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Kanzashi: forms and crafts of hair ornaments

簪（かんざし）

Kanzashi are ornaments inserted into the hair. They may have long prongs, a bead, a flattened head or dangling elements; folded silk can also form flowers and birds. Their shapes vary with hairstyles, materials and occasions. Tsumami flower ornaments are one branch of a much broader category.

Parts

Prongs inserted into the hair; a visible decorative head

Materials

Metal, wood, tortoiseshell, glass, silk and more

One craft

Tsumami folds silk squares into petal-like forms

Recognizing different forms

Head and prongs

The decorative head remains visible while a long stem or prongs enter the hairstyle. Surviving objects have single, double or multiple prongs. The head, connection and inserted portion together make up the ornament.

The bead of a tama kanzashi

A tama kanzashi displayed by the Kanagawa archaeology museum has a brass body, a reddish bead, two prongs and an ear-pick projection at its top. It preserves one particular construction. Other bead hairpins can differ in both materials and prong form.

Flattened heads and moving ornaments

POLA’s collection includes a late-Edo flattened hairpin with peonies. Another dangling ornament incorporates a rat, an inrō case and a fan; the miniature inrō can move. Flat plates, openwork and suspended elements create different silhouettes and movement.

Pins, combs and kōgai in sets

Combs and kōgai can accompany hairpins in a hairstyle. POLA preserves matching sets decorated with lacquer, mother-of-pearl or coral. These objects belong to a related system of adornment, but comb teeth, a crosswise kōgai and the prongs of a pin have distinct constructions.

Materials support different kinds of ornament

Eleven hairpins used by Nabeshima Naohiro’s wife are preserved by Chōkokan. They combine materials including metal, bamboo, wood and tortoiseshell with coral or agate beads; tiny pearls can form grapes. This particular wearer’s collection demonstrates a range of materials and miniature workmanship.

Hairpins amid changing hairstyles

An eighth-century silver hairpin

Tokyo National Museum’s N-94 silver cloud-shaped hairpin combines symmetrical openwork clouds with long prongs and is dated to the eighth-century Nara period. Earlier catalogues also transmit a tradition of Shōtoku’s childhood ownership and dedication by Empress Kōken. The museum’s dating and the ownership tradition are distinct kinds of information.

Long hair, tied hair and updos

POLA’s hairstyle history moves from long hanging hair in the Heian period through tied hair in the Azuchi–Momoyama period to an expanding range of Edo-period updos. Different groups and settings did not all share one hairstyle. These changes created varied positions and spaces for pins, combs and kōgai.

A range of Edo-period designs

POLA’s history identifies elaborately worked hairpins by the mid-Edo period. The Kanagawa archaeology museum describes their widespread popularity in late Edo. Flattened, floral, fan-shaped and dangling examples show the range of heads, materials and movable details.

Japanese hair ornaments continue in Meiji

The Osaka Museum of History uses a Semba merchant-house woman’s possessions to document continued use of combs, kōgai and pins in mid-to-late Meiji. Its account also describes gradual adoption of Western lifestyles and hairstyles. Older ornaments and changing designs coexisted.

Hairpins adapted to modern hairstyles

POLA describes two-pronged pins, curved combs and mixed designs responding to modern hairstyles, including Art Nouveau and Art Deco influences. Its Taishō–Shōwa examples include an openwork dancer-pattern ornament with three prongs and another pin with a glass-bead head.

New materials enter adornment

POLA dates domestic production of celluloid hair ornaments to around 1889, noting its ability to imitate coral and tortoiseshell patterns. A Taishō–Shōwa fern-pattern celluloid pin combines imitation tortoiseshell with Art Nouveau styling. Material and hairstyle changes meet in this specific object.

Making flowers and birds from silk

Tsumami is a particular craft

Edo tsumami kanzashi uses small squares of habutae silk, folded with tweezers and assembled into flowers or birds. Tokyo’s official account explains the name through this process and records designation as a metropolitan traditional craft in 1982. That date belongs to this craft, not to the origin of all hairpins.

Cut, fold, arrange and assemble

The Arakawa association describes cutting habutae silk into squares, folding rounded or pointed petals with tweezers and resting them on a board spread with paste. The pieces are then arranged on a wire-backed base to form motifs. Pendants and prongs are attached before the balance is adjusted.

Late-Edo evidence and present uses

Tokyo’s history cites Morisada mankō’s account of women around 1818–30 wearing coloured crepe pieces shaped into chrysanthemums and cranes behind their Shimada updos. Present-day Tokyo and Arakawa craft accounts list Shichi-Go-San, coming-of-age ceremonies and weddings, alongside newer forms such as brooches, earrings and miniature doll ornaments.

Monthly flower ornaments for maiko

According to Kyoto City, maiko—apprentice geiko entertainers—change their kanzashi each month with the seasons. Designs also suit New Year, the Gion Festival and year-end kabuki performances. Workshop Maya lists plum blossoms for February and chrysanthemums for October. These examples belong to a particular wearing tradition.