Kimono, The Symbol Of Japanese Culture

As we all know, today Japan is a neighbor across the sea from China. Its special geographical environment and long history promote the exchanges between the two countries. Japanese people say that China is Japan's cultural home country, and Chinese culture Japanese culture The influence is profound. Japanese thought, love, ethics, morality and even politics, economy, law, education and many other aspects all bear the traces of ancient Chinese culture. However, on the one hand, the Japanese nation is good at pursuing new things and concepts, likes to imitate, and can skillfully blend and absorb other cultures to become their own and for their own use; On the other hand, they stubbornly adhere to their own inherent way of life, religious beliefs, national consciousness, etc., carefully guard against being assimilated by foreign cultures, repel the choice of things that do not conflict with their own national culture, and can improve their own things, and persist in maintaining the national self-identity. There are many differences between Chinese and Japanese cultures, Among them, kimono has become the most significant cultural feature.

Kimono is a Japanese tradition National costume It is also called "zhewu" in Japan. The kimono was reformed following the suit style of the Sui and Tang dynasties in China. From the eighth to the ninth century AD, "Tang style" clothing was once popular in Japan. Although it has changed to form a unique style in Japan, it still contains some characteristics of Chinese ancient clothing. The difference in the style and color of women's kimonos is a sign of age and marriage. For example, unmarried girls wear tight sleeves and married women wear wide sleeves; "Shimada" hairstyle (one of the Japanese hairstyles, bowl shaped), the girl wearing a red collar shirt, the housewife wearing a round bun, and the plain shirt. Kimono does not need buttons, only a knotted belt. There are many kinds of belts, and their knotting methods are different. A widely used tying method is called "Taigu Knot". A paper or cloth core is placed in the belt at the back waist knot, which looks like a square box. This is the decoration behind kimonos that we often see. Since tying knots is very difficult, "improvement belt" and "cultural belt" with ready knots appeared after the war. Although Japanese daily clothes have long been replaced by suits, kimono is still recognized as a must wear dress in weddings, celebrations, traditional flower paths, tea ceremonies and other grand social occasions.

The kimono is the traditional national costume of the Japanese, and also the cultural asset that the Japanese are most worthy of boasting to the world. Elegant and beautiful patterns not only derive from the Japanese people's appreciation of mountains and waters and their attachment to local customs, but also from their exquisite feelings of humanistic spirit and situation. Therefore, kimono is not only a simple traditional national costume, but also a symbol of culture.

　　 1、 Natural environment

Due to the special geographical environment of Japan, there are many volcanoes and seismic zones. Due to multiple volcanic eruptions and continuous earthquakes, the original quiet island has been broken into pieces. At the same time, many wonders of Japan were born. Surrounded by the sea on all sides, the coastline has amazing beautiful scenery everywhere. The natural landscape of Japan pursues the integration of man and nature. These can be easily perceived from the design styles of their various courtyards. Ponds are indispensable in Japanese courtyards. They reflect the murmuring sound of running water through the staggered arrangement of stone slabs, and fully express the beauty of nature.

Moreover, the traditional Japanese courtyard reflects the beauty of nature everywhere. Ponds, flowing water, rockeries, natural stones, groves, etc. are all well matched without any exaggeration. Walking towards the Japanese courtyard is like walking into nature. Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "The mountains and rivers support the embroidery households, and the sun and the moon are close to the carved beams", which is just right to describe the natural beauty of the Japanese courtyard. These pure natural beauty lays the foundation for the decoration of the Japanese kimono.

　　 2、 Ethnic form

Due to the special geographical environment of the island countries, together with their ideas and behaviors of "bringing", Japan is the country with the most unitary national form in the world, both in terms of race and culture. Therefore, while Japan maintains a strong sense of identity with its own social culture, it is also fully westernized.

The Japanese are a farming nation composed of mixed races from different places. We can easily see from their faces. Although most Japanese ancestors came from Korea Island in Northeast Asia, some of them look like Australians or Minnan people from Zhejiang Province in China. Moreover, from some Japanese rules and regulations, it is easy to know that China and other South Asian cultures have a greater impact on Japan. The formation of the Japanese race is due to the unconscious integration of those foreign nationalities after a long time of coexistence. At the same time, they also merged most of the island's aborigines - a Caucasian race.

