An Informal Court Costume 

Makiwara first appeared in this re-creation of a 10th century Japanese outfit at West Kingdom Twelfth Night (center photo above), January 4, 2003. A version of this article was presented as part of the West Kingdom Clothier’s Guild display and contained an invitation for readers to accost Makiwara with questions. Right, the windblown author at Outlands' Twelfth Night, January 7, 2006. Yes, that's my real hair.

In the tenth century, the Imperial Court of Heian-kyo (now the city of Kyoto) was the center of a flowering of aesthetic sensibility in poetry, music, calligraphy, decorative arts and clothing. Through a number of extant diaries by ladies in the Empress’ service and the world’s first novel, Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji, we are afforded an unusually intimate view of life at court in a Japan that pre-dates so much of what Westerners recognize as elements of traditional Japanese culture.

Court rank dictated what colors a person could wear. This system, like so many other elements of Heian culture, was borrowed from the much admired Chinese Imperial court and adapted into a uniquely Japanese version. A man’s court rank was indicated by the color of his robes. In her Pillow Book, court lady Sei Shonagon says, "Despite his low station a Chamberlain of the Sixth Rank is a splendid thing. To think that he is allowed yellowish-green robes of figured material and cloth that even young noblemen of the finest families are forbidden to wear!"1   She frequently writes of ladies dressed in “forbidden colors,” a mark of imperial favor. Certain shades of red and purple (achieved, not surprisingly, with costly and highly fugitive dyes), as well as certain weaves and patterned silks were reserved for the Empress and her favorites.

Within the strictures of rank, however, fashion sense was expressed by the layering of colored robes. Heian court ladies spent their “public” time hidden from mixed company, with only their hems and sleeves visible as they sat upon the floor behind blinds and screens. The painstaking arrangement of colored sleeves and hems was often all that might be seen of them. It's not surprising that The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book describe the efforts - and successes - of court gentlemen at sneaking a better look at certain ladies.2

The color combinations worn by court ladies were codified to reflect images from nature and the seasons. Just as it was important to be cultured enough to quote and write poetry for every occasion, a lady of quality should be able to express her taste by wearing the right colors in the right season. Sei Shonagon numbers among her list of depressing things a "red plum blossom dress in the Third or Fourth months,"3  a gaffe on the order of wearing white shoes before Easter. 

“Colors for a Court Lady’s Dress” was written in the twelfth century by Minamoto Masasuke as sort of a Cliff’s Notes to assist the young Empress Fujiwara Tashi in choosing what to wear at given seasons and events. Liza Dalby’s Kimono: Fashioning Culture devotes an extensive chapter to Masasuke’s text and Tashi's margin notes.4  Nature inspires the names and arrangement of each ensemble: many have floral associations, while the evocative description “Beneath the snow” (yuki no shita) refers to a dark green hitoe worn beneath several robes in gradations of lighter to darker pinks, with the outermost robes in white. 

This writer has attempted to re-create an outfit displayed at Kyoto’s Costume Museum as an example of informal court attire appropriate to the winter season.

As is evident from the images above, this is not the narrow kimono and wide obi that one has come to associate with traditional national costume of Japan. From the skin out, we see the overlapped collar of a white kosode. This “small sleeved” precursor to the modern kimono and scarlet nagabakama (trousers) constituted a Heian lady’s foundation garments. True nagabakama are longer than floor length, with the wearer actually treading upon her own trouser legs, which trailed behind her.

My kosode and nagabakama are in cotton* due to budgetary constraints. (*Silk and hemp were common in medieval Japan. Cotton did not become widely available until much later and to my knowledge was never used in court clothing.) 

Over the kosode I wore a moegi or “sprout green” hitoe, an unlined silk robe with wide sleeves. On top is an outer robe or uchigi of silk dyed the color of old leaves (kuchiba). While the color combination depicted in the museum's reconstruction is not mentioned in Masasuke's manual of more formal ensembles, the symbolism of new green peeping through dead leaves is a typically Heian allusion to the anticipated coming of spring. As I was unable to find silk in quite the colors I wanted, I used undyed silk and treated them with Acid Dyes #636 Gold Ochre and # 628 Chartreuse. (A discussion of Japanese dyestuffs may be found here.)