Question about hakama

[Aikironin]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and after reading Chris Parker's other posts, I hate to have to correct him as he clearly knows a lot of budo history and nuance. That being said, the two most common myths about the hakama are the Martial virtues ingrained in the pleats and that the garment was used to hide footwork for samurai. Much like the myth of your white belt color turned naturally black from hardwork and determination, this doesn't mean it is a bad myth, just a myth. Much like if I assigned marital virtues to the pleats on a tuxedo shirt that a man wears to a wedding. Nice thought but sort of a reverse engineering of a design.

Secondly the hakama as noted above was either pulled up or tied back before any sort of combat, much like the Sageo being in certain schools used to tie back kimono sleeves.

Secondly the ju musubi knot which in aikido is either referred to as the number 10 knot or the man's knot, is also seen to be somewhat out of place in budo training, depending on your source, it is either viewed as being waay to formal a knot for serious martial training like wearing a bow tie with shorts, or viewed as being what commoners do, when the dress up, something akin to wearing jeans to a job interview. Simply tie it off with a square knot "shin musubi" and tuck away the ends.

Also it is frowned upon to stick your hands in the "soba" or vents on the side as if they were pockets.

there some debates on whether or not to tie the himo in the back or front, traditionally the mae himo are tied to the rear, and the ushiro himo are then tied to the front. Bujin designs Hakama have an addtional length to the mae himo allowing them to be tied in the front, this maybe more with a cultural transplant of the garment vs. actual tradition, but suffice to say, my Japanese made hakama have significantly shorter mae himo which wouldn't allow them to be correctly tied in the front.

Any other questions?

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi Aikironin,

I agree that that is an artificial aspect (to a degree), however it is pretty commonly stated that this philosophical aspect was one of the reasons that Ueshiba Sensei was so emphatic that it be worn. In fact, the wearing of hakama, from reports I have come across, was originally meant to be for everyone training in Aikido, for reasons such as this, and only changed to Yudansha only when fabric became scarcer during and after WWII, as citom links above.

If we're going to discuss the origins of the garment, then we get into theories of wear for riding horses (to help avoid chafing), but that wasn't the topic.

The cord used to tie the sleeves up is a tasuke, by the way, not the sageo. That would only be used as a desperation measure, as that removes the other uses for the sageo.

Other than that, agree with your other answers. Only question would be whether or not you read properly what I was answering? Oh, and I don't think I mentioned the hiding of feet idea (my longer hakama tends to trip me up when I don't pull the sides up, so I don't think that's a good concept, especially when you drop low in my Kenjutsu training....).

 

[Aikironin]

Hey, Chris I knew you weren't mentioning the hiding of the feet myth, it was just along the same thread, sorry about any confusion. Again you are right about the tasuke, but there are schools that do use the sageo as the tie up. In regards to the philosophical aspect of the garment being the reason Osensei being emphatic that it was worn, never heard such a thing. This is not to say that you are wrong, merely that in over 3 decades of Aikido I have never heard that. Osensei was clearly of the generation that wore Hakama, and few photos exist of him wearing western style clothing, so I would err on the side of tradition and cultural context of why it was worn, as the precursor arts he trained in all wore hakama, it naturally flows that his art and he being of the time, would continue the tradition.
This clearly ran into a problematic era post WWII for reasons that you already covered. Currently in Aikido there is waaay too much emphasis on Hakama=status and/or rank. So in Aikido circles people tend to make more of something than it is and to project much more significance to an article of clothing than was ever necessary.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi Aikironin,

Here are a few links about the references to the meanings for the pleats in Aikido.

http://www.scnf.org/pleats.html "The Principles Of Aikido" Mitsugi Saotome used as reference

http://www.eastbayaikido.com/members/hakama.html Excerpt from the same book.

http://www.aikidofaq.com/misc/hakama.html Check the third interview (Shigenobu Okumura Sensei) in which he describes O'Sensei lecturing on the virtues as related to the Hakama.

 

[Aikironin]

It appears that only Saotome ever got that speech, as he is the only source which you have ably cited that confirms the 7 virtues. Every other source that you cited is a rehash of Saotome. Bujin design also explains the 7 virtues as such. As Bujin is run by H. Ikeda who is Saotome's student it would naturally flow that they would be in unison.

