Figure 1.-- We notice school photographs with the children wearing traditional clothes even though they are in uniforms in most of the other photographs. This school is an exmple of this. Note the teachers in Western suits. The photograph here is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1930s. |
We are not sure if this was their normal school wear or a kind of special dress for martial arts like kendo. The images are common enough that some boys obviously wore them as ordinary schoolwear. We assume that this was particularly common in rural areas, but we also see urban images. We see boys wearing traditional clothes while involved in various activities. At urban schools the children may have put on traditional clothing for special days, such as the day for the school photograph. It looks like before World War II most Japanese children and adults had traditional clothes. People in the cities, especially men and boys, appear to have worn their traditional clothes only for special occassions or at home. We do not have a lot of details about this, but we know this must be case because we notice school photographs with the children wearing traditional clothes even though they are in uniforms in most of the other photographs. The school portrait here is an example of one of those schools (figure 1).
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