|
|
News Letter
Don't miss CHUU's new items and special offers!
Subscribe!
|
|
|
|
|
|
The custom of wearing concealed beauty |
| Aug 1, 2007 |
|
|
It can be said that one of the characteristics of Japanese antiques and craftworks is the particularity about little things and the refined passion towards concealed beauty. The appreciation of these two points enables us to step forward into the deep sea of Japanese culture.
In this column, we would like to introduce the 'gaku-ura' (the picture on the inner lining of kimonos), which we believe is the ultimate form of Japanese obsession towards concealed beauty. We hope our gaku-ura collectors, people who heard this term for the first time or readers who have not been interested in kimono before will find the contents interesting and helpful for your next shopping at chuu.com.
The prohibition on sumptuous clothes and the emergence of Edo dandies
The relatively peaceful Edo period (1600-1868) under the reign of Tokugawa shogunate gave rise to a unique merchant culture centered around large cities. The well off merchants began to spend money and time on leisure and cultural pursuit, even on their everyday clothes and tools. As a natural consequence, expensive sumptuous clothes prevailed.
However, the Tokugawa shogunate feared this rising merchant power and issued an edict that prohibited the wearing of rich clothes several times during the Edo period. These edicts were very detailed. For example, highly embroidered or entirely tie-dyed kimonos were banned, and later the restriction went on to even gorgeous festival dolls and elaborate hair accessories.
It is not hard to imagine that the craftsmen who made these pieces lost a great deal, but the regulations did work in a good way in a sense that it stimulated everybody's fashion consciousness. People's interest in outwards beauty shifted to the concealed aspects, beautifying areas that could not be seen from the outside. Incidentally, it was around this time that the microcosmos of art, netsuke and inro flourished.
The pursuit of concealed beauty took place especially on men's kimonos, for men's kimonos were more conservative compared to women's kimono to begin with. Juban and haori began to gather attention as a perfect place for the secret beauties to live. Juban (night robes or under-kimonos) is not seen from the outside and the haori (kimono-jacket) lining is also veiled.
Haori were worn both inside and outside of the house, but since most formal haori were worn outside, the urbane merchants paid a lot of attention to haori's lining despite this part was concealed. Interesting and unique designs were created for the lining exploiting the best dying, weaving and embroidery techniques of the time.
Imagine a handsome man wearing a formal haori with family crest marks doing serious business talks, but his haori's inside decorated with 'shunga' (erotic) pictures; a shabby man wearing a haori with a gallant samurai picture on the lining; a huge man wearing a haori with little rabbits and puppies on the lining. Others may have worn a world map designed lining dreaming to go abroad or a treasure boat wishing for prosperity. Everybody ordered their own original haori with special thoughts or to match with the seasons.
Even after the Edo period, this custom continued throughout the Meiji and Taisho period among the upper-class dandies who had their styles. Particularly after the Meiji restoration and western culture was introduced, design motifs became even more versatile and haori art continued to flourish at least to around the 1960s.
Haura-e and Gaku-ura
On this page, you will find a fine selection of haori with beautiful linings. The pictures depicted on the lining of the body of haori is called 'haura-e', literally 'behind the haori picture', and they are either made of a special wide fabric (at least more than 18" wide) with pictures like in a frame and others that are made of a normal width kimono bolt (14"-15") hence has to be sewn up in the middle. The former type of lining is called 'gaku-ura' and is generally order made, hand-painted, dyed or embroidered on a silk fabric with beautiful pictures and colours that are difficult to reproduce in the modern days. The haori on this page all have 'gaku-ura' linings.
Since 'gaku-ura' are specially made original fabrics, in any periods it has been relatively expensive. This meant that the fabric for the haori's exterior was also carefully chosen. Even some people ordered the 'gaku-ura' first and then looked for the exterior fabric. The most popular fabric for the haori's exterior is black reeled silk (habutae) and hand span silk (tsumugi). People who have ever touched the two fabrics probably know that there is a large difference between them: habutae has a soft, smooth and relatively heavy texture and the tsumugi has a tasteful grainy texture.
The Twelve HAORI on this page
Most of the gaku-ura haori presented in this page comes from early to mid 20c and are in good conditions. Please click the photos and enjoy the details of each exquisite haori. All of them possess extremely attractive pictures that cannot be easily found elsewhere. The motifs range from Japanese traditional theatre to charming animals and legendary figures and samurai. One of the reasons why there are many haori collectors is that because haori can be worn or decorated as it used to be worn or inside-out to fully reveal the beautiful linings. You never get bored with them. Haori with unique 'gaku-ura' are our specialties and we are planning to list many more exciting haori on our site in the future. We welcome any questions about the haori in this page or other pages. Also, please feel free to email us requests about the kind of haura-e you might be looking for.
Click here to see our Men's Haori Listing
August 1, 2002
Words by Tetsuo Matsumoto
CHUU Inc. |
|
|
|
ABOUT US
