Haori: form, linings and changing use

A haori is a short outer garment worn over a full-length kimono. Its length varies with period, purpose and style. The collar folds outward, and the front does not close by overlapping the two sides. A pair of haori-himo cords commonly joins small loops inside the front edges. Side gussets add width to the body. Front and back photographs of a cotton example at Tezukayama University show how the opening, sleeves and body fit together.

These outer garments differ in construction and use. An uchikake is a long robe worn over a kimono and its obi, with a hem that may trail on the floor; it also appears in women’s roles in kabuki. Hanten include work jackets and garments for warmth at home, some padded, and generally have a collar that lies flat. A haori’s folded collar, side gussets and front cords are useful features to consider together; a tie alone does not identify the garment.

From the late Muromachi into the Momoyama period, dobuku were short outer garments worn over kosode robes. Surviving examples differ in their front panels and side construction; the haori took shape through such changes. Dobuku worn over armour came to be called jinbaori. Momoyama examples include sleeveless forms with a long back opening that accommodated riding and swords. Military outerwear was one branch of this history, alongside later changes in everyday dress.

Iwao Nagasaki compares dobuku attributed to Uesugi Kenshin, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Many Kenshin examples retain okumi, panels extending the front, while the Hideyoshi garments examined lack them. Inward-folded, upright and outward-folded collars also occur; the proposed changes rest on comparisons of surviving pieces. Gussets, shortened backs and rear slits helped keep a riding garment clear of the saddle. These features do not combine into one universal early haori.

During the Edo period, haori spread from warrior dress into townspeople’s wardrobes and could serve formal occasions. Hems and cords changed with fashion. Fukuoka City Museum describes a style fashionable around 1736–1741 with a long body and very long chest cords. Morisada manko also records an Edo haori in a drawing. Restrained black, small-patterned or striped exteriors developed alongside more conspicuous linings.

A lining can contrast sharply with a restrained exterior. One black haori shown by Ono’s Kokokan reveals a tiger motif when turned inside out. In the Meiji period, surigata yuzen, a stencil-based printing and dyeing method, was also used for haori linings, allowing clear, relatively large compositions. Kimiko Yokogawa’s study discusses themes including noh, poetry and shogi. Both subject matter and methods of making linings changed over time.

Haori have been made from silk, cotton, wool textiles and paper. They may be lined, called awase, or unlined, called hitoe. Paper haori, or kamiko, exhibited by Fukuoka City Museum used processed paper for lightness, wind resistance and warmth; some also carried gold or silver decoration and fabric edging. Tezukayama’s cotton example offers another material choice.

Fukuoka City Museum describes a method recorded in the Edo encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue. Washi sheets were joined with konnyaku paste, coated with persimmon tannin and dried. Treading and hand kneading softened them; overnight exposure to dew removed the tannin smell before tailoring. Two paper haori in the exhibition also have fabric at areas such as the collar, cuffs, shoulders and hem corners, helping reinforce them. Paper preparation and reinforcement both contributed to the garment.

Haori worn by geisha in Fukagawa marked a change in Edo-period dress, when the garment was associated mainly with men. From the Meiji period, women used it more widely for warmth and outings. In Taisho and early Showa Japan, chemical dyes, textile techniques, department stores and women’s magazines helped circulate bold patterns. A meisen silk haori dated about 1935–1940 in a Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum exhibition illustrates this striking geometric style.

One illustration discussed by Kimiko Yokogawa combines Mount Fuji, a hawk and an aubergine as auspicious first-dream motifs. It comes from a garment-pattern book printed from woodblocks in Kyoto in the early Meiji 30s, roughly the late 1890s to early 1900s. Such designs show compositions available for haori linings. A printed design reference is distinct from a surviving sewn lining, and its publication date does not date an individual garment.

For men, a black haori in habutae, a plain-weave silk, with five dyed family crests can form traditional formal dress when worn with a kimono and hakama, a loose lower-body garment. The crests are placed at the centre back, the backs of both sleeves and the two sides of the chest. Women also wore black crested haori for occasions such as school ceremonies, but as abbreviated formal dress. The men’s hierarchy does not transfer directly to women’s haori.

During postwar shortages, short cha-baori used less fabric; hem lengths subsequently changed again. Ono’s Kokokan recalls mothers commonly wearing black crested haori at school ceremonies into the late 1970s and early 1980s. Haori also provide warmth and complement contemporary kimono outfits. Unlike outer coats normally removed on entering, they can generally be worn indoors, although occasions such as tea gatherings follow their own dress conventions.