Japanese School Uniform Caps: Wide-brimmed Hats


Figure 1.--We have noted some younger apanese children wearing wide-brimmed hats with rounded crowns. They were not exceeding wide brims, but wide-brimmed hats note-the-less. We have seen older primary boys wearing them less commonly. They were noraslly worn with chin straps. You can see the chin strap here, although you have to look closely as it is white.

We have noted some younger Japanese children wearing wide-brimmed hats with rounded crowns. These were not floppy caps that could be folded up, but a stiffer construction. They were not excceding wide brims, but hats wirh destinctive brims none-the-less. We have seen these hats with brims of various withs. As far as we can tell, they all came with rounded crowns, although here there were some variations. We have seen mostly younger boys wearing them. but some older boys also wore them. They were made with chin straps, but not all the boys used them. This was a style worn by both boys and girls. The colors we have noted or white or shades of white as well as blue caps. The white caps seem to have the widest brims.

Conventions

Many Japanese schools that did not have unifoerms adopted caps, often brightly colored caos. As far as we can tell, these wide-brimmed caps were only adopted by schools which had uniforms. They were not as common as caps, but we see quite a few schools that has the vhats.

Construction

We have noted some younger Japanese children wearing wide-brimmed hats with rounded crowns. These were not floppy caps that could be folded up, but a stiffer construction. There was some variation here. The white hat the boy here is wearing seems very stiff. Some of the blue hats we have seen seem to be of a softer construction.

Material

The notice these wide brimmed hats done in various material. Wenote fabric, felt, and straw hats. We are not entirly sure what thematerial is for the white hat the boy here is wearing (figure 1).. Hopefully our Japanese readers will be able to tell us more.

Brims

The hats had substantial brims, but nothing like the wide-brimmed sailor hats European boys wonce wore. They were not excceding wide brims, but hats wirh destinctive brims none-the-less. We have seen these hats with brims of various withs.

Crowns

As far as we can tell, they all came with rounded crowns, although here there were some variations. Not only is the heighth of the crowns some what different, but the stiffness of the material and construction gives a somewhat different look in these hats.

Age

We have seen younger childrens wearing these hats most commonly. They were only worn in primary schools. Most available images show mostly younger primary children wearing them. We have seen some images of older primary boys wearing them, including boys up to 12 years of age. We are not sure why most available images are of younger boys. As far as we know, schools with these hats adopted them for the whole school and not just the younger boys. We have never heard of a school having different headwear for different age children, except for the kindergarden children.

Wearing the Hats

There were various ways of these wide brimmed hats. We are not sure if the schools instructed the children on how to wear them properly. Of course there were probably differences from school to school. We do not see them being worn cocked to one side, but they could be worn back on the head to varying degrees so the front of the hat was up a bit. We see some patents doing this when taking photographs. We see the same tendencu at play in 19th century studio portaits when these hats were comommon in the West. When hats were worn, especially broad-brimmed hats, mother would pull them back so more of the boy's face and some of his hair was vissible. For the most part, however, the Japanese school children seem to have worn them fairly well seated on the head with the front and back of the hat about the same height, perhaps the front raised up a bit. This is probably how the parents sent the children off to school. The older children might have adjusted them a bit, mostly raising the front a littlke. Here we are not yet sure and we will need more images to fully assess just how the children were wearing them.

Chin Straps

These hats came with chin straps. We think they all did, but here are not sure. As far as we can tell almost all of them had chin straps. It is not always obvious because they could be tucked into the gat if the boy did not want to wear them. Both the white and blue hats had chin straps.The boy here can be seen wearing his hat with a chin strap (figuure 1). The boys did not, however, always wear them. Some schools eem to have had rules about wearing the chin straps. Notice the boy here wears his chin strap hehind his ear. We do not know show common that was. We notice other schools where the children are not using the chin straps. A good example is a Takayama school. Some schools may have had rules about wearing the chin straps.

Gender

These wide-brimmed hat were a style worn by both boys and girls. At some schools both the boys and girls wore these hats. Some schools, however, had different styles of hats for boys and girls.

Colors

Unlike other headwear, these wide-brimmed caps appear to come in a fairly limited range of colors. The colors we have noted are white or shades of white as well as blue hats. We have also noted straw-colored hats. The white hats seem to have been the most common, although our limited archive makes it impossible to accurately assess which colors are the most common. The white caps seem to have the widest brims and the stiffest construction. We have seen the blue hats. The only color we have seen is a dark blue. The blue hats were much less common. The ones we have noted were at prestigious private schools. The blue hats seem to have had a softer look. Many Japanese school caps were made in bright colors, especially yellow. We have not seen these wide-brimmed hats made un these bright colors. The only we have seen are the white and blue ones. But that does not mean there were not ones made in bright colors. Our archives on these hats is still very limited.

School Type

We are not sure about the type of schools where these hats were worn. We think they were worn at both private and public schools, but here we need more information.






HBC-SU






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Created: May 8, 2004
Last updated: 3:36 AM 7/5/2014