style="font-size:15px;"> (b). Samurai in kami-shimo.
Rank was also reflected in clothes. For ceremonial occasions and when on duty, the samurai wore clothes as shown in figure 14b. The formal part of his attire is the kami-shimo, the combination of “upper and lower,” that is, an over-jacket (kataginu) with stiffened shoulders and trousers (hakama), more like a divided skirt; the trousers had a very low crotch, and openings at the sides, and were held in place by two sets of ties on the front and rear parts, fastening round the waist. On ordinary occasions for samurai of all ranks, and for lower-ranking ones at all times, these trousers finished at a little above ground-level, but for superior ranking warriors at special ceremonies, very long trousers were worn; these trailed on the floor and the feet were entirely enclosed within them (14a). The wearing of these nagabakama required special skill; any change of direction had to be accompanied by sharp movements of the feet to bring the trailing portion behind the wearer, otherwise there was danger of tripping; he must also grip each leg of the trousers, pulling it up at every step to give his leg room for movement. It was possible to run in them, but this required extremely good coordination between hand and leg. Obviously this was an impracticable garment, although an imposing one; its use was a status symbol, demonstrating that its wearer had the leisure to learn to manage it, but it is also said that the rulers ordered it to be worn because it would impede anyone if he tried to make a violent attack. They were not normally worn out of doors.
Beneath the kami-shimo, the ordinary kimono was worn, with a girdle behind which the straps of the shoulder garment were inserted, and underneath that a white undergarment which showed at the neck. The swords in their scabbards were held by this girdle. The costume was completed by white tabi—socks with a padded sole and a division between the big toe and the smaller ones to allow for the thong of the footwear, when that was worn. The Shogun himself, and daimyō when not in attendance upon him, did not wear kami-shimo, but had luxurious garments of the normal kimono shape. For the rare, very grandest ceremonies, the Shogun and his entourage wore Imperial court costume, with a hat indicative of rank (13).
When on official journeys, mounted samurai wore the trousers, with a three-quarter-length kimono-shaped coat (haori) instead of the shoulder-jacket; this was held together by a tie at chest-level. A flat round hat, slightly conical, for protection against sun and rain was also standard wear. The men on foot wore a sort of breeches, drawn in at the knee, with leggings. The coat was lifted up at the back by the sword, and gave a characteristic silhouette to the samurai when he was on a journey (15).
Generally speaking, colors for samurai clothes were very sober, being mainly dullish blues, grays, and browns, either plain or with small patterns or stripes. The shoulder-jacket and kimono worn beneath it normally bore the wearer’s family crest, his mon (14). Trousers were lined for winter wear, unlined for summer wear, the dates for the change being fixed at the fifth day of the fifth month and the first day of the ninth month. Off-duty dress was the kimono without jacket or trousers. A samurai going to town for pleasure would often hide his face by wearing some sort of deep hat, often a rather comical basket-like affair, in order not to be recognized, for he might well be disobeying the rules of the establishment in which he resided.
Another characteristic feature was the arrangement of the hair. The top of the head was shaved, with the hair at the back and sides gathered together into a queue, oiled, and then doubled forward over the crown, being tied where it was doubled over. The bunch of hair was trimmed off very neatly into a cleanly cut end. It was very important for the samurai not to have a hair out of place, and it was most embarrassing for him to have the tie become undone or cut in a sword-fight; it was even worse if the whole queue was cut off. If he was ill, he would leave the crown unshaven, and the hair would grow into a bushy mass, but he would not appear in public like this.
(15) Samuari on journey.
The greater proportion of the duties of a samurai were concerned with the administration of the domain to which he was attached, or, if he was part of the central organization at Edo, with the governance of Edo itself, or of the country as a whole. The duties would vary from low-grade ones like standing guard at the castle gates to being senior councilor to a daimyō. If his income was derived from an actual holding of land, he would also occupy himself with this. In addition to his ordinary duties, there would of course be a certain amount of obligatory ceremonial attendance. Since, therefore, most of the functions of the senior samurai were performed inside the castle or the government office, they might not be often seen by people of other classes, unless they were on a journey, or functioned as magistrates.
The daimyō in most cases had to make a periodical stay of one year every other year, in Edo. When they were on the road, they and their attendants formed a considerable spectacle: not that the populace stood and watched them go by, for the leaders of the procession shouted “Down! Down!” and all had to prostrate themselves until the column had passed. An incident right at the end of the Tokugawa period, in 1861, when the first breaches in the seclusion of Japan had been made, illustrates the respect that was thought due on such occasions. The daimyō of Satsuma was returning to his domain, and when he and his retinue were nearing Yokohama, where there was already a settlement of foreign merchants, four British subjects tried to ride through the procession. The samurai drew their swords, and of the intruders one died and two were injured. This action of the foreigners showed what might now be seen as a shocking ignorance of the customs of the country, but the spirit of the times is indicated by the fact that the town of Kagoshima was bombarded as a reprisal, and eventually a large indemnity was paid to Britain. There were occasions when a procession might run into a different kind of trouble, especially in Kyoto: this was because a daimyō might be inferior in rank to an aristocrat from the Imperial Palace, although the latter was politically powerless. The appearance of such a personage in the vicinity of a procession would have caused no small confusion, with the daimyō having to get out of his palanquin to prostrate himself in the roadway. However, these aristocrats were in fairly impoverished circumstances and not unwilling to augment their scanty official incomes, so some were not above hinting that unless they were suitably rewarded, they might well find they had business at the critical time and place.
However, the processions normally proceeded uninterrupted, along the highways of Japan which linked Edo and the great cities and domains, the most important being the Eastern Sea Road, the Tōkaiō; it was at the time the world’s busiest highway, running between what were then two of the world’s largest cities, for it went from the Shogun’s capital to that of the Emperor, with a branch to the great shrine of Ise, and extending on to Osaka. Perhaps the greatest contrast between these highways and comparable ones in Europe was that there was no wheeled traffic on them. Carriages drawn by oxen were the perquisite of the Imperial court, and these would occasionally be seen around the streets and avenues of Kyoto. Some festivals employed wheeled carts in pageants, but such carts were ungainly vehicles with a fixed wheelbase, and drawn by crowds of men. Sometimes the transport of heavy loads, such as big stones for castle walls, would necessitate the use of wheeled wagons. None of these, however, affected the great highways, where travelers went on foot, or rode horses, or were carried in kago, palanquins like boxes suspended from a pole which the bearers bore on their shoulders. Hence no great width of roadway was required, and as there were no carts to make ruts or get stuck in them, metalling was unnecessary, for it takes extremely bad conditions to prevent men and plodding horses from getting through.
(16) Ferryboat
