Chonmage

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File:Samurai hand colored c1890.jpg
A 19th-century samurai with a Script error: No such module "lang".

The Script error: No such module "Nihongo". is a type of traditional Japanese topknot haircut worn by men. It is most commonly associated with the Edo period (1603–1868) and samurai, and in recent times with sumo wrestlers. It was originally a method of using hair to hold a samurai kabuto helmet steady atop the head in battle, and became a status symbol among Japanese society.

In a traditional Edo-period Script error: No such module "lang"., the top of the head is shaved. The remaining hair was oiled and waxed before being tied into a small tail folded onto the top of the head in the characteristic topknot.

History

File:Two Japanese barbers; to the left, one is shaving his client Wellcome V0029727.jpg
A Japanese barbershop in the 19th century

The origins of the Script error: No such module "lang". can be traced back to the Heian period (794–1185). During this period, aristocrats wore special cap-like crowns as part of their official clothing. To secure the crown in place, the hair would be tied near the back of the head.[citation needed]

Between the 1580s (towards the end of the Warring States period, 1467–1615) and the 1630s (the beginning of the Edo period, 1603–1867), Japanese cultural attitudes to men's hair shifted; where a full head of hair and a beard had been valued as a sign of manliness in the preceding militaristic era, in the ensuing period of peace, this gradually shifted until a beard and an unshaven pate were viewed as barbaric, and resistant of the peace that had resulted from two centuries of civil war.[1]Template:Rp This change was also enforced during the Japanese invasion of Joseon (1592–1598), where some Japanese commanders forced the submitted Koreans to shave their heads to this hairstyle, as a method of converting their identities to that of Japanese.[1]Template:Rp

A shaven pate (the Script error: No such module "lang".) became required of the samurai classes by the early Edo period, and by the 1660s, all men, commoner or samurai, were forbidden from wearing beards, with the Script error: No such module "lang". deemed mandatory. The style of the Script error: No such module "lang". ("topknot") was dependent on the social status of the wearer, with that of the samurai being more pronounced than artisans or merchants.[2] Ronin, samurai who did not serve a Lord, were not required to shave their heads. This became an easy way to identify such men.[1]Template:Rp

Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of Script error: No such module "lang". in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men.[2] With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short,[3][4] effectively abandoning the Script error: No such module "lang"..[5]Template:Rp

Sumo

File:Tochiazuma Daisuke.jpg
Modern sumo wrestler Tochiazuma with an Script error: No such module "lang".-style Script error: No such module "lang".

In modern Japan, the only remaining wearers of the Script error: No such module "lang". are sumo wrestlers and kabuki actors.[6] Given the uniqueness of the style in modern times, the Japan Sumo Association employs specialist hairdressers called Script error: No such module "lang". to cut and prepare sumo wrestlers' hair.

The sumo style of the Script error: No such module "lang". is slightly different, in that the pate is no longer shaved. However, the hair may be thinned in this region or the crown of the head shaved, called Script error: No such module "lang"., to allow the topknot to sit more neatly.[7] This is done around once every three months.[7]

All professional sumo wrestlers wear a Script error: No such module "lang". as soon as their hair is long enough to do so. Sumo wrestlers with Script error: No such module "lang". status are required on certain occasions, such as during a Script error: No such module "lang"., to wear their hair in a more elaborate form of topknot called an Script error: No such module "Nihongo"., where the end of the topknot is splayed out to form a semicircle, resembling a ginkgo leaf.[8][9]

The Script error: No such module "lang". is of such symbolic importance in sumo that snipping it off is the centerpiece of a wrestler's retirement ceremony. Dignitaries and other important people in a wrestler's life are invited to take one snip, with the final one taken by his trainer. For most wrestlers who never reached a Script error: No such module "lang". rank, his retirement ceremony will be the only time he wears the more elaborate Script error: No such module "lang"..[citation needed]

See also

  • List of hairstyles
  • Script error: No such module "lang". or Script error: No such module "lang"., the traditional Chinese topknot
  • Oseledets
  • Queue, the Qing-dynasty Chinese hairstyle also involving a shaved pate
  • Script error: No such module "lang".

References

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  1. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Toby, Ron P. (2019). Engaging the Other: 'Japan' and Its Alter-Egos, 1550-1850. Brill's Japanese Studies Library. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004393516.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nomikos Vaporis, Constantine (2019). Samurai: An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors. United States: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 124–127. ISBN 9781440842719.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ericson, Joan E.; Matson, Jim (2004). "Lessons of The Last Samurai" (PDF). Education About Asia. 9 (2): 13–30.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Maidment, Richard A.; Goldblatt, David S.; Mitchell, Jeremy (1998). Governance in the Asia-Pacific. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-17276-9.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Scott Pate, Alan (9 May 2017). Kanban: Traditional Shop Signs of Japan. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691176475. In 1871 the Dampatsurei edict forced all samurai to cut off their topknots, a traditional source of identity and pride.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The few good men who prop up sumo's topknot a dying breed". The Asahi Shimbun. 2020-11-18. Retrieved 2023-04-09. With declining orders for samurai movies and TV dramas, about the only people now buying motoyui are sumo wrestlers and Kabuki actors.
  7. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.THE REAL SECRET OF RIKISHI'S TOPKNOT (web video). Sumo Prime Time. 2023-04-07. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gunning, John (2018-09-14). "Sumo 101: The Topknot". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.The Hairdresser to Japan's Sumo Wrestling Elite (web video). Great Big Story. 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2023-04-09.

Further reading

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