Figure 1.-Here we see a Yokahama street scene in 1890. Notice that late in even decade that people, both children and adults, in a major city are still wearing traditional clothes. While taken in the late-19th century, we suspect that the photoraph could have been taken any time in the 19th century. Perhaps our Japanese readers will see something modern here that we do not see.

Japanese boys mostly wore traditional clothing in the 19th century. This was entirely the case in the first half of the century, and largely true in the second half of the centuury even after the opening to the West. Western dress was not worn in Japan until the opening to the West initiated by Commodore Perry and his black ships at mid-century (1853). The small number of forerigners had little or no impact on Japanese clothes. It continued to be relatively until the turn of the century. After the Menji Restoration you begin to see Western dress, especially in the cities. To some extent it was seen as an aspect of moderniization. Western-style school uniforms were adopted for the new national school system.

Early-19th Century (1800-67)

Japanese boys in the early 19th century wore traditionl clothing. We diverge here from our general approach on HBC. We are not creating a mid-19th century section, because we see no difference in clothing styles between the early and mid-19th century. In fact, as far as we can tell, the styles were similar to those that had been worn for hundreds of years. Our information on these traditional garments, however, is very limited. We do not, for example, know much about these traditional garments. I do not know if traditional Japanese dress had specialized boys' garments or if men and boys wore basically the same styles.Western dress was not worn in Japan until the opening to the West initiated by Commodore Perry and his black ships at mid-century (1853). The small number of forerigners had little or no impact on Japanese clothes. This only begun to change with the Menji Restoration (1867) and then only slowly.

Late-19th Century (1868-99)

In the years right after the end of Japan's isolation in 1868, Japanese boys continued to wear traditional attire. With the opening to the west, western clothes were introduced. Western clothes gradually became associated with progress and modernity. Notably at first it was more common to see men and boys in western clothes than women and girls. The ascendancy of military values in the latter 19th Century and the building of a public educational system on German lines, boys overwhelmingly came to be dressed in school uniforms and the Japanese militarists chose the uniform of the Prussian army cadets. Prussia had succeed in forging German Empire which was beginning to dominate Europe and the Japanese were impressed. Japan began to rapidly modernize after the Menji Restoration. Some Japanese in the cities began to wear Western dress. We believe this was at first largely the urban elite. Western dress continued to be relatively rare among the common people through to the the turn of the century.

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Created: 6:17 PM 10/11/2006
Last updated: 2:13 AM 6/23/2009