something you really like and seems to fit with the general aesthetic (though using the color combinations are generally "safe"). Finally, most people in the SCA (heck, most people here, I'd wager) won't recognize unseasonal colors on sight, so you're probably fine.

That said:

www.iz2.or.jp/fukushoku/f_disp.php?page_no=0000034

Take a look at the noushi in the link. That is an example where the lining is mostly blue, with a semi-opaque white outer layer. If you want a neat way to do the color combinations for a winter noushi, give this a thought. Everywhere that is fully white is because the lining in that part is white. Everywhere else, the outer layer is white while the inner layer is light blue. I tried this one, once, and while there were some construction issues (my first noushi) it came out pretty well, and I'd recommend similar techniques to others.


-Ii