In the next 1000 years, unlike before the eighth century, Japan has been constantly injecting new blood. Since then, Japan has been constantly mixing a multi-ethnic country into a unified Japanese race, just like a powerful ethnic mixer. Although the development pattern of Japanese traditional national costumes is affected by many factors, the most important one is the isolation of Japan during its social and cultural development for many years, which is far more important than the national unity. {page_break}

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III kimono History of

Kimono is a traditional national costume in Japan. Since more than 90% of the Japanese population belongs to the "Yamato" nationality, it is named after it. In Japanese, it is also called "Zaowu". The aristocratic clothing was further influenced by the later Tang Dynasty, which was called "Tang clothing".

Around the third century, the Japanese king sent envoys to China three times, bringing back a large number of Han and Wu weavers and craftsmen who were good at weaving and sewing. In the era of Nara (718), a large number of Japanese missions sent to Tang Dynasty were sent to China, received by the king of Tang Dynasty, and received a large number of royal uniforms, which were dazzling. It was very popular in Japan. At that time, all civil and military officials in the Japanese imperial court were proud to get it. The next year, the Emperor ordered that all the people in the country should wear clothes that imitated the Sui and Tang styles. For a while, Tang costumes became popular in Japan and became a fashion. Not only that, Japan also imitated the Tang Dynasty system and formulated the "clothes order", which stipulated the dress, court dress and uniform. The class relationship of people can be seen from their clothes. However, in the Heian era (equivalent to the end of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty), due to the temporary interruption of exchanges between China and Japan due to the changes in internal and external conditions of both sides, Japanese culture entered a period of highly localized development (also a period of self isolation), and the structure of kimono became more local. An aristocratic woman dressed in "twelve sheets" folds twelve layers of "Gui" on a single garment. Gui is light, thin and transparent. When multiple layers of Gui are folded, you can still vaguely see the color of the single garment, adding to the beauty of hazy enlightenment. The nobles of the Ping An Dynasty did their best in clothes. In the Kamakura era, the relatively lean and simple martial arts culture emerged. In addition, the Yuan Dynasty, which was a vast and powerful military power at that time, had attacked Japan 10 times in a row. In order to facilitate the battle, the wide sleeves were changed back to narrow sleeves, and the Japanese clothing returned to simplicity. In the Peach Mountain era, people began to pay attention to different clothes in different places, so there were "visiting clothes" for wedding parties and tea parties, and "sleeveless clothes" for celebrations, adult days, banquets and blind dates. The Edo era is the most prosperous period in the history of Japanese clothing. Most kimonos seen today continue the characteristics of the Edo era, and there has been no major change in the following hundreds of years. Until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Japanese wore kimonos. The great earthquake in Kanto in 1923 was also a turning point for western-style clothes to replace kimonos. Due to the social unrest after the disaster, looting often occurs. Women wearing kimonos are often targeted by thieves because of the influence of kimono tight tailoring. Since then, Japanese women have gradually changed to wear skirts or other clothing. After the outbreak of the Second World War, due to the chaos in Japan, the development of kimono entered a completely empty window period. Costumes tend to be practical, but kimonos are still the favorite of Japanese in today's peaceful times. People wearing traditional kimonos can be seen everywhere, whether in festivals, graduation ceremonies, weddings, funerals, or on major occasions such as celebrating children's "July 5, March 3". In addition, Japanese geisha and high-class hotel service personnel also use kimonos as professional clothes, and kimonos are also indispensable for cultural activities such as flower ceremony and tea ceremony, as well as folk dance and traditional art performances.

　 4、 Customs background and traditional customs

　 （1） Custom from Clothing

Although western-style clothes are now common in Japanese daily life, people still like to use kimonos as dresses or as indoor clothes. The kimonos worn by women are very beautiful. Especially the wedding dress is more gorgeous. Silk is used as the fabric, gold and silver thread is used as the embroidery material, and most of the embroidery patterns are flower and bird themed.

In addition, the styles of kimonos of married women and unmarried women are different. Whether it's for a formal visit or for an outing, the texture of the style and pattern you wear is very particular. Usually, kimonos are often worn on formal and grand occasions. For example, attending weddings, wedding parties, and New Year's Day. University graduation ceremony, Adult's Day, funeral, etc. Kimono is troublesome to wear. You must have the skill of wearing kimono to show the beauty of kimono with your figure. Whether they can wear kimonos has little to do with their body shape. Generally, modern women usually wear suits, so it is difficult for them to wear kimonos alone. The unique elegance and modesty of kimono produce beauty, not because of the superb dyeing and weaving technology, but because of the atmosphere created by wearing kimono. On New Year's Day, men usually wear kimonos to entertain guests at home, or when they have a rest indoors. There are many kinds of kimonos, of which the most lightweight is the bathrobe made of cotton, because this kind of fabric is more sweat absorbing and breathable. Especially in the hot summer, it is so pleasant for people to put on this bathrobe and find a well ventilated place to rest and cool off after taking a bath. Compared with bathrobes, the formal kimono dress is more complicated, because the jacket and skirt must be put on the outside.

