Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: When we consider the birth, life and death, namely, the course of the life of Japan's emperors, who hold an important position in the nation's history, we find that it conforms to the following chronology. Born as the son of the emperor he is first an imperial prince, is then chosen to be the Crown Prince, and then succeeds his father to the imperial throne. Upon retiring from his role as emperor he assumes a Buddhist role and awaits his death. Because the dress an emperor wears is quite different for each of these stages, we can identify each particular stage of his life from his dress. The most marked differences are found between the emperor, retired emperor and Buddhist stages, which are due to the unique features of the dress worn by a serving emperor. The aim of this paper is to look at this relationship between an emperor's life and dress. One important point when considering the relationship between an emperor and his dress is headwear. While there are two types of headwear, a crown (kanmuri) and a type of formal headwear (eboshi), which are worn depending on the type of dress, an emperor wears only a crown. Although there are various types of dress worn by noblemen, the only two types of dress worn with a crown by the emperor are known as “sokutai” and “kanmuri noushi”. “Sokutai” refers to formal dress worn by all males, including the emperor, and the type worn is strictly defined according to rank. There are colors and patterns for the collars of the top dress that can be worn only by the emperor, thus distinguishing him from others. The emperor also wears the “kanmuri noushi” in a unique way known as “o-hiki noushi”, which also clearly distinguishes him from others. This paper provides details of these “sokutai” and “o-hiki noushi” worn by the emperor, and also shows that it is possible to distinguish an emperor from a retired emperor in illustrations due to the type of dress worn.
DOI: 10.15024/00001548
Authors: 近藤, 好和, Kondo, Yoshikazu
Language: Japanese
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7144054071