Schools in Japan

Schools in Japan
In some Japanese schools, students wear blazers and some wear sailor blouse at school

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

When was the first uniform worn in Japan?

 According to websites introducing Japanese culture, it was in the late 19th century when Japanese children started wearing school uniforms. It is said that the idea of sailor uniforms came from sailor suits worn by the children of royal European families.


 The first school that established sailor uniforms officially was the Teikoku university (later known as the Tokyo Teikoku university).

セーラー服の起源はイギリス海軍！「学生服」の歴史を紐解くの4枚目の画像
An example of a sailor uniform in the late 19th century

 A typical sailor uniform worn in Japan these days




 From the late 1980s, new types of school uniform had been injected. They are called blazers. There is a theory that blazers were injected because some people felt sailor uniforms, which originally were worn by the military, were not appropriate for the pasifism Japan was holding up.
 A popular type of a school uniform called blazers



"Japanese School Uniforms." Japanese School Uniform. Web. 8 July 2015. <http://www.allinjapan.org/japanese-school-uniforms/>.
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2 comments:

  1. MegmondJuly 15, 2015 at 11:42 AM

    I am a little bit surprised that first school uniform started in Japan was in the late 19th century. I would have guess much earlier. The first one look different from uniforms we wear nowadays but not too different. I wouldn't be surprised to see uniforms that are very similar to the first one in Japan in these days. However I'm surprised to know blazers were invented after the war.
    When I was in Junior High and High school, I wore blazers but not sailer uniforms. I wonder for boys, Gakuran is a sailor uniform or a different type. For girls uniforms, it is clear where the girls go for school by the uniform but boys wearing Gakuran, they could be any school. I wonder what role of Gakuran is as an uniform.

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  2. jodiasJuly 16, 2015 at 6:51 AM

    Megmond, the 19th century refers to the "1800s," so "the late 19th century" means during the Meiji Period, therefore it's not so surprising that school uniforms were introduced at a time when Japan was opening itself up to the Western world. I think it's surprising that Japanese university students were the first to wear the sailor suit uniform even though they were modeled after "sailor suits worn by the CHILDREN of royal European families." Didn't that infantilize the Japanese female university students, who weren't very numerous at that time anyway? It's interesting to see the photo of the historic sailor suit uniform.

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