The four periods of birth, adulthood, marriage and funeral are of great significance to the Japanese. Therefore, on such occasions, they will wear kimonos to show the importance of this day. Therefore, Japanese people will wear kimonos at least four times in their life. From this, we can see that kimonos play an important role in the hearts of Japanese people.

At the same time, kimonos not only integrate the essence of elegance and deep introversion, but also reflect the heart and movement of the wearer. Each set of beautiful kimonos has been carefully tailored to pay attention to every detail and step of wearing. Therefore, whether sitting or standing, they all need to go through complete learning and training to become the perfect etiquette both inside and outside. The kimono has another name (flower screen), because the pattern and color of the kimono reflect the specific image of nature. When people wear the kimono when walking, it will be like a dynamic canvas because of its shaking. {page_break}

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　 （2） Wear different clothes on different occasions

There are many kinds of kimonos. In terms of style, there are casual clothes and dresses. In terms of custom, there are unmarried, married, and men and women. Generally speaking, women's kimonos have many styles and patterns. Their belts are wide and bright in color. Different styles of kimonos need different hairstyles. Even the knot of kimono belts is very particular. Unmarried ladies usually wear "sleeve vibrating" kimonos while married women wear "sleeve left" kimonos. Not only that, wearing different styles of kimonos will depend on the purpose of going out. For example, when visiting, you should wear a visiting kimono, while when playing and shopping, you should wear a small striped kimono.

Under the influence of other civilizations, Japan can still maintain its own characteristics. In the long history, the Japanese have continuously absorbed and created civilization in this way. They have rationally integrated eastern and western cultures, and finally created their own model. Japan is the most typical representative of "fully integrated culture". The most ideal cultural form in the world of Japanese cultural history, because it can not stick to rigid principles, can recognize and embrace other cultures, which itself is a culture with great tolerance.

Looking back at the history of China, we have a longer and deeper cultural history than Japan. Whether it is music, chess, calligraphy and painting, or Chinese cheongsam, it has extremely rich historical connotation. Many Japanese cultures that are unique in modern times were introduced from China and transformed and developed. But today, with the continuous rise of economic strength, the process of urbanization and modernization is accelerating, and people's requirements for cultural shock life are also getting higher and higher. Instead, they do not pay enough attention to some national cultures. It has become a popular trend to celebrate foreign festivals, sing foreign songs, and build Western style buildings. The indifference to traditional culture is becoming increasingly serious. On this issue, I think some Japanese psychology and behavior can be used for reference, such as exploring the cultural origin of the nation, deepening the people's understanding of traditional culture, not blindly resisting foreign culture, but properly guiding its integration with traditional culture. In addition, the government must come forward and encourage folk artists, big Li Xiushan cultural sites, We should create a good atmosphere of traditional culture, encourage the new generation to contact and understand traditional culture, and have a correct and one-sided view of traditional culture from an early age. At the same time, cultural controllers such as folk artists must also scrupulously abide by the rules handed down from ancient times, conscientiously adhere to the cultural principles of their own industries, and conscientiously carry out inheritance work.

For a modern country, it needs not only strong economic strength, strong national defense strength, but also profound and rich cultural strength. Otherwise, a country that has lost its national spirit is like a creature that has lost its soul. It is just a body without inner strength, and will eventually be eliminated in the world trend. Therefore, it is extremely important to protect our own traditional culture.

　 5、 Worthy of reference

In the context of globalization and the high prosperity of western culture today, it is unrealistic to maintain the glory of that year. However, for the Japanese, traditional culture, especially kimono, has always been a symbol of national spirit. No matter how hard it will be on the way forward, the Japanese who attach importance to tradition and national connotation will try their best to preserve this traditional art. Therefore, for China, where the social atmosphere is increasingly impetuous and money worship is prevalent, Japan's cultural reservation attitude, especially the emphasis on kimono, will be an important link for us to learn modestly on the way to success and progress in terms of how to recognize the soul of the nation through the protection of traditional culture and how to shape a more sound national personality.

　 China's development is inseparable from the protection and promotion of traditional culture.