How fashion served as a tool in transforming Japan into a modernized nation, maintaining gender roles, and acclimating Japanese immigrants to a foreign land. 

The Meiji Restoration and Era 

The Rokumeikan after its completion in 1883. Source: Wikimedia Commons, “Rokumeikan.jpg.” 

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japan experienced a transformational change called the Meiji Restoration and era (1868-1912), an event in which would modernize the nation, revolutionizing culture, society, and politics. Though one transformation of this time that stands out was fashion. While the clothing styles such as the Kimono has long served Japan as the traditional, standard dress, foreign interaction and influence within the West increasingly became popular. As Western culture became symbols of participation in the modern world and diplomacy, the fashion of the West became well-adapted into Japanese society, revealing many things about Japanese culture and the progression of the time, such as gender roles. These changes would further involve themselves in Japanese immigration to the West, including the settlers of the Yamato Colony in Florida in 1904. The experience of the Yamato Colony documents and gives example to how fashion trends followed the unique balance of adapting to American life while preserving Japanese tradition.  

Following the political revolution of the Meiji Restoration Japanese leaders created a series of change that would allow Japan to be perceived as a modern nation equal to that of Western nations. As a result, Government officials and military leaders fashioned themselves in Western style regalia and uniforms. This adaptation of Western culture extended as far as to Emperor Meiji, who typically dressed in formal Western clothing and into the diplomacy experienced in forming peace treaties. The Rokumeikan, built in Tokyo in 1883 symbolizes this as it was largely built so officials could be seen in Western fashions in order to persuade Western nations into believing Japan was modern and worthy enough of to revise previous unequal treaties. 

Gender Differences  

“Emperor Meiji in 1873” by Uchida Kuichi (public domain) 

Men who indulged in Western fashion were typically classified into two groups, haikara and bankara. Haikara –high collar–men were associated with the wealthy and powerful that often reserved roles as state officials. High collar officials typically dressed themselves in gentlemanly style, accessorizing themselves in Western suits, “top hats, frock coats, gold spectacles, and walking sticks” (Stalker 2018, 234). In contrast, bankara –uncouth and rough– men were the result of those who resented and protested against haikara who modernized for personal financial advancement rather than national change. These men often did so by fashioning themselves in less appealing clothing such as “wooden clogs and frayed kimonos” (Stalker 2018, 234). However, despite these differences over the span of the Meiji era Western clothing would increasingly become more common, settling these differences until they became but little. Additionally, the term haikara would change meaning, evolving from a word that identified wealthy men to an overall definition that classified every fashion form that was considered in trend and style.  

Empress Shōken (Haruko) (1849-1914) in Western garb, a sign of the reform taken under the Meiji era (1868- 1912) (public domain). 

Emperess Shōken added to this transformation of styles, becoming one of the strongest examples of Japanese feminine styles evolving into Western ones. In 1886, Empress Shōken shifted her traditional royal regalia into dresses inspired by the West when attending official summits. By 1887, the empress influenced and encouraged all Japanese women to follow her lead and transform Japanese wear into western ones.  

Though, while Japan experienced a shift in fashion that documented the monumental shift of Japanese culture, women and girls of lower classes did not. Rather women and girl’s outside of the upper class and court cliques maintained their classical fashions as females were expected and encouraged to maintain traditional fashion. Many ordinary Japanese women continued clothing of previous years, meaning that many of the fashions were inspired by the Genroku era (1688-1704) of Japan. Traditional dressings such as the kimono maintaining its popularity despite the increase of western fashions is an example of this. These outfits were formed by round-bodied layered kimonos, which often held colorful and detailed patterns on the fabric and intricate hairstyles. Such fashions were socialized as the ideal wear for women, and though they became symbols of Japanese fashion and culture they additionally revealed the gender and class difference throughout the nation, which often held women from the progression the rest of the nation experienced. 

The Yamato Colony  

Japanese colony – Yamato, Florida (ca. 1912). 
Note. Photograph from the Print Collections, State Archives of Florida. Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/12153 

In 1904, Japanese settlers formed the Yamato Colony in what is currently Boca Raton, Florida. As Japanese immigrants migrated from a nation in which was already experiencing a transformation that combined Japanese and Western styles, they brought Japanese traditional clothing with them while containing comprehension of Western fashion. This meant that Japanese migrants had a unique understanding of the traditional culture of both their home country and the nation they were immigrating to.  

Life in Southern Florida however was largely different from what settlers experienced in Japan. The humid and hot environment of Florida along with the physically laboring demands of farming life in which many Japanese immigrants settled into made traditional clothing such as the kimono hard to maintain. As documented by the Morikami Museum in South Florida, women –who typically arrived after men– were encouraged to leave their kimonos behind and adopt western clothing more suited for the Florida environment and agricultural conditions they would find themselves in. Unlike the elite women and men in Japan who wore Western fashions as a diplomatic act and symbolism of modernization, Yamato settlers adopted Western wear for the practicality of an ordinary and humble lifestyle. This gives historians insight into the differing lifestyles between Japanese elites, Japanese citizens, and Japanese immigrants. In Japan, people wore formal and regal Western clothing as a way of convincing the world they were equal to the West. Migrants, however, adopted Western fashions as a means to developing a life outside of their home country and the hard physical work they had to endure in order to maintain such a life.  However, this change in fashion and traditional clothing did not mean letting go of Japanese identity. Immigrants maintained language, traditional customs, and community, making these home practices central to colony life. Additionally, these changes document that adaptation and cultural preservation can become harmonious forces, intricately woven together like that of a symbolic tapestry.  

Transformational Fashion Throughout Japan and Japanese Immigrants 

Jo and Sada Sakai of Yamato (ca. 1910). 
Note. Photograph from the Print Collections, State Archives of Florida. Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/12147 

Though both groups experienced similar fashion transformation throughout the years, it reveals a lot about Japanese culture and the fact that the different groups contrasted one another. In the Meiji era, fashion was an extension of diplomacy intended to persuade the world that Japan was modern and affluent in alike to Western forces. However, Japanese immigrants adopted western styles in order fit in with the life, heat, and farm work they practiced in their developed colony.  

The transformation of clothing through Japan and its citizens reveals the broader effort to modernize and interact with the West. This gives historians insight into the differing lifestyles between Japanese elites, Japanese citizens, and Japanese immigrants. In Japan, people wore formal and regal Western clothing as a way of convincing the world they were equal to the West. Migrants, however, adopted Western fashions as means to developing a life outside of their home country and the hard physical work they had to endure in order to maintain such a life.   

The shift of traditional Japanese styles additionally documents the gender gap between men and women of the time. Men who experienced a nearly full evolution from Japanese to Western fashion were encouraged to symbolize Japan’s modernization and women who were expected to remain in kimono dressings in order to maintain tradition throughout the nation. These fashion changes further followed Japanese immigrants who settled in Florida and formed the Yamato Colony, in which traditional wear was replaced with western clothing in order to adapt to Florida’s environment and the agricultural work pursued by settlers. These various experiences reveal how fashion serves as a tool for understanding complex social, cultural, and political issues.