Tag Archive | buddhism

Dat Hat

Jan14

So a question came up on the SCA-Japanese page about a certain print of the famous general, Uesugi Kenshin. Here is the picture posted:

Uesugi Kenshin by Kuniyoshi

This depiction is by the artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, from the book “Stories of 100 Heroes of High Renown” published in 1843/1844. The question regarded the headwear that Kenshin was wearing. Was it some kind of zukin?

First off, probably not a zukin, as those are much more simple in design. There are a few options that occurred to me.

It could be a Kato-no-kesa, which I have written about previously here and here. As Kenshin was famed for being a devout Buddhist, it would not be unheard of for him to wear a kato-no-kesa into battle.

However, I looked around at other depictions of Kenshin. In some, it is obvious he IS wearing kato-no-kesa, such as this statue of him which stands on the site of the ruins of the former Kasugayama Castle.

uesugi_kenshin_kato_no_kesa Photographer unknown.

However, other pictures depict him wearing what is clearly a sunboshi 角帽子 “peaked hat”, like this statue that stands at the Uesugi Jinja Shrine in Yonezawa, Japan.

Uesugi kenshin.jpg
パブリック・ドメイン, Link

Several years ago, I stumbled upon a picture on Pixiv where an artist had drawn several varieties of mosu (which is simply another pronunciation of boshi 帽子, which just means “hat”, however, it is only utilized for Buddhist headwear–no written source for that fact, I learned that from a Japanese professor I was talking to at a convention. If you look at the Chinese pronunciation of that kanji, you can see how that term evolved). It’s really a remarkable drawing, showing these various Buddhist headdresses from several angles. I didn’t find the artist’s name, but I did manage to pin down the blog it originally came from (not where I found the image originally), which is here. Hasn’t been updated in a few years, though.

mosu_variations

Looks to me like Kenshin is wearing a variation of that. The peaked hat you see on the top row is sunboshi 角帽子 “peaked hat”, as mentioned above, but if you search in Japanese with that word, it LITERALLY MEANS peaked, so hats with horns or cat’s ears and such are also included in the term.

So it could be in Kuniyoshi’s depiction of Kenshin, he is either wearing some kind of mosu or it could be a sunboshi that was folded over and tied down. It’s hard to tell due to the stylization, but with the side-flaps in the picture, I’d lean towards maybe a sunboshi. OTOH, the way the headdress flares out seems more like kato-no-kesa to me.

So in conclusion, I’m not sure 100%. Kenshin probably wore both at one time or another. Although in this portrait from the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art that was painted much closer to his lifetime, he was depicted with no headdress at all!

Uesugi Kenshin with Two Retainers (Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art).jpg
By Muromachi-period artist – http://www.suntory.co.jp/sma/jp/merumagakaiin/vol49/index.html, Public Domain, Link

Something New to Play With

May10

yamabushi-benkei-4
Benkei (the most famous sōhei) from the NHK Taiga Drama, Yoshitsune.

So as I recover from a recent surgery, I have been thinking about getting into Cut and Thrust (Calontir’s version of rapier) after I heal up. Yesterday, the Kingdom marshal for C&T was putting together a group order for gauntlets (he could get a good price if he ordered over 10 pair) and I decided to go in for a pair. Evidently, the rules are changing and the Society is beginning to require rigid protection for the hands.

Yes, technically, I could make gauntlets, especially the hardened leather types, as I have made armor in the past. But the bulk price of $40 (plus a percentage of the group shipping) made it worthwhile to buy. A couple of people in Calontir already have these type of gauntlets, so the kingdom marshal has cleared them for use. (Might need some slight mods, not sure yet.)

Not five minutes after I posted to the interest thread than Ayisha (more properly, HE Baroness Ayisha bint Asad), a local scribe I know who is a C&T enthusiast, PM’d me asking if I was planning to get into C&T. I told her that I was interested, that I had tried rapier back in the Midrealm years ago, but as an armored fighter, I didn’t have the time/money to pursue both. She was thrilled, and said she could bring the Barony’s loaner gear to either one of the Shire meetings or Shire fighter practices (we’re actually starting to have our own, wonder of wonders) if I let her know in advance. She’d be happy to go over all the basics with me, etc. She knows I’m still healing up, so no rush. She just really was eager for a new recruit, LOL.

So yeah, taking that first step. Usually I’d wait on the armor, but since this was a chance to save money, I decided to spring for the gauntlets.

While I heal up, I was giving some thought to the type of kit I would like to have. I’ve admired West Kingdoms’s HE Baroness Saionji no Hana’s rapier get-up, but I was thinking more in the terms of sōhei, especially since I have been researching kato no kesa (their headgear) for awhile, and have been wanting to try to make one.

Sōhei wore typical monk’s garb: kosode, ( Jikitotsu, and kukuri-bakama. Not sure with the kukuri-bakama if I could add ties directly to hakama to get the effect, or make kyahan (leg wraps).

One advantage of this style is that I would not have to worry about being fancy with the fabric. This outfit was traditionally black and white (or brown and white).

I liked Saionji-kimi’s idea of a shitagi for body protection and will give that a try.

