As Japanese proverb says, “ The nail that sticks up gets hammered
down.” Japanese preferred not originality but unity. Because Japan is
called an ethnically
homogeneous country and geographically isolated as gathering islands,
Japanese people
were afraid to accept differences that felt safe by being all-same.
However, after World War 2, a lot of cultural movements happened in
this tiny county and people started to accept other cultures and to mix
them with their own culture. As a result, the Japanese have created
a multi Japanese
culture that combines various elements from different countries
with Japanese traditional culture.
Since the 8 the century,
the Japanese have worn our traditional costume, the Kimono. Although the materials,
styles, the ways of wearing Kimono, (and coordination) were changed
slightly, basically the shape itself
hasn’t changed since that time. Because our culture had been purely
protected, people had not had a choice to wear other styles except the Kimono.
As people had worn the Kimono repeatedly and passed it on from one generation to
another as accustom, the Kimono became not only a kind of cloths but also a
traditional costume in Japan. Kimono protected the uniformity of
Japanese culture as well. In the Meiji period (from 1868 to 1912), a certain
kind of people, elites or aristocrats, started to bring other cultures
into Japanese culture. As a result, people had a chance to know that there
were variations on clothing, styles, and dresses (especially, long dresses).
However, only the wealthy people had the opportunity to try them.. Therefore, at this point, Japanese Kimono culture
was still protected and wasn't mixed with European or American dress
cultures.
Although Japanese culture had
remained pure for a long time, the
World Wars changed our culture dramatically. Especially after World War 2,
European and American cultures flowed into Japanese culture through the
media. As the culture became mixed and globalized, people, especially
young generation, began to find their symbols or icons to admire
or imitate as if they admire the emperor. Each one had a different
symbol. For some people, the icon would be a fashion model, an actress or
actor from a foreign country, for others, it would be a musician, or even
a cartoon character. Most people admired Princess Michiko as well, not only
as our national symbol but also as a fashion leader. (When princess
Michiko wore a cape with a small handbag, lots of stores sold out the
similar style of capes and bags.) While
people were trying to be original with new dress culture, again they begun
to be unified and same by wearing the exactly same style of their symbols
because people were still not ready to be globalized.
The society didn’t allow being completely unique as an
individual.
From the end of 1970’s to 1980’s, as culture became more
various, people begun to create groups, called “ Zoku”, depending on
their symbols and styles. Referring to Anthony Gidden’s lecture,
“Globalization”, as globalization goes on, at the same time, they
autonomy nationalism enhanced. In other words, as Japanese culture became
multi culture by mixing various elements of other cultures, once people
were confused and started to create a small autonomy that they could rely
on and avoid being isolated as an individual. People who had the same
favor in terms of styles, music, and designers, got together and made
small communities. People admire various kinds of icons, celebrities,
fashion designers, and even shop staffs (called “house mannequin”).
For example, the people who admired a designer, Yoji Yamaoto, who used to
use only black color for his design,
wore only black clothes, had black hair and gathered a certain area;
therefore, those people were called “ Crow group”. Until the end of
1980’s, various kinds of Zoku (group) coexisted in a small culture.
In 1990s, especially after the Internet was broadly introduced in
early 90’s, young people started to open their mind more widely and
accept various cultures more freely. Whatever or whomever they thought “
cool”, they changed their figures not only to imitate style but also to
become others as if they were playing with changing their identities. For
example, when they thought that hip hop culture form NY was cool, they
tanned their skin until the original color changed into dark at tan
salons, changed their hair colors and the ways of make-up (drawing huge
lip that they thought it was similar to African American girls from NY),
and changed their behaviors. However, interestingly, those young people
did not just copy their icons but combined different elements and created
their own styles. Therefore, while young people were imitating NY hip- hop
style, at the same time, they were wearing Japanese traditional school
uniforms even during holidays because they thought those mixing styles
were prettier and sexier. Musicians who admired American hip-hop with
wearing the same style of their “ brothers” began to create “
Japanese hip-hop” that combined English and Japanese in their lyrics and
insisted that people should respect their blood from ancestors. In order
not to be isolated, young people created digital community that they could
keep contacting somebody with their cellular phones.
Although the dress culture has almost dominated Japanese Kimono
culture in various ways, Japanese people still wear Kimono on their
special occasions such as wedding ceremonies, funerals (with black Kimono
only), and the age anniversaries for 3, 5, 7, 20 year-old. Young people
prefer to wear Yukata, the casual style of Kimono for their summer events.
They occasionally enjoy being Japanese with wearing the traditional
costume in their own way. (Some of them wear Yukata on their tanned dark
skin with bright hair and pierced ears.)
The movement of globalization in Japan isn’t necessary to mean
that people eliminate their traditional cultures under the pressure of
Americanization or Westernization. Certainly people have been influenced
by the big power of mass media that have introduced mainly American and
European cultures as modern cultures and made them believe that modernity
would bring us more convenient life and sophisticated culture. However,
people have never lost the pride as Japanese and respect for their
traditional culture as well. As a result, Japanese create multi culture
that combines other cultures with Japanese traditional culture.
Globalization brought Japanese the coexistence of modernity and tradition.
Japanese people are enjoying the cosmopolitan fashion world where people
hybridize various elements of different styles over categories (borders)
and put them together into their Japanese style.
