The Colors of the Junihitoe: Kasane Color Layering and the Aesthetics of the Heian Court
The Most Opulent Court Dress in the History of Fashion
Its train sweeps gracefully across the tatami floor, and gradations of layered silk spill like a rainbow from the sleeves and collar. The junihitoe, or "twelve-layered robe," is the highest form of formal dress for women of the Japanese court and a symbol of traditional Japanese beauty. It adorns timeless classics of court literature such as The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book, and it is still worn today at the most important imperial ceremonies, including enthronements and royal weddings.
The name junihitoe was not actually the official term in the Heian period. Official records and diaries of the time called it itsutsuginu karaginu mo, "five robes, Chinese jacket and train," or nyobo shozoku, "the attire of court ladies." The word junihitoe became common after the Kamakura period, when works such as The Tale of the Heike described, with literary exaggeration, a splendid outfit of twelve layered robes.
The actual number of layers was not fixed at twelve and varied with rank and the importance of the occasion, but the beauty of its layered silks still captivates people around the world a thousand years later.
The complete outfit can weigh as much as 15 to 20 kilograms. To modern eyes it may seem like a restraint that makes walking difficult. For aristocratic women of the Heian court, however, it was not just clothing but a walking work of art, expressing their intelligence, their family standing and their finely tuned sensitivity to the changing seasons.
After the imperial embassies to Tang China were suspended in 894 on the advice of Sugawara no Michizane, Heian court society saw a great flowering of kokufu bunka, a "national-style culture" that absorbed continental influences and refined them to suit Japan's own climate and sense of beauty. In clothing, too, the slim and active Tang-style garments gave way to loose, generously cut layers that held air and suited Japan's hot, humid climate.
The ultimate expression of this harmony between Japan's natural environment and aristocratic taste was the itsutsuginu karaginu mo.
Anatomy of the Junihitoe: A Precisely Layered System
From the innermost garment to the outermost jacket, the junihitoe is built as a highly detailed and logical layering system.
- Hadakosode and nagabakama: The innermost layer is a pure white silk kosode, worn with long trailing trousers in scarlet (for unmarried and younger women) or deep purplish red (for married and older women). The scarlet hakama, which completely hid the feet, served as a sacred boundary around a woman of high rank.
- Hitoe: The first robe worn over the hakama, an unlined robe of thin silk woven with patterns such as diamonds. It is cut slightly longer than the other robes and sets the base proportions for all the layers above.
- Itsutsuginu: Five robes of the same shape layered over the hitoe. This is the most important element of the junihitoe's visual splendor, with five colors peeking out in slightly staggered bands at the sleeves, collar and hem.
- Uchiginu: A vivid crimson silk robe worn over the five layers. Its name comes from the practice of beating the cloth on a fulling block to give it luster and body, and it lends the whole silhouette a crisp, dignified line.
- Uwagi: A luxurious outer robe woven with patterns such as arabesques, birds and animals in gold, silver and colored threads, displaying the wearer's rank and status.
- Karaginu and mo: The two items that make the junihitoe full formal court dress. The karaginu is a short jacket worn over the upper body, carrying the formality of Tang Chinese style. The mo is a pleated train tied at the waist and trailing far behind, flowing like waves with every step and leaving a magnificent impression.
Wearing the Seasons: The Color Philosophy of Kasane no Irome
The highest aesthetic achievement of the junihitoe is kasane no irome, the art of layered color combinations.
Aristocratic women of the Heian period sat deep behind bamboo blinds called misu and did not show their faces directly to men or outsiders. Almost the only way they could express themselves to the outside world was through the color combinations of the sleeves and hems they let slip just outside the edge of the blinds, a display known as idashiginu.
Kasane no irome was not simply a matter of arranging favorite colors. It was a visual language that recreated the shifting beauty of Japan's four seasons, its flowers and plants, its weather and the fleeting moods of the air, through the outer and inner fabrics of a robe or the gradations of the five layers.
- Spring: "Sakura" (cherry blossom): White outside with deep pink lining, expressing the delicate beauty of mountain cherries in full bloom.
- Early summer: "Kakitsubata" (iris): Purple outside with fresh yellow-green lining, contrasting the purple flowers of irises standing by the water with their lush green leaves.
- Autumn: "Momiji" (autumn maple): Red, pale red, yellow and green layered from top to bottom, capturing within a single outfit the gradation of green leaves gradually turning to brilliant autumn red.
- Winter: "Yuki no shita" (beneath the snow): White outside with plum-red lining, suggesting the life of plum blossoms quietly budding beneath fallen snow as they wait for spring.
Wearing colors too far ahead of the season, or colors whose season had already passed, would mark a woman as kokoronaki hito, a person lacking taste and refinement, and make her a target of ridicule at court. Color was a measure of one's deep respect for nature and one's cultivation.
These delicate colors were created with advanced plant-dyeing techniques using natural dyes such as gromwell root, safflower, madder, kariyasu grass and indigo. Unlike chemical dyes, natural dyes shift subtly with temperature, humidity and the mix of lye used as a mordant. Heian aristocrats cherished these subtle variations as utsuroi, the beauty of change, and even enjoyed the way colors faded over time as an expression of impermanence, a sensibility connected to the later aesthetic of wabi-sabi.
The rules of dressing and color combination were later strictly codified in the scholarly tradition of yusoku kojitsu, becoming the lasting standard of Japanese court aesthetics.
The Pride of Court Ladies and a Legacy of Beauty
In The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon sharply criticized court ladies whose dress was untidy or whose color choices were clumsy, while vividly recording her delight on encountering outfits of perfect harmony. Murasaki Shikibu, in her diary, described in detail, almost like a color photograph, the splendid display of court ladies' costumes at the ceremonies celebrating the birth of a child to Empress Shoshi.
For these women, refining their sense of color in dress was a serious battlefield of culture, no less important than the political struggles of the male aristocracy. The graceful and delicate aesthetics of kokufu bunka, which fully absorbed Tang culture and adapted it to Japan's climate, reached their peak in the layered beauty of the junihitoe.
In today's fashion world, Japanese layered styles and delicate gradations of intermediate tones are highly valued internationally. Trace them back to their source, and you arrive at the refined sensibility of the court women of Heian-kyo a thousand years ago, who gave their hearts to the flowers of the four seasons and expressed the colors of their souls through layers of silk.
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References
- Kawade Shobo Shinsha (ed.), Junihitoe no Hanashi, Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2012
- Sengoku Munehisa, Ocho no Shozoku to Biishiki, Tankosha, 2007
- Nagasaki Seiki, Kasane no Irome: Heian no Haisaibi, Seigensha, 2006
- Yamaori Tetsuo, Nihonjin no Biishiki, PHP Shinsho, 2003
- Yoshioka Sachio, Nihon no Iro o Someru, Iwanami Shinsho, 2002
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