The Heian Noble Lady's Robe: the Founding Design for Most Outer
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The Heian Noble Lady’s Robe: The Founding Design for Most Outer Robes Researched and written by: JahanAra bint al-Yehya amat al-Hafeeze al-Shyka (Baroness) (Copyright 2017, Galen S. Scott, Galen Skye) (Mistress Kasha’s Vigil, Kasana no Irome: Plums in early spring; Photo: Wendy Gouine) This paper uses the APA style format. Appendices Appendix A: Mentions of the robes in Primary Resources Appendix B: Important Clothing Terms Appendix C: Primary Sources: Literature of the Heian Era Appendix D: Periods of Japanese History Appendix E: Paintings and Reproductions throughout the ages of Heian Culture Introduction Mono no aware- Beauty is precious because it is brief. Mono no aware is a phrase coined in the 19th century by Motoori Norinaga. It became the edification of the ideal that was the basis for aesthetics of the Heian Era in Japan (794-1192) (Hooker, 1999). The term aware during the Heian era represented ‘sensitivity to things’ ranging from beauty to sadness, life, love or death. While this article is about the clothing, it is very important to understand the cultural climate of Japan at the time in order to truly appreciate the thought and presentation behind the costume. Japan first began to develop its own personalized identity specifically in regard to the cultural arts and dress during the Heian imperial court in the ninth to eleventh centuries. Prior to this period, the Japanese observed Chinese customs and cultural nuances. This desire to break away from China brought forth a wide variety of extravagant expressions of self, Court lady's everyday wear for summer at especially in clothing and accessories. Insei period (heat of the summer) in latter part of Heian era. (Costume Museum, 2009) Colors for robes worn by the noble women of the time came to be combined into discreetly named Two unlined robes (hitoe, kinu), Pants combinations known as kasane no irome. This (nagabakama ), and undershirt (kosode) refers to the sensitive layering of colors of Heian clothing. The ideal developed into a full and subtle bloom over the course of 300 years. Very little in the emerging style was Chinese. As an actual mode of dress, kasane fashion passed away with courtly society, but its influence on kimono style has had echoes down even to present day (Dalby, 2001). This step away from the more Chinese style of dress helped create a huge shift in cultural identity The names of the layered colors are woven throughout Heian culture not only in the clothing but also in poetry and literature—serving to pull together nature, season, person and incident into a poetic whole. In order to understand relationship between these cultural phenomena of poetry, perception of beauty, colors, the flora and fauna of the environment and the clothing of the time, one needs to understand the sources available. One of the incredible things about the Heian era is the availability of primary sources (See Appendix B for detailed list) that we have access to for study, including diaries, novels, and letters. Women in the Heian era were prolific in writing diaries and in fact several of them also published works of fiction and poetry (for example, see Shikibu, 2001). The diaries, or Nikki as they were called, provide us with an inside look to the culture of Heian Japan (for examples, see Sei, 1991; Shikibu Pine Tree colors – color combination worn et. al, 2003; and Arntzen, 1997). all year round as Evergreens change very little. (Photo taken by K. Griffin, 2008) Fujinami’s Kasane no Irome The robe I have presented to you today is part of a full outfit for Fujinami no Kaede. ‘Kaede’ is Japanese for Maple, and the Kasane no Iromo (layer of colors) that Kaede chose to emulate for her first set of robes is inspired by a variation of ‘Downy Maples’ from the wardrobe of Empress Tashi (see figure to the Japanese Maple Tree in left). However, she wanted a deeper color Garden, R Downy Maples scheme, so we have added a maroon color, (Better Homes & Gardens, 2016) often seen with sumac maples to create an ‘autumn leaves’ look. It was tradition to create your own kasane no irome and those who Kasane no Irome: Downy achieve it well, were talked about much at court Maples during the Heian era (Dalby, 2001; Morris (K. Griffin, 2001, Kyoto 1994). Costume Museum) The Constructing of the Robe There are no extant garments from the Heian era. What we do have is the prolific literature written of the era describing the clothing and how it was worn, a small number of extant scrolls (Left, see