The Influence Of Chinese Traditional Costume On Japan

The history of Sino Japanese exchanges is more than 2000 years, if calculated from the Qin Shihuang's "Xu Fu's eastward crossing". China and Japan are close neighbors separated by a strip of water. This special geographical condition makes the cultural exchanges between the two countries long and frequent, and has a wide and profound impact.

The ancient Chinese culture is in the leading position in the East, so the ancient Sino Japanese cultural exchanges are mainly Japanese learning from China. Some litterateurs vividly expressed the influence of the Tang Dynasty on Japan: "Japan was like a pot of soymilk, and the spirit of the Tang Dynasty was brine, which was suddenly turned into tofu, and then formed a culture." (Interpretation: Pan Xiangli's Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty, published in China's National Geography, 2005, Issue 2) Clothing culture is certainly the same. Kimono is Japanese Traditional clothing It was formed after more than 1000 years of evolution on the basis of Chinese Tang Dynasty costumes.

The imitation of the mainland culture across the sea, especially the imitation of Chinese clothing, which is much more advanced in comparison, has become an important chapter in the history of Japanese clothing. In women's clothing, this imitation is not only reflected in the style of clothing, but also in the weaving technology and wearing spirit of clothing materials.

The kimono is called "Wu Fu" or "Tang Yi" in Japan. It is easy to see its origin with the Tang Dynasty and Wuyue from its name. The term "kimono" comes from the misreading of Wu Fu (Tang Yi) by modern Westerners, but in Japan, kimono shops are generally called Wu Fu, and there are few kimono titles. Although it is the traditional clothing of the Japanese nation, it was formed on the basis of clothing in the Tang Dynasty and before the Tang Dynasty, and was digested and absorbed by the Japanese. {page_break}

In terms of style, kimonos generally consist of single-layer collar loops, long collar loops, kimono skirts, collar masks, belts, foot clothes (socks), clogs, etc. Here, the muscle loop is a close fitting T-shirt. The long loop is a layer of clothes worn inside the outer cover. Its main function is to keep the kimono smooth and beautiful. Half collar (shirt collar) can also be sewn on the long loop to prevent contamination. The length of kimono skirt is about 5cm shorter than that of Changruan. In addition, there are some complicated waist decorations and sleeve decorations in the formal kimono dress. They mainly include dai yang, dai tie, dai board, dai pillow, ida tie, waist button, chest button, bi yi, etc. Among them, the single-layer ruff loop and the long loop are the new products mixed with the "single in the middle" of the Tang women's regular clothes and dresses; Kimono is "clothes"; The kimono mask handed over also has a specific shadow on the aristocratic women in the picture of the Sui Dynasty's providers in Cave 390, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang.

In addition to the murals on the tomb path of Takamatsu Tomb, we can still clearly see the influence of Tang women's clothing on Japanese kimonos from the literature works of the Ping'an Beijing era and the early Ukiyo-e paintings of Edo. In the "Tale of Genji", it says: "She (Kong Chan) was wearing a dark purple single layer silk gown, and it was hard to see what was on it... (Xuan Ruidi) She was wearing only a white single layer silk gown, and was casually wearing a purple coat outside, with a red kimono skirt belt around her waist, and her chest above the belt was completely exposed." This paragraph describes the basic clothes of Japanese local officials' wives (empty cicadas) and young ladies (Xuanruidi) in the Heian era, from which we can see the wearing of kimonos in daily life. It can be seen that Tang style has a great influence on Japanese women's clothing in terms of materials, styles, colors and exposure methods.

From the perspective of craftsmanship, the influence of women's clothing of the Tang Dynasty on Japanese women's clothing is first manifested in the materials used for kimonos, which include silk, damask, silk, yarn, velvet, brocade, etc., of which brocade has processes such as weaving gold brocade and weaving of the Tang Dynasty, all imitating the weaving process of the Tang Dynasty. Secondly, it is shown in the dyeing and patterning of kimonos. The dyeing of kimonos usually includes clip, twist, hand painting, etc; The way of raising flowers includes yarn dyed weaving, double-layer weaving, embroidery, etc., which is the same as the production process of women's clothing in the Tang Dynasty, but this method is still regarded as a classic in modern kimono manufacturers, Modern Japanese scholars also admit that: "The Tang Dynasty transported noble fabrics such as brocade and damask with color printing, which inspired Japanese silk weaving, bleaching and printing technologies." (For details, see Fu Yunzi's Archaeology of Zhengcang Academy, Volume IV, Overview of Sancang, Liaoning Education Press, 2000 edition, pp. 30-31)

Today, kimonos are still called "Tang grass, Tang flower, Tang brocade". Once again kimono In terms of tailoring, kimonos are almost all composed of straight line tailoring, which also has the tailoring traces of traditional Chinese clothing, that is, straight lines create beauty, This point has been reflected in the tailoring of deep clothes: "(Yong) According to: deep clothes are the holy clothes of sages. The clothes are in the right width, and the middle part of the clothes is also in the right width. Only the lapel is beside the clothes, and the slant is used.", However, the style characteristics of the upper garment and lower garment are still completely preserved, which is also reflected in kimonos. Finally, the wearing effect of kimono is looser and fatter than that of western clothes, which also stems from the habit of being generous and fat in the Tang Dynasty.

