Hakama
The hakama ( Jap. 袴 ) is a kind of pleated culottes with wide-cut legs, the body covered approximately from the waist down. It is part of traditional Japanese outerwear.
Appearance
The Hakama consists of a front and a back. The Hakama is divided into these by a tapering cutout ( 脇 明 き , waki-aki ) on the sides. A Hakama has vertical folds ( 襞 , hida or 襞 目 , hidame ) both in front and behind . It is tied to the hip with long straps ( 袴 帯 , hakama-obi , or 紐 , himo ). The trapezoidal part ( 腰板 , koshi-ita ) on the lower back is particularly reinforced.
There are basically two types of hakama: Either a hakama is a long skirt or it has two tubular "pant legs" (gusset, Japanese 襠 , machi ) in the lower part . This second type umanori-bakama ( 馬 乗 袴 , dt. “Reithakama”) or machidaka-bakama ( 襠 高 袴 , dt. “Hochzwickelhakama”) was originally developed for mounted samurai and is now the more common variant.
The "trouser legs" can be very narrow, such as B. with yama-bakama ( 山 袴 , Eng. "Berghakama"), or extraordinarily loose and wide, as with machidaka-bakama . There are also hakama, such as B. the andon-bakama ( 行 灯 袴 , dt. "Lamp hakama") do not have separate "trouser legs", but are shaped like a skirt.
Hakama are available in different colors: indigo blue , black, gray (also with fine stripes) and white. In the martial arts, white is mainly worn by the sensei or women; the rest of the hakama wearers wear the typical Japanese indigo blue; black is just a variant. The gray or striped hakama is almost only worn on ceremonial occasions (wedding, tea ceremony , etc.) and the scarlet hakama is worn by a miko .
etymology
The word hakama can already be found in the first two Japanese imperial chronicles from the 8th century, the Kojiki and the Nihongi . There are a number of different theories about the etymology of the term. In the spelling 帯 裳 (reading: hakimo ), which consists of the two characters “belt, gürten” and “dress, skirt”, the term refers to a piece of clothing that is worn from the hip down and attached to the hip with straps becomes. However, the most common interpretation today is that the original meaning of the word is expressed by the spelling 穿 裳 (reading: hakimo ). The character “dress, skirt” is preceded by a symbol, the meaning of which as a verb expresses putting on shoes or trousers. The common spelling for Hakama today is 袴 .
history
Today, a version of the yama-bakama from Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu known as tachiage is considered to be the most primitive Hakama form. It consists of two separate leggings that are fastened with straps.
When in Japan during the Nara period (710–784) the Chinese culture of the Tang dynasty (618–906) became the great model, a type of white hakama became a mandatory, fixed component of ceremonial, court and official clothing . It was also used for riding and dancing.
With the beginning of a cultural flowering since the Heian period (794–1185), the Hakama became more and more an important part of male clothing. The overall style of clothing became more differentiated and detailed ideas about what type of hakama should be worn with which type of clothing developed. When the forerunner of today's kimono, the so-called kosode, became common clothing in the middle of the 16th century, significant developments also took place in men's hakama. So developed z. B. the "hip board" ( koshi-ita ), the special shape of the folds and the width of the hem. Form, material, function and the way of putting on the hakama were also subject to various changes in the period that followed.
During the Edo period , the hakama was used as leg protection for mounted samurai against bushes and undergrowth. Until World War II , it was perfectly normal to meet men in public in Hakama and Haori . After that, more and more Japanese people chose western clothing for everyday life. Nowadays the hakama is almost exclusively worn as formal clothing for ceremonies and shrine visits, in traditional Japanese dance and by artists (mostly without dividing legs) as well as in various martial arts and the Japanese tea ceremony (with dividing legs).
However, the hakama was not just a garment for men. Already in the Heian period, ladies-in-waiting wore a hakama, usually red, with their multi- layered robe ( jūnihitoe ). Later, however, this piece of clothing hardly played a role in female fashion and only reappeared with the onset of modernism. With the introduction of a modern education and school system, in which girls and women were now also taken into account, the Hakama played an important role as part of the school uniform during the Meiji and the subsequent Taisho period (1868–1912). The school hakamas were typically red-brown, green or purple and without gussets as andon-bakama , worked like a skirt. However, with the rapid spread of western fashion in Japan, the hakama disappeared from the streets relatively quickly. As a formal dress, the hakama is played by women today. a. still plays a role in university graduation ceremonies, where many graduates still appear in Furisode kimono hakama.
At weddings and other formal occasions where Japanese clothing is still worn today, men usually appear in kimono , hakama and haori (an overcoat) and women in leg-length kimono.
Budo
In Budō ( Kendō , Aikidō , Iaidō, etc.) and related forms of movement such as Kinomichi , Hakama made of cotton or synthetic fabric ( Dacron ) are worn; Cotton is more robust but wrinkles more easily. The associated clothing of the upper body is called Keiko-Gi .
On the one hand, the item of clothing is intended to improve posture by wrapping it firmly around the middle of the body. The seven folds of the Hakama common in Budō - five in front, two in the back - are supposed to be associated with the seven virtues of the samurai:
- Jin ( 仁 ) - goodness
- Gi ( 義 ) - justice / the right decision
- Rei ( 礼 ) - courtesy / etiquette
- Chi ( 智 ) - wisdom / intelligence
- Shin ( 信 ) - sincerity
- Chūgi ( 忠義 ) - loyalty
- Meiyo ( 名誉 ) - honor / respect
However, this is also seen as an invention of the modern age. The folds in Hakamas were probably developed for military purposes during the Edo or Meiji period and often had 4 folds on the right and 3 on the left. This should serve to give the right leg a little more freedom of movement due to the additional fold of fabric, which provides a slight but vital advantage when getting up from the Seiza position (on your knees) and drawing your sword in an emergency.
literature
- Keitarō Miyamoto: Kaburimono, kimono, hakimono . Iwazaki Bijutsu-sha, Tōkyō 1968
- Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan . Vol. 1-8, Kodansha, Tōkyō 1983
- Yoshihiko Sasama: Nihonrekishi-zuroku . Iwanami Shoten, Tōkyō 1992
- Dave Lowry In the Dojo: A Guide to the Rituals and Etiquette of the Japanese Martial Arts Massachusetts 2006
