the ingenious costumers sew layers of edges along the underneath border of the top garments, thereby creating the effect of many robes worn one over another.
The many-layered effect is also used in a most fanciful voluminous costume for the onnagata—the female impersonator also known as oyama (a less polite term which in the past had some implication of prostitution)—in the role of an of ran, the renowned courtesan of Edo days. In appearing as an of ran, the onnagata never wears more than two uchikake, the elaborate outer robe originally worn for formal occasions by well-born women, yet it appears that he could peel off several of these ornately brocaded robes with large rolled and wadded hems and long, trailing sleeves. Again the costumers have deceived the playgoers by their ingenuity.
With relation to sleeves, it should be noted here that "long" or "short,""wide" or "narrow" refers not to the length of the sleeve as measured against the outstretched arm's length but to the length as it falls along the sideseam of the kimono (from shoulder to hem). The conventional kimono sleeve is terminated at the wristbone, which it should normally touch. Certain theatrical roles call for outsized sleeves—sometimes double the width of the material—so that the hands are completely lost in their volume. These garments and their accompanying pieces usually go to extremes. By trailing along the floor, they give the wearer the comic (or terrifying) appearance of an awkward giant.
Unlike Kabuki, the Nō employs certain types of costumes which possibly may have been based on the classic dress of the Heian and Kamakura periods (794—1392). These generally are called hirosode-mono or ō-sode-mono, the extra wide-open or big-sleeve apparel. Belonging in this class are the kariginu, the nōshi, and the chōken. The kariginu (kari, hunting; kinu— ginu in compounds—clothes), a brilliant brocaded outer robe worn in male roles, was used by court nobles in real life as a sporty outdoor dress in the Heian age. After the Kamakura period it became a ceremonial costume among the warrior classes. The nōshi was the court gentleman's long silk coat. The chōken, an outer robe made of woven silk gauze, is used in both male and female roles that call for a somewhat long and important dance part in the drama, since the large and light long sleeves work effectively for dancing.
Among male costumes of the No, the foremost in elegance is exemplified by the nōshi and, next to it, the kariginu. There is another costume in this category: the maiginu, a robe which is a substitute for the chōken, made of the same material but somewhat shorter and used in mai (dance numbers) by actors portraying women, but never for men's roles.
The happi (short coat), worn for men's roles only, comes to just above knee length and has tucked-up sleeves. It represents or symbolizes armor. The character Tomomori wears such a coat in Funa Benkei (Benkei in the Boat). The mizugoromo, an unlined topcoat, not necessarily elegant, was used by priests, yurei (ghosts), and sometimes by common people as a simple outer garment. In reality, since the happi did not exist during the Heian period, it was in all probability devised by the costumers as apparel for the Nō stage.
There are two kinds of happi and kariginu used in the No: for robust characters the costumes are made of elegant gold brocade with lining, and those for refined characters are sewn with exquisite patterns brocaded on gauze without lining, representing the ultimate in splendor, next only to the nōshi. The unlined kariginu is known as hitoe-kariginu, the lined as awase-kariginu.
The kosode-mono, or tsume-sode-mono, are little-sleeve or narrowly-opened-sleeve garments, including the following: the karaori, the sumptuous brocaded outer robe worn mostly by upper-class women, sometimes by their attendants, and rarely by aristocratic young boys; the atsuita, a kind of kitsuke (kimono; see below) for men's roles only, resembling the karaori but having a more masculine or a checkered pattern; the nuihaku, a kimono imprinted with gold or silver leaf and patterned with embroidery, worn only for women's roles; and the surihaku, a kind of kitsuke (kimono) of satin, seigo, or other silk with imprint patterns of gold or silver leaf and no other embellishment. (Seigo is a warp-rib-weave taffeta, the weft threads being thicker than the raw-silk threads of the warp.) These costumes are based on the dress of Muromachi times (1392-1573), when the Nō first appeared on the boards.
The above-mentioned kitsuke is a difficult word to explain. It derives from the verbs kiru (to wear) and tsukeru (to attach), and the meaning is "to attach to the body with an obi."The difference between the regular kimono and the kitsuke lies in the manner of wearing the garment. The kitsuke is the top kimono, over which the obi is tied, but it is called kitsuke usually when a coat or an outer robe is worn over it, sometimes almost concealing it. The term is used in connection with both women's and men's apparel.
The karaori, listed first in the above categories of small-sleeved garments, deserves somewhat more detailed attention. It is of two types. The first, for young women, is called iro-iri (iro, color; iri, containing or put in), meaning that the colors include red. The second, for older persons, is called iro-nashi (iro, color; nashi, without), meaning that red is not among its colors. Karaori is a word employed originally, and still used, for a particular kind of material imported from China—as Alan Priest describes it in Japanese Costume, a "silk (usually twill) brocaded with colored silk floss in large 'float' patterns resembling embroidery, and usually with a separate pattern brocaded in gilt-paper strips."Because elegant robes were made from this material, the robes were also called karaori.
The original outline of the kimono was taken from the kosode, a short-sleeve undergarment worn next to the skin by people of the middle and higher classes before the Kamakura period (1185-1333). Kosode originally meant a short-sleeved or narrowly-opened-sleeved kimono contrasting with the hirosode, the kimono with large and widely opened sleeves. In the Edo period (1603-1868), kosode referred to the lined and wadded silk kimono with short sleeves worn during three seasons, excluding summer. The same type of kimono without lining was called a hitoe or plain kimono, and the hitoe, when made of hemp or ramie cloth, was called a katabira. These were summer garments. The kimono as we know it today became widely used as an outer garment for men and women from late Muromachi (1392-1573) or early Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1603).
It is regrettable that Edo Kabuki costumes have not survived the years. Many exquisite Nō costumes of the Momoyama and Edo periods exist in private or public collections, since the No, as the formal theater of the noble and military classes, was well protected by the shōgun (military ruler) and the daimyō (feudal lords), and its refined hand-woven costumes were preserved by aristocratic collectors or by Nō masters. Kabuki costumes, made for the moment, were kept in the theater warehouses or by the actors themselves, eventually to be worn out by repeated use. We cannot, therefore, rely on any actual costumes for the study of the old Kabuki costumes. All of our information comes secondhand and somewhat sketchily from old books, from ukiyo-e or woodblock prints (in which we must allow for some poetic license as to color and design), from costumes made after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, and from word-of-mouth reports handed down from generation to generation within the Kabuki world.
The Theater Museum of Waseda University in Tokyo has the largest Kabuki library in existence, but none of its collection embraces antique Kabuki costumes. Its oldest authoritative information covers costumes worn by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX during the latter part of Meiji (1868-1912). Interestingly enough, what are probably the oldest known remaining costumes—all in excellent condition—are those used by a Kabuki actress, Bandō Mitsue, who died in early Meiji, and are the property of the Tokyo National Museum. It should be explained here that in past generations only the okyōgen-shi or women's Kabuki troupe was permitted to perform Kabuki in the oku-goten, the innermost palace of a feudal lord's establish-merit and the precinct in which the wives and daughters of daimyō lived. Although Kabuki actresses were the only ones to perform in the oku-goten, they were never permitted to appear in their dramatic roles on the traditional Kabuki stage.
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