官公庁や宮廷に義務づけられた洋服は、明治時代、階級平等の政策として推進されました。Mandatory for government offices and the court, Western fashion (yōfuku) was promoted during the Meiji era as a policy to enforce class equality. It may remain unclear why Western dress was necessary in the first place, but acceptance was not unanimous. In the early years of the opening, Wafuku (traditional Japanese clothes) were still compulsory for women and survived in the form of ceremonial costumes for Shinto priests and in cultural events preserving the culture of the nobility. It can be said that fukusei was a critical component of Japan’s nation-building. It is still interesting to see how the Japanese have come to identify the occasions on which they ‘dress up’ in yōfuku or wafuku, with influences right up to the present day.

Further read: Yoshinori Osakabe, Dressing Up During the Meiji Restoration: A Perspective on Fukusei (Clothing Reform), 2018, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham