Samurai Clothing
Beneath the kimono, a loincloth (fundoshi) was worn, of which there were two varieties. One was essentially a wrap that, for lack of a better description, resembled a diaper (familiar to anyone who has witnessed or seen footage of some of modern Japan's more esoteric festivals); the other type (more often worn under armor) was a long piece of material worn down the front of the body. A loop slung around the neck fastened the top of the loincloth while the other end was pulled up around the other side of the abdomen and tied around the front of the lower waist with cords. Samurai had the option of wearing socks, called tabi, which included a space to separate the big toe from the other toes (to facilitate the wearing of sandals). Tabi worn in an everyday capacity were normally white and were tailored to the season ... Facial hair was common prior to the Edo Period, and was, unsurprisingly, a show on manliness on the part of the wearer. Moustaches were popular, and among generals these could become quite distinctive. Beards (while typically thin) were also worn, particularly because they made wearing helmet cords more comfortable (as anyone who has worn a military helmet for an extended period of time might sympathize with). Beards appear to have fallen out of favor and/or popularity in the Edo Period, and to this day they are rather rare among Japanese men ...
Samurai
Swords are the weapons that have come to be synonymous with the samurai. Japanese swords from the Nara period swords are called Chokutō and featured a straight blade, by the late 900s curved tachi appeared, followed by the uchigatana and ultimately the katana. Smaller commonly known companion swords are the wakizashi and the tanto.[33] A katana and a Wakizashi or tantō together are called a daishō (literally "big and small"), the wearing of a daisho became the symbol of the samurai as only a samurai was allowed to wear the daisho ...
Traditional Japanese Samurai Clothing
The samurai, the warrior class of medieval Japan, were expected to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population by their manner of dress. Samurai wore their hair in a chonmage, or topknot. They carried two swords, the katana and the wakizashi. Samurai also had clothing to wear on and off the battlefield. Some of this clothing, such as the hakama, is worn today during the practice of traditional Japanese martial arts ... Hakama ... Kimono and Kataginu ... Waraji and Tabi ... Obi ... Sarashi ...
The Japanese suit of Samurai Armor
Japanese suits of armor are typically worn in cultural cerimonies, re-enactment groups, martial arts training, weddings and costume. They can also be displayed in dojos, home, restaurant, corporate office, cultural events and museum. Japanese armor is an excellent symbol of Japanese history, culture and art and can be adapted to most any interior situation ...
Samurai Costume
The original dresses worn by the Samurai warriors provided both ease of movement in all directions without restricting the wearer and at the same time it was stitched out of tough material that would not wear down easily. Basically the dresses worn by the samurai warrior is the kimono and it consisted of two different layers, the outer one and the inner one as seen in a present samurai costume ...
Samurai Armour Clothing
As may be expected, the basic clothing item in a samurai's 'everyday' wardrobe was the kimono, which for men normally consisted of an outer and inner layer. Heavier kimonos were worn in the winter, while lighter examples (those made of finer silk, for instance) were worn in the summer. In fact, there was a ceremonial day where winter kimonos were exchanged for their summer counterparts, traditionally on the 1st day of the Fourth Month (by our reckoning, in the first week of May). A samurai's kimono would normally be made of silk, a material considered superior to cotton and hemp not only for its feel and appearance but for it's relative coolness in the hot Japanese summer. (Incidentally, kimono makers traditionally reckoned on one roll of silk measuring about two feet by 20 yards for one kimono). Naturally, the quality of a kimono a given samurai might wear largely depended on his personal station and income, though, at least prior to the Edo Period, there were no hard and fast rule in this regard. Hojo Soun, for instance, touches on the matter of clothing in his 21 Articles, "Don't think your swords and clothing should be as good as those of other people. Be content as long as they don't look awful. Once you start acquiring what you don't have and become even poorer, you'll become a laughingstock."1 Exceptionally bright colors and outlandish patterns were typically avoided or sneered upon as a show of immodesty or conceit. On the same token, women of samurai families tended to wear kimono layers and colors dependant upon the station and/or power of their husband. Samurai children, however, were dressed rather flamboyantly, and a more subdued appearance was one of the results of the coming-of-age ceremony. Older samurai tended towards shades of gray or brown, in keeping with their dignified age ...
Wearing Samurai Armor
We went to Iso Garden today and there was a group letting people wear armor and take pictures with them. It was really cool. It wasn't a full set, but they strapped me into rerebraces-vambraces, greaves, breastplate, and helmet. The quartered circle symbol that you see everywhere is the crest of the Shimadzu family, the ruling family of the Satsuma domain. Most of Satsuma is present day Kagoshima.
Samurai Girl (& what they wear on their feet)