Regardless even if it was true, it would be Osensei's invention of marital virtues. As historically there is no evidence of this up until Saotome's retelling of a lecture by Osensei. Garments as you know go through evolution of design based upon function, fashion and material design. But again as popular myths go, they get retold and retold until they are fact. Doesn't change the truth, that this is a reverse engineered fable, that has no historical evidence, such as Who designed the Hakama, was he or she of samurai stock? Did they have that in mind when creating the pleats? These are the quotes needed to determine the validity of the statement, not just retelling the same myth from various sources that all are gendai budo.

example
" Moreover, although at various points in Japanese history certain feudal lords promulgated prescriptive "House Codes" to guide the actions of their retainers, there never existed a single, unified "samurai code" which all Japanese warriors adhered to or were even aware of."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido

Now the same article does go on to cite seven or so virtues of the bushido code, but indicates that the term bushido as coined by Nitobe

"The first person to popularize the term bushidō was Japanese author Nitobe Inazō (a converted Quaker living in Philadelphia who married an American wife) in his 1899 book Bushidō: The Soul of Japan, which was originally written and published in English and only later translated into Japanese. In this work, Inazō scoured Japanese tradition in an effort to recover an indigenous code of behavior analogous to the Western ideal of chivalry, which he then embedded with his own Christian ideology. Although Nitobe presented this concept as a timeless Japanese tradition which he had simply been taught as a child, he obscured his own numerous interpolations and extrapolations, and his efforts to unite diverse strands of Shintō and Buddhist teachings into a single unified code. "

Same source, but this at least indicates a romantization of what was perhaps not historically accurate.

Furthemore as the wear of the Hakama type pants can be dated to at least mid 8th century before the rise of the Samurai Caste system, it begs the natural question, as to how can these virtues be assigned pleats before the virtues are even created?

Secondly as the Hakama was worn by others not necessarily of military caste, would they also have connotations of Martial virutes? As the wearer was not Martial in any form, and was prohibited by law to develop that ability? Or as a farmer would my pleats represent something else? I am not trying to belittle you here, and I hope it doesn't come across as such, as I have read your posts and you do know that of which you speak. My only point here is that if the 7 virtues are true (which I don't believe to be so) there is no historical fact that indicates such. Merely a backward formulated ideal that is a very nice tale to give us budoka a sense of tradition to something bigger than us, when really our actual traditions should be enough. Much like other fanciful tales, such as TKD kicks were created to knock off samurai from their horses, or the colored belt myth, these are wonderful tales designed to instill in us dedication to our art, and a committment to hardwork and the ideals of the founders of our particular art, which there is nothing wrong with, but just like the 7 fishes, loaf of bread and a jug of wine for all to eat, they are myths.

Good research though!

thanks.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi Aikironin,

Thanks for that. Again, even if it was O'Sensei's creation of reasons for the wearing of hakama (assigning Bushido values to the pleats), that is still potentially a valid reason for it being worn in Aikido dojos (at least those following Saotome), yes? This discussion was not about where hakama themselves come from, the variant forms, who wore them, or anything else, it was simply looking into the reasons that hakama are worn in Aikido dojo.

But good information there from yourself. For the record, I'm in complete agreement on the Bushido issue as well. Whenever I hear someone saying that "'that's against the Code of the Samurai" (you get that a lot in the Ninjutsu world), I have to ask what they are refering to... the group of idealised concepts applied very much after the fact, or the more contemporary approaches that would vary wildly across different locations, times, and persons? I usually get a blank look then....

 

[Aikironin]

It is interesting that you mention the whole Bushido code, I got quite a lenghty lecture from one of S. Tanemura Shidoshi on the Bushido vs. the butoku, the martial virtues vs. the martial code. His general thesis was that Bushido was instilled to reinforce the system that was in place at the time and to keep those "in line" vs. the actual virtues one should posess a la the butoku, as it was the first time I had heard the term butoku, and in the Genbukan I am quite new, it was not the time or place to say anything other than "Hai Sensei". Same Shidoshi was also on the same page as me regarding the hakama myths, and was quite taken aback that I agreed with him. I think he was looking to "school an aikidoka" on something that aikido people hold too dear.

To me the hakama is worn out of tradition to the koryu arts and the warrior caste, granted Osensei was niether A) of that caste, as he was of farmer stock and B) born post meiji restoration. But he was somewhat of a throwback to an earlier times, and his main teacher S. Takeda, was both of that time, and of Samurai stock.

Aikido is unusual in the sense that it is a Gendai Budo but tries to maintain certain elements of koryu, hakama wearing being one, eschewing competition being another. I remember when I first started doing Koryu and getting the stares from the sempai, as I did Aikido things with my hakama, i.e. wearing pants underneath, the Ju musubi knot, and like most other things in martial arts, you learn best by making the mistake, being corrected, hearing the lecture and changing to not be the nail that sticks out.

See you on the mat.