Appendix F for more) and fans depicting the women in their robes and over 1200 years of tradition handed down from generation to generation as these robes were worn at court for high formal occasions throughout the entire 800 plus years since the end of the Heian era. We also know that the fabric loom width ranged between 12 and 14 inches wide (Harvey, 2001). In order to conserve precious embroidered and dyed fabric and be able to adjust for size, garments made during this time were sewn with a basting stitch and any seam allowance was not trimmed (Minnich, 1963; Dalby, 2001; Munsterberg, 1996). This Detail of 11th Century illustrated allowed them to let out the seams if needed to fit another manuscript page of The Tale of Genji, body. It also allowed them to take the robes apart easily by Murasaki Shikibu the few times each garment might have been washed. The Japan, Public Domain, 2017 cut of the various layers is fairly simple; each robe is constructed out of rectangles (Costume Museum, 20011). In order for you to see the construction of this robe, I have left it unlined. Depending upon the time of year you would wear a combination of lined and unlined robes. Due to the fact that the panels had to be cut, there is some fraying and a few finishing techniques used (hemming, melting the edges, etc.) in order to keep the garment intact while sewing it. Were this robe lined, the hemline would have only one turn as the lining would protect it. The basting of both the collar and the excess panel of the gore would have had more space between stitches about a 1 ¼” long. To cut or not to cut Prior to the age of dry-cleaning, kimonos (and their predecessors, kosodes, hitoes, and kinu) were made from a single bolt of fabric, woven for the purpose of becoming a robe. To clean them you took them apart and washed the panels individually. This allowed you to cut the fabric only a few times along the edges (Dalby, 2001; Minnich, 1963; Costume Museum, 2011; Munsterberg, 1996). You could then stop the fraying by hemming, or applying a resin to it. After you had them cleaned, they were basted back together. While this started during the Nara era (710 – 794), it continued even into the time of the Geisha (Golden, 1997) Several years ago, I was given the opportunity to examine a kimono owned by one of my father’s graduate students from Japan. She showed me that her hand basted kimono had a fold for the gore instead of a cut. That has stuck with me for many years and when I started working on this project of creating my own pattern for the Heian robes, that memory came back to me and helped me understand how the Heian robes might have been put together. The entire robe presented to you has been made entirely of rectangles of 16” wide fabric. The Patterning Important notes on Pattern The most important discoveries made during the experimentation aspect of creating a pattern for these robes when you are using rectangles for all of the panels is the importance of the consistent width of those rectangles throughout the garment, the stitches used, how the seams looked, and where the seams fit. With Japanese, the numbers are somewhat ambiguous and thus patterns are limited in availability. For the hitoe or kinu (the main visible robes) even in our current modern era (take a look at the modern kimono) the design is based on the width of the fabric selvage to selvage. During the Heian Era (794-1192) the looms produced fabric in the range of 12” to 14” although they did produce 16” to 18” for specialty fabrics (Minnich, 1963). Working with 16” wide fabric (Kaede’s wingspan needed slightly more fabric than 14” wide would have provided.) So, to make a pattern you choose the width of fabric needed, • Measure your model’s length from shoulder point to floor and double it (there is no shoulder seam in the body panel. You only cut when you have to.) • Figure out how long you want the sleeves and collar. • Decide if that same width will work for the sleeves. • As the robes are supposed to be long and trail past your feet, you also need to decide how long you want that training to be. Two feet past your heels is ideal, but can get expensive. The longer everything is, the more wealth you show, and often the higher station you have. As we move far more in the SCA than Heian women did, most of our robes do not trail much. This is due to the cost of the materials needed as well. You then cut the following: 2 Body Panels (Migoro), 2 sleeves (sode), 1 collar (eri), 2 gore panels (Okumi) (Remember the gores are rectangles that you fold). These go together to create the basic pattern on the right.