According to the traditional concept, the kimono really took shape in the Heian era, which is also Japan's "national style era". After comprehensively absorbing the culture of the Tang Dynasty, it has formed its unique luxury and exquisite characteristics. Even so, the "twelve orders" symbolizing the classic kimono of the Heian era still have traces of being detached from the mother of pearl hairpin ritual clothes. The "Twelve Dans" were the gowns of Japanese aristocratic women at that time, which generally consisted of 5-12 layers of single-layer shirts, gowns and waist decorations. They are: inner shirts, skirts, which have a single, plus five clothes on the single, plus a dozen clothes on the five clothes (also known as board clothes or red clothes), plus a coat on the dozen, plus clothes on the coat, and also waist decorations such as waist, waist extension, and small waist, and finally the outer cover of Tang clothes. Purple and scarlet are the most important things in Tang clothes. Twelve singles are not only twelve layers of single clothes, but also complicated wearing and exquisite accessories. In fact, they are more like the display of wealth carefully prepared by the nobility, which is similar to the fashion of the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Each layer of single clothes is light, thin and transparent. When multiple layers are stacked together, the colors are mutually colored, adding to the beauty of hazy trance. So far, the luxury and refined materials of clothing in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and the spirit of exquisite, complex and hazy workmanship have also taken shape.

Although kimono was developed from Han style clothing, it has developed its own national characteristics through a long historical period. For example, the trousers of men's clothes, the belt of women's clothes gradually widened to a larger scale after the Edo period, and the drum section of the belt moved to the back and developed various styles, which is also the main sign of distinguishing kimonos from Han suits. The patterns on kimono materials also often have distinctive Japanese national characteristics.

Hair accessories matching kimonos, such as combs, hairpins and hairpins, also have strong Tang style. {page_break}

Clogs are necessary for wearing kimonos. Clogs have a history of more than 2000 years in China. According to the records in the Alien Garden, "Jiezi Tui fled from the land of Lu to hide and burned the tree to death. Duke Wen held the tree to mourn, and cut it to make shoes. Every time he thought of cutting the shares, he looked down on his shoes and said, 'Sad! Foot!'" (Interpretation: Taiping Yulan, Vol. 698) Duke Wen of Jin had been exiled abroad for 19 years. Jiezi Tui followed him closely, but when Duke Wen of Jin ascended the throne and was awarded a reward, But I forgot about Jie Zitui (how did I remember reading a version that didn't say that?). Jie Zitui and his mother lived in seclusion in the mountains. Later, Duke Wen invited him out of the mountain many times, but he refused to come out. Duke Wen set fire to the mountain with the intention of forcing him out of the mountain. However, Jiezi Tui would rather die without trees. Wengong was so regretful that he made wooden clogs from the tree Jiezi held to show his deep pain. Whenever he saw the clogs on his feet, he would always lament: "Sad! Foot. Since Houhanshu, clogs have been recorded in many documents. It can not only trample mud to prevent rain (Yan Shigu said in his note on "Urgent Meeting" that "clogs are made of wood and use two teeth, so they trample mud", so it can be seen that the main function of clogs is to trample mud to prevent rain), climb mountains (Xie Gongclogs), In the Book of Jin? The Chronicle of Emperor Xuan, there is also a record of the expedition with toothless soft soled clogs: "The emperor made two thousand soldiers march with soft soled clogs in Guanzhong, and the tribulus knew the clogs, and then marched forward." In the Tang Dynasty, there were women wearing clogs with bare feet in Wu and Yue and other places; It is recorded that men wear clogs to climb mountains and resist rain and trample on mud. Since the Song Dynasty, southern women in the Ming and Qing dynasties not only wear clogs in rainy days, but also wear clogs in sunny days, without binding their feet. Wherever this trend goes, "the literati and officialdom all still wear clogs" (interpretation: Qu Dajun of the Qing Dynasty, Volume 16 of Guangdong Xinyu). However, the fashion of Chinese people in Jiangnan advocating clogs is deeply reflected in the Ukiyoe in the Edo era of Japan.

There is no reliable data to judge the relationship between the origin of Japanese clogs and Chinese clogs. However, the origin of clogs between the two countries can be seen from the fact that Japan has written clogs into the Chinese character "foot" since ancient times, combined with Jie Zitui's allusions.

From the history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan in the Han and Tang Dynasties, it can be seen that Japan's learning of Chinese clothing was a top-down political reform initiated by the upper rulers, which was accompanied by Japan's political Economics And other systems, so its significance goes far beyond the clothing itself. Clothing has the social function of distinguishing roles, identities and positions, especially in the feudal society of China, which is particularly prominent. The clothing system of China is an important part of the political system. Through the study of the clothing system and culture of the Han and Tang Dynasties, Japan can not help enriching the content of Japanese life. More importantly, through the study of the clothing system, Japan established and promoted the process of feudalization, and Japan quickly moved from slavery to feudalism.