Everyday Life in Traditional Japan. Charles Dunn
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to be equipped with other than simple weapons. Thus not much more was required than stout gates and steep approaches.
(12) Himeji Castle, known as the “White Heron,” is a great complex of walls and buildings, and illustrates the defensive features mentioned in the text.
One of the most magnificent of these castles is that built by Ieyasu at Kyoto in the first decade of the seventeenth century. More of a palace than a castle, it was used as the Shogun’s lodging when he came to Kyoto; it was in a grandiose style, partly to rival the Emperor’s palace, and partly to compete with the glories of Hideyoshi’s castle (which Ieyasu later had destroyed) outside Kyoto. Nijō Castle is still surrounded by a wall and moat, and the mound on which the keep was built remains, although the keep itself is gone. The palace is basically a series of rooms, the floors covered by tatami—thick straw mats finished with woven grass, the standard flooring in houses of the well to do. The rooms are divided from the corridors which run outside them by sliding screens, while the corridors are separated from the outside world by screens of wooden lattice covered with paper to let in light, with further heavy wooden screens, like shutters, that would be moved over at night and in bad weather. The rooms nearest the entrance were for visiting lords, and the more worthy of trust a person was, the nearer he could approach the audience chamber (13) and the private apartments. Near the Shogun’s position in the audience chamber were some compartments which concealed soldiers posted there ready to dash out in an emergency, while the silent approach of a would-be assassin could be detected because of the special construction of the plank floor of the “nightingale” corridor which makes it “sing” as one walks along it.
(13) Audience chamber in Nijo Castle, with wax figures of the Shogun and his lords, in court dress. To the Shogun’s left is his sword-bearer, behind whom is the room in which lurked the bodyguard.
The koku-rating of samurai was used in all sorts of circumstances. Below daimyō with their minimum of 10,000 koku, it determined the area of the plot on which a samurai was allowed to build. For example, 8,000 koku entitled him to about two acres, 2,000 koku to about one acre, while the lowest income of five bales of rice gave the right to about 280 square yards. In fact, the lowest grades lived more or less communally, in “long houses,” divided into apartments with some degree of shared accommodation. A typical arrangement was to have a gateway with a row of rooms as its upper story. Lastly, there were some samurai who had no official income at all and no right to a residence; these were the masterless men, the rōnin, who had either abandoned their allegiance or whose master had been deprived of his post. The rōnin were some of the freest inhabitants of traditional Japan, since they maintained their samurai status without the burden of its duties, but forgoing its assured sustenance. They earned a living as best they could: some became writers, Confucian scholars, or schoolteachers; some, instructors in swordsmanship or other military arts; others traded on their ability with their weapons and hired themselves out as bodyguards and trouble-shooters for rich merchants. While they were earning, they could afford comfortable accommodation; when things went less well, they had to live at best in temples, at worst in what rough shelter they could find.
14 (a). Samurai in naga-bakama.
(b). Samurai in kami-shimo.
Rank was also reflected in clothes. For ceremonial occasions and when on duty, the samurai wore clothes as shown in figure 14b. The formal part of his attire is the kami-shimo, the combination of “upper and lower,” that is, an over-jacket (kataginu) with stiffened shoulders and trousers (hakama), more like a divided skirt; the trousers had a very low crotch, and openings at the sides, and were held in place by two sets of ties on the front and rear parts, fastening round the waist. On ordinary occasions for samurai of all ranks, and for lower-ranking ones at all times, these trousers finished at a little above ground-level, but for superior ranking warriors at special ceremonies, very long trousers were worn; these trailed on the floor and the feet were entirely enclosed within them (14a). The wearing of these nagabakama required special skill; any change of direction had to be accompanied by sharp movements of the feet to bring the trailing portion behind the wearer, otherwise there was danger of tripping; he must also grip each leg of the trousers, pulling it up at every step to give his leg room for movement. It was possible to run in them, but this required extremely good coordination between hand and leg. Obviously this was an impracticable garment, although an imposing one; its use was a status symbol, demonstrating that its wearer had the leisure to learn to manage it, but it is also said that the rulers ordered it to be worn because it would impede anyone if he tried to make a violent attack. They were not normally worn out of doors.
Beneath the kami-shimo, the ordinary kimono was worn, with a girdle behind which the straps of the shoulder garment were inserted, and underneath that a white undergarment which showed at the neck. The swords in their scabbards were held by this girdle. The costume was completed by white tabi—socks with a padded sole and a division between the big toe and the smaller ones to allow for the thong of the footwear, when that was worn. The Shogun himself, and daimyō when not in attendance upon him, did not wear kami-shimo, but had luxurious garments of the normal kimono shape. For the rare, very grandest ceremonies, the Shogun and his entourage wore Imperial court costume, with a hat indicative of rank (13).
When on official journeys, mounted samurai wore the trousers, with a three-quarter-length kimono-shaped coat (haori) instead of the shoulder-jacket; this was held together by a tie at chest-level. A flat round hat, slightly conical, for protection against sun and rain was also standard wear. The men on foot wore a sort of breeches, drawn in at the knee, with leggings. The coat was lifted up at the back by the sword, and gave a characteristic silhouette to the samurai when he was on a journey (15).
Generally speaking, colors for samurai clothes were very sober, being mainly dullish blues, grays, and browns, either plain or with small patterns or stripes. The shoulder-jacket and kimono worn beneath it normally bore the wearer’s family crest, his mon (14). Trousers were lined for winter wear, unlined for summer wear, the dates for the change being fixed at the fifth day of the fifth month and the first day of the ninth month. Off-duty dress was the kimono without jacket or trousers. A samurai going to town for pleasure would often hide his face by wearing some sort of deep hat, often a rather comical basket-like affair, in order not to be recognized, for he might well be disobeying the rules of the establishment in which he resided.
Another characteristic feature was the arrangement of the hair. The top of the head was shaved, with the hair at the back and sides gathered together into a queue, oiled, and then doubled forward over the crown, being tied where it was doubled over. The bunch of hair was trimmed off very neatly into a cleanly cut end. It was very important for the samurai not to have a hair out of place, and it was most embarrassing for him to have the tie become undone or cut in a sword-fight; it was even worse if the whole queue was cut off. If he was ill, he would leave the crown unshaven, and the hair would grow into a bushy mass, but he would not appear in public like this.
(15) Samuari on journey.
The greater proportion of the duties of a samurai were concerned