Obviously, geta are not a practical choice–the marshal wants closed-toe shoes. I have some jika-tabi that could work for that. Maybe for effect I could make some waraji to wear with them?

The process will take some time, both to make the outfit and also figure out what kind of sword, mask/helm, and gorget I would need. I can decided that after I go through some practices and talk more with Ayisha. But this is the general plan I have in mind. I don’t mind being patient, since it took me nearly a year to build my first suit of armor when I was heavy-weapons fighting. I borrowed armor at practice (everyone knew I was building a set, so I waited my turn and no one minded) in the meantime. I figure this process would be similar.

Anyway, it looks like it will be fun, and also good exercise!

Yamabushi and Sōhei Headwear

Jan8

This is from the SCA Japanese Facebook community–I was answering a question regarding yamabushi and their headwear. The original question was whether yamabushi would wear the same kind of cowl that sōhei wore into battle, and also if anyone could recommend books/sources on the subject of yamabushi.

[A quick definition: yamabushi 山伏 were/are mountain ascetics, usually solitary monks who adhered to Shugendō, esoteric Buddhism which mostly descends from the Shingon sect, but had other influences as well, including Tendai Buddhism, Shinto, and Daoism. Sōhei 僧兵 were warrior monks that were usually attached to a monastery. Yamabushi would sometimes fight, but they were mostly loners and fought in loose confederations, whereas sōhei were groups attached to monasteries.]

The Teeth and Claws of Buddha by Mikael S. Adolphson is the most thorough book I’ve found on the subject of warrior monks. Osprey has done two books on them, one on the Yamabushi and one on the monasteries. Interesting general reading, but start with Adolphson’s book if you want to go deeper into the subject.

What the sōhei wore on their heads was called kato no kesa 裏頭（か［くわ］とう）の袈裟（けさ）, and they were kesa (usually worn on the chest) worn on the head–that is technically what kato no kesa means. The yamabushi would sometimes wear kato no kesa, but the headdress more identified with them is the tokin 頭襟, which looks kinda like a small black box. The Japanese Costume museum has it larger and covering the head, but I’ve seen pictures of it being smaller and worn near the forehead, as it is today. Here is a site that has some description of yamabushi clothing. It starts with doctrine, scroll down to see the parts about clothing.

As to whether a tokin would be worn in battle, I am not sure. The emaki depictions that I’ve seen of yamabushi have often just been of them traveling, and they did wear the tokin at those times.

Here’s a picture of a yamabushi from the Japanese Costume museum. Note the hat:

yamabushi_jp_costume_museum
from the Japanese Costume Museum

Now compare to this modern Yamabushi–these are the small tokin I’ve seen in emaki scrolls:

>yamabushi_tokin
from the now-defunct homepage of Kannonji Temple, Shiga Prefecture. Photographer unknown.

And this is an example of the kato no kesa that sōhei wore:

Benkei
From the Taiga Drama, Yoshitsune, scanned by me.

Update and Correction: when questioned by HE Master Ii Katsumori regarding the modern Yamabushi (who I first identified as a reenactor), I dug deeper to find the origin of the picture, which had been uploaded to Pinterest. The picture is from a now-defunct Japanese webpage (the company hosting it closed, but the Wayback Machine caught it) here: http://homepage3.nifty.com/huayan/temple/event06.htm. I can’t link directly to the Wayback Machine’s page, but that’s the original (defunct) page. Just plug that in the Wayback Machine to see the text (not pictures) of the original.

This used to be the homepage of Kannonji temple. Some more digging showed that the man in the picture is Professor Yoshida Eirie, a professor of Buddhism at Hanazono University in Kyoto and a priest of Kumano Shugendo. Also a martial-arts master of Kukishinden Tenshin Hyoho Ryu. So yes, he IS a modern Yamabushi.

An Examination of Zukin

Jan2

Here is a link to my Queen’s Prize Entry for 2016, which looks at zukin (hoods), often worn by Buddhist monks and nuns, but also, it turns out, by others, mostly from the lower classes. Format is PDF.

Yoshitsune_peek
Woman wearing a sode-zukin from the NHK taiga drama “Yoshitsune”.

The paper is at this link: An Examination of Zukin

I totally should be sleeping right now

Jan2

God bless obsessive manga artists who blog about their work and how they are going to draw medieval Buddhist outfits by making little drawings showing how said outfits are put together. Sure, it’s a tertiary source, but given the lack of primary and secondary sources in English (except photos of emaki, paintings, and statues, and some spare descriptions on the Japanese Costume Museum site), I’ll take it. Got a lot of translation to do, though. (PS, I will share the source later once I get some things translated, including the artist/writer’s name, so I can properly credit). (PSS: Won’t be this week, cause Worldcon.) Oh, and those cloth hats the ladies are wearing in The Maple Viewers? So totally zukin. Like I said. *vindication feels like victory*

GODS of Japan, A to Z Photographic Dictionary

Jan2

I had seen this page linked on the SCA Japan FB page a while back, but ran across the author in another forum today, so wanted to share the link here as well. Exhaustive list of Japanese statuary, mostly Buddhist with some Shinto. There’s a lot to go through on this site, but very useful AND all in English!

GODS of Japan, A to Z Photographic Dictionary of Japanese Religious Statuary and Art