page_title: Japanese clothing
section_title: Kimono
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese clothing / Types of traditional clothing / Kimono
caption_attribution_description: English: Gion geisha Sayaka wearing a kuro-tomesode. Photo by www.japanexperterna.se
context_page_description: There are typically two types of clothing worn in Japan: traditional clothing known as Japanese clothing, including the national dress of Japan, the kimono, and Western clothing, which encompasses all else not recognised as either national dress or the dress of another country.
  Traditional Japanese fashion represents a long-standing history of traditional culture, encompassing colour palettes developed in the Heian period, silhouettes adopted from Tang dynasty clothing and cultural traditions, motifs taken from Japanese culture, nature and traditional literature, and styles of wearing primarily fully-developed by the end of the Edo period. The most well-known form of traditional Japanese fashion is the kimono, translating literally as "something to wear" or "thing worn on the shoulders". Other types of traditional fashion include the clothing of the Ainu people and the clothes of the Ryukyuan people, most notably including the traditional fabrics of bingata and bashōfu produced on the Ryukyu Islands.
context_section_description: The kimono (着物), labelled the "national costume of Japan", is the most well-known form of traditional Japanese clothing. The kimono is worn wrapped around the body, left side over right, and is sometimes worn layered. It is always worn with an obi, and may be worn with a number of traditional accessories and types of footwear. Kimono differ in construction and wear between men and women.
  After the four-class system ended in the Tokugawa period (1603-1867), the symbolic meaning of the kimono shifted from a reflection of social class to a reflection of self, allowing people to incorporate their own tastes and individualize their outfit. The process of wearing a kimono requires, depending on gender and occasion, a sometimes detailed knowledge of a number of different steps and methods of tying the obi, with formal kimono for women requiring at times the help of someone else to put on. Post-WW2, kimono schools were built to teach those interested in kimono how to wear it and tie a number of different knots.
  A number of different types of kimono exist that are worn in the modern day, with women having more varieties than men. Whereas men's kimono differ in formality typically through fabric choice, the number of crests on the garment (known as mon or kamon) and the accessories worn with it, women's kimono differ in formality through fabric choice, decoration style, construction and crests.
caption: Gion geisha Sayaka wearing a kurotomesode
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