Author: Kelsey Longmuir|Kelsey Longmuir
Lower Herrick was transported 1000 years into the past for a costume show celebrating the millennial anniversary of The Tale of Genji last Thursday, Sept. 25. The Tale of Genji , a novel that was written in the Japanese Heian period (794-1185 C.E.), is about the life and loves of Prince Genji. It is particularly famous for being one of the first novels and for having a huge amount of detail about courtly life, custom and dress.
The organizers of the show normally reside in Japan, but are in southern California for just one week to put on events about The Tale of Genji . A primary goal of these events is to celebrate and raise awareness about traditional Japanese culture, something planners believe has been forgotten even in contemporary Japan.
Professor Hiroaki Sera and his translator read the audience the opening chapter of the novel in both Japanese and English. He then showed two painted scrolls depicting scenes from the novel, which had costumes similar to the ones that would be modeled.
Professor Shizuko Seo, principal of a Kimono Academy in Japan, described the costumes as they were being put on Oxy students. There were two people dressing each Oxy student, and it was clear that dressing like this on a day-to-day basis had been no easy feat.
The audience giggled as layer after layer was wrapped around the poor, sweating Oxy models. Seo said that on a formal occasion it was normal for aristocratic women to wear over 20 layers and for the whole outfit to weigh around 40 pounds.
Clothing was highly regulated in the Heian period, and not always practical. Aristocratic men would have to wear hats all the time, even when sleeping. Women of status would wear white powder on their faces that was about 5mm thick.
In my personal favorite part of the show, Seo explained the reason for the painted fans – the ones I imagine a woman fluttering in front of her eyes every time I think of traditional Japan. It turns out that if the women laughed their white powder would crack, and the fans were meant to be put in front of their eyes so that they would not see anything funny.
As icing on the cake, the fans were used as a kind of shield so that the women’s’ bad breath wouldn’t float over to whoever they were talking to. Seo jokingly pointed out that the Heian traditional dress was functional after all.
The entire show was a time capsule of extravagance and tradition no longer existent in contemporary Japan. Like Americans, the people of contemporary Japan wear more or less what they want.
I took from the show an intense appreciation of the overall functionality of American clothing. Sure, there are those of us that subject ourselves to corset dresses and wear high heels to class every day, but that is a choice. I am grateful that being en vogue doesn’t require 5mm of makeup and at least 10 layers of clothing.
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