Figure 1.--Here we have a CDV portrait showing an early Japanese school uniform. It is the earliest we have found so far. Unfortunately it is not dated. We would guess it was taken in the 1870s, in part because of the striped long stockingds abd the studio set. His uniform It has some features of the cadet uniform, including the cap, that became so standard, but is not navy blue. As far as we can tell, the uniform styles were left up to the individual schools.

Immediately after the Meiji Restoration, there werre no school uniforms. Public schools did not yet exist. A najor goal of the Meji Government was to laubch afree public scgool system for all achildren, including girls and the working-class. A need for a school uniform soon became apparent. Japan was a very class-bound society. Boys generally followed their father's occupation and inherited his staus. A person's status in society was reflected in how they and their children dressed. Creating a Western education system educating everyone was a huge departure from the past. But bringing children from all classes together on an equal footing was a social revolution of enormous proportions. Here clothing presented a problem. Students came to school wearing garments based on their family background and and status. This caused a range of problems because the children and their parents were not used to be treated eually. Boys from a samurai family would wear swords to class as expected a degree of deference. Merchants had low status. Boys from a trading family would wear clothes that identified them. Peasant children would feel inferior surounded by their social betters. As a result, a uniform was needed tom level mout the social differenes--rather like smockls which the Third Republic introduced in France at about the same time. nly the social divisions in Japan were much deeper and ossified by a system little changed for centuries. There had been no French Revolution in Japan.

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Created: 1:18 AM 8/4/2021
Last updated: 1:18 AM 8/4/2021