Clothing was originally referred to as hifuku (被 服) or ifuku (衣 服). The term fukusō (服装) first appeared in a military ordinance in 1874 when the cultural distinction between the Western yo and the Japanese wa was created. Things Western, including clothing, referred to as “yō no fuku” (Western clothes), were seen as symbols of “civilized and enlightened” cultures, and therefore symbols of modernization.
Already in 1873 Female factory workers were required to start wearing Western-style uniforms with hakama. When in the same year the Ministry of Education ordered students to wear Western-style uniforms in public colleges and universities. Boys would start to dress in gakuran 学ラン , which was based on a kind of outerwear worn by the German military. The female students jogakusei, began around 1880 to wear functional hakama which would usually be worn by men, and Western shoes. 1920 school girls first began to wear sera fuku セ-ラ-服 , inspired by the British Royal Navy uniform.
Coats and jackets existed previous to Western influences, but with new imported textiles, the number of varieties increased greatly. There were new coats known as tombi, sleeveless cloaks with an attached cape, to be worn over the kimono sleeves; niuimawashi; and azumakoto, all made of wool. By the 1880s, women started wearing azuma coats, and the erimaki, a scarf worn over the kimono became popular. Men particularly adopted the white silk crepe erimaki, which was looped around the neck many times.
Around 1880, young political activists outside the government called sōshi organized to oppose the established elite, namely gentlemen in high collars haikara ハイカラand Western suits. They defined themselves as bankara, which combined the kanji for “barbarian” ban, 蛮 and the phonetics for the foreign word “collar” kara, カラ. They wore their hair long, wild, and purposefully unkempt. They commonly wore torn kimono with their sleeves tucked in, long hair, and geta with thick hanao as an anti-fashion statement. Carrying clubs as marker of their virility they defied the materialistic culture of the West, and viewed the government’s actions as shameful.
01 Artwork: 1935 – photography from a private photo album.
Two stylish Japanese men in Yokohama. One is wearing a kimono and fedora hat, the other a wool coat and a newsboy hat.
02 Artist: Keishū Takeuchi (1861-1943) Artwork: 1897 – cover of the book Konjiki Yasha (The Golden Demon). A novel by Kōyō Ozaki (1869-1903), about the social costs of modernisation, when the power of money overcomes human affection and social responsibility. It was one of the bestselling works of literature during the Meiji period.
03 Artist: Bannai Seiarashi (1881-1936) Artwork: 1934 – School uniform since 1932.
04 Artwork: ca. 1910 – postcard of schoolgirl
05 Artwork: Photography of Bankara high school students in Kumamoto, 1929
06 Artist: Honda Kinkichiro (1851-1921) Artwork: 1879 – caricature Monkey Show. All the monkeys dressed in European style, and in every respect trying to ape Foreigners.