Figure 1.--This unidentified boy wears a Prussian cadet-style cap, used at many schools. It was probanly a school requirement. The rest of his outfit is non-uniform items. He has a grey double-breasted short pants suit, white shirt, red tie, brown tightss, and slip -on shoes. Tights replaced long stockings in the 1960s. The portrait is undated, but was probanly taken about 1970.

Unlike the West, it was not very common for Japanese children to go barefoot. We see most Japanese children wearing wooden geta sandals. It was these wooden sandals that were common. And they were commonly worn with split-toe tabi socks--almost always wuite. Here we are primarily going on he photographiuc record which is fairly sparce for the 19th century. We know much more about the 20th century. As Japanse children tansitioned to Western clothing and photography became populr, we know much more. We mostly see boys wearing dark ankle socks before World War II. During cool weather children often wore long stockings on a seasonl basis. Here gender was a factor. For girls modesty was a fctor for long stockings. After the war hosiery became more varied. We see both dark socks and white socks. The darl socks were often blue. We note both ankle socks and knee socks. Some younger children in the 1960s began wearting tights rather than long stockings. The associatedf conventions were the same. Tights were not availblke earlier for children. As with long stockings, cool wether was the primary reason for long stockings, for girls, erspecuially older girlds, modesty was a modesty was a factor. Both boys and girls wore them, with boys they were mostly worn by younger boys. Knee socks, especiallu white knee socks, in the west are commonly seen as a dressy look. This does not seem to have been the case in Japan. We do see knee socks worn at uniform schools, but we also see them worn at the non-uniform schools. We even see boys weating jean shorts with white knee socks.

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Created: 11:27 PM 7/1/2022
Last updated: 11:27 PM 7/1/2022