FURICLE- for japanese kimono and yukata fan

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The latter half of the 16th century, ruled by Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Toyotomi, are called Azuchi Momoyama era, and the time between 17th to 19th century is called Edo era. The feature of those eras was the major development of the culture due to the fewer number of wars which contributed to the stability of the common people’s quality of life. Majority of the Japanese kimono has become short sleeved as a result of samurai families and common people became more powerful than the aristocrats.
Also, foreign trades were very popluar in Azuchi Momoyama era, and the decoration technique of the short sleeve became very competitive. Furthermore, those successful merchants with a big fourtune through trading became found of gorgeous outfit, which resulted in developing the extraordinarily beautiful short sleeves. It appears that there were no major difference in the outfit of male and female in the common people.

In Edo era, comparing to the female short sleeves that have changed dramatically, that of male did not really incorporated many changes. As a result, such difference of the outfit by sex has become more remarkable. One reason behind the scene is said to be the defined and bipolarized concept of the role with the distinction of sex, which forced male following the social rules and regulations while female remained to be free.

Today’s Kimono and Obi are the result of such evolution females have developped with their free mind, soul, and spirit.

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Clothes from Kamakura to Muromachi Period

In end of 12th century, the power center of the caste stated to move from nobles to Samurais.
Ages till the first half of the 14th century, when the Shogunate was located in Kamakura, is called Kamakura Period. Then the shogunate is moved to Kyoto. The period after Kamakura Period till 16th century is called Muromachi Period. Samurais have became powerful raisin up from ordinal people.
That is why they prefer to wear like normal people do rather than waring heave and binding ones.
In this way, closing tradition was established. They basically wear light clothes except for when they have to wear in formal armored style.

As the time goes, another type of clothing is developed by samurais. They reduced the layers of Sokutai and called it “Hihitare” and they also reduced layers of Juunihitoe and called it “Uchikake.”
Common people wore short sleeves as they had since the Heian period. According to some documents, they made the hem very short and fold the part that went below the waist and fastened it with strings. It later becomes Ohashiori (The part that has been folded is referred to as Ohashori), but it looked a bit different from what it is right now because thick obis were not used at the time. Also, common people began to improve their wealth and their clothing became more gorgeous as a result.

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Clothing in the Heian period

Between nine to twelve centuries, the capital of Japan was Kyoto and we call this period the “Heian period.”　Nobles had been wearing clothing that came from China until the end of the Nara period, but Japanese original culture developed during the Heian period and the design of clothing gradually changed. However, the idea that noble people should wear heavy and immobile clothing was succeeded. As a result, people eventually wore a Japanese original poncho on top of Chinese clothing.　

All these led to the creation of Sokutai for men and Juunihitoe for women.　On the other hand, regular people wore front-opened and tight-sleeved clothing which is a developed version of Japanese poncho.
The biggest difference between clothes for Nobles and for regular people is the size of cuffs. Clothes for nobles had wider cuffs, so these were called “Big Cuff” and clothes for regular people were called “Small Cuff” as opposed to this “Big Cuff.” Nobles also wore “Small Cuff” under “Big Cuff” as an underwear. For both Sokutai and Juunihitoe, people first wore “Small Cuff” and “Hakama” and put on “Big Cuff” over them.

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Clothing before the Heian period

The capital of Japan was Nara during seven to eight centuries. We split this period into half and call the first half the “Asuka period” and the second half the “Nara period.”Japanese used to wear clothing that combine the top and the bottoms, but we have begun separating them just before the Asuka period started. Both men and women wore the short top and men wore something like trousers and women wore a long skirt. Soon the interaction with China became active and various things came from China into Japan. These “things” included Chinese clothing and also some ideas related to clothing.

For example, Chinese people wore wear mobile and useful clothes at the time and nobles wore heavy and immobile clothes. Japanese didn’t have the idea of varying clothes with their social position, but it is said that the import of Chinese clothes and customs gradually created the idea that people with higher status wears more immobile clothes. Chinese products were considered valuable, so all the nobles wore Chinese clothes. The style of dress of turning up their collar also appeared at the same time period.
On the other hand, regular people still wore the same type of clothes as before.

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Ancient clothes

The oldest material about Japanese history is Gishi Wajinden written at the end of the third century. And Japanese men wrapped cloth around their bodies and women wore kantoi (clothes with no sleeves) those days according to it. In Japan, traditionally cloth has been made by one person and the width of every piece of cloth is narrower than the width of the weaver’s shoulders. It’s unlikely that the width of the cloth which was made those days was wider than this, so it’s presumed that cloth of a narrow width was used at that time, too. They couldn’t make kantoi in the shape with a hole for a head with cloth of this width by cutting a part of the cloth for it out. So, it’s considered that two pieces of cloth were weaved together with only parts of them together as a hole for a head left undone. Also, it’s presumed that the first kantoi wasn’t weaved in parts for their underarms and it was clipped around their waist with a rope.

After that, they weaved pieces of cloth in parts for their underarms and attached sleeves shaped as pipes to the cloth to up the efficiency of warming and protection, but then it got to be difficult to take off and put on the clothes in the style of kantoi. So, it’s considered that they stopped weaving the clothes on the front and combined pieces of clothes and additional cloth. It’s said that this shape has become the original style of kimono which was made later.