Hakama: different cuts beneath a familiar outline

Outline and inner structure

Divided umanori and undivided andon can resemble each other while standing. Many modern examples use waist ties and pleats, and some include a backboard. Material, length and tying arrangements depend on the garment and its use.

Construction and fastening

Hosai’s account of a modern umanori construction describes cloth widening towards the hem, pleats folded into the front, and two leg openings sewn inside. Visible folds and an internal division are different things to look for. Eriu’s men’s formal-dress demonstration also shows how the garment stays in place. The front ties pass around the back, cross and return around the waist before being secured behind. The backboard rests on the flat ichimonji knot of the kaku obi; the rear ties then come forward and pass through the ties already around the waist. The obi knot supports the backboard while the ties secure the front and rear cloth. This particular arrangement does not prescribe every women’s or martial-arts hakama.

Ancient garments, court and warriors

Hakama precede warrior ceremonial dress. Ono City’s museum describes Kofun-period men in jackets and divided lower garments, full around the thighs and tied near the knees. Heian court ensembles incorporated hakama beneath men’s and women’s outer layers; medieval warriors also wore them with hitatare jackets tucked inside. As kosode became the principal outer garment for women beyond the court, women’s use of hakama declined. Their later adoption by students placed an existing garment in a new school setting.

Ceremonial forms and surviving clothes

Court dress included sashinuki, a form gathered at the ankles, and women also wore hakama. In warrior ceremonial dress, hakama and a broad-shouldered sleeveless garment called kataginu formed the kamishimo ensemble; extra-long hakama were used in some formal settings. Work and martial-arts garments allowed other kinds of movement. A late-Edo nagakamishimo in the Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum makes the ceremonial form concrete: this hemp ensemble has exceptionally long hakama and a sesame-pattern komon reserved for the Nabeshima family. Its formal purpose differs from clothing designed for active martial-arts practice.

Meiji schools adapted a garment already worn by women in court dress, changing its cut, material and setting. Drawing on contemporary newspapers, the National Museum of Ethnology records criticism of women wearing hakama in the 1870s and an 1883 ministry instruction restricting the dress of women teachers and pupils. By 1902, newspapers described students’ hakama spreading into rural areas. A Taishō-period women’s andon hakama in the Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum is made of wool.

Atomi’s school history records one transition: in 1899, graduation dress combined a black crested kimono with the hakama worn for everyday school use. Western-style uniforms were adopted in 1930, while a 1932 photograph still shows old and new clothing together. Daily school use changed through particular institutional decisions. Hakama continue in graduation dress, martial-arts practice, shrine attire and men’s formal clothing, with different ties, lengths and accompanying garments.