page_title: Court uniform and dress in the Empire of Japan
section_title: Court uniforms for civil officials
hierarchical_section_title: Court uniform and dress in the Empire of Japan / Court uniforms for civil officials
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 明治12年元老院議官集合写真 English: Members of Genrōin (Japanese Chamber of Elders) at 1879.
context_page_description: The official court dress of the Empire of Japan, used from the Meiji period until the end of the Second World War, consisted of European-inspired clothing in the Empire style. It was first introduced at the beginning of the Meiji period and maintained through the institution of the constitutional monarchy by the Meiji Constitution, and represented the highest uniforms in use at the time. Uniforms for members of the kazoku peerage and civil officials were officially set.
context_section_description: Three of the highest subcategories of civil officials were allocated specific court uniforms: Imperial appointees (勅任官 chokuninkan), non-Imperially appointed senior officials (奏任官 sōninkan), and junior officials (判任官 hanninkan).
  These uniforms were officially decided by edict of the Dajō-kan on December 12, 1872. The Iwakura Mission, which had departed Japan earlier, also gathered information on uniform design via Hayashi Tadasu. However, the mission had no time to wait for a final decision before an audience with Queen Victoria. They therefore ordered uniforms in England, based on the designs they had been discussing with the homeland. Unfortunately, the designs they reported back were determined to be impossible to create in Japan's still-immature Western clothing stores and were not adopted directly. The versions ultimately decreed by the Dajō-kan differed considerably from the Iwakura mission's prototypes. The Dajō-kan's edicts were still incomplete as a form of law, and the details of the original edict itself were in some areas insufficient, so variations were visible depending on the manufacturer.
  There were also problems with the uniforms themselves. The pants for chokuninkan were designated as being white, but in Europe white pants were only worn in court uniforms on special occasions. This issue was even pointed out by Otto von Bismarck when the Iwakura mission visited Germany. On September 18, 1877, an edict of the Dajō-kan brought these pants into line with the coats, changing them to the same black wool material.
  Aiming to set clear and unified standards for the uniforms, the regulations were amended on December 4, 1886, by an order of the Ministry of the Imperial Household. Pictures and diagrams were published in an official telegram, and related manufacturers were provided with sample illustrations printed in color.
  The amendment was targeted at the uniforms for senior officials. Those of junior officials were not addressed and instead died out. A minor amendment from the same office on December 10, 1892, modified the side decorations on the uniforms of sōninkan. Correspondence between the Cabinet's chief clerk Kawasaki Takashi and Under-Secretary of the Army Hajime Sugiyama suggests that further modifications to civil officials' uniforms were being considered at the time of the 1928 changes to the uniforms of the Imperial Household Agency.
caption: Genrōin members in 1879, wearing various court uniforms for civil officials by the 1872 designs.
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