The Emperor’s New Clothes (The Evolution of the Emperor's Uniforms and Swords 1872-1947)

[Nick Komiya]

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Foreword and Warning

This is a story of the evolution of uniforms worn by three generations of Japanese Emperors, Emperor Meiji, Taisho and Showa from 1872 until 1947. It also becomes a fairly complete history of the evolution of Imperial Army uniforms in general, because Emperors of Japan generally wore Army uniforms.

Besides the Service and Dress uniforms I mainly picked out, the uniform regulations for Emperors all included pants, overcoats, sword belts, sashes, horse harnesses, saddle accessories, sword knots and summer uniforms, even a lap blanket for winter and a havelock for the hat in summer. However, not to overwhelm readers as well as myself, I limited the scope to the typical uniforms they wore in public. I did, however, make an exception for swords and daggers, due to the many edged weapons fans on the forum.

I generally avoid writing about swords, because when I do, I end up stepping on something that I wanted to avoid. It begins with inadvertently stepping on the toes of some expert. Then all the apostles come out of the forest and it becomes clear that I had stepped on something worse. Happens all the time to me and I don’t mind the challenge when it’s a subject I am personally fond of, like medals and orders, but when I get drawn into sword talk where there seem to be a lot of passionate people, it is not fun, because it is not a subject that interests me at all.

But I think I did it again. Because of the many sword fans here, I decided to give superficial coverage on the Emperor’s swords as well, just as a favour to collectors. I thought that something as high profile as the Emperor’s swords could not possibly have gone without proper research, and a novice like me would not have to unearth any controversy. However, even with that totally uncritical and half-hearted attitude, as if going into the subject with eyes closed, I discovered to my horror, that sword experts had made an unbelievably amateurish mistake in reading pre-war documents. As a result, what should have been the Holy Grail to the sword collecting community, has been totally misrepresented in history. I am not ranting about a theory that came to me, but clear cold facts that anyone could read off from any Book of Statutes from those times.

I would gladly respond to challenges by those who can read Japanese, as I can simply point them to the documents that will make it clear to someone with average intellect, but if you don’t read Japanese and do not believe me either, that is tough luck, I am not going to spend hours translating documents, like I did with the “Type 3 Sword” affair. I did present, however, a blow for blow post-mortem of the document that was misread, which should be enough for most people.



BEFORE THE MAKEOVER

Let's now start the story from the Good Old Days for the Emperor. His world as well as the world of all his subjects is about to be shaken up by enormous pressure to change, as Japan wakes up from a deep slumber of 200 years.

[Nick Komiya]

The Makeover

The morning of 20th March, 1873 seemed to start out as another routine day for His Majesty. The 20-year old Emperor, Meiji or Mutsuhito had his hair groomed and tied into a topknot favored by aristocrats of the imperial court, a style that did not involve shaving the forehead, the way Samurai did. He even had light makeup on his powdered white face as he left his private quarters to his daily studies with his tutor. He looked like many young men in their 20s of today, who would also tie their hair at the top and call it the “man bun”, “dude bun”, “hipster bun” or simply “mun”.

But later that day, when he returned from his studies, the ladies in waiting gasped at his appearance. Gone was his topknot, and he now had wild hair like Beethoven! That was the last transformation the Emperor had to make to look “Western”. Chamberlains had already introduced him to western clothes, but they put off the hair till last, as this was irreversible, nothing you could just take off like clothes, if it did not work. Meanwhile, the Emperor was a “work in progress” and had to wear a hat with his western attire to hide his topknot.

This Emperor’s haircut became big news in the papers and finally convinced some diehard Samurai to crop their hair as well. Thus a famous poem/limerick of the times went, “Give a cropped head a smack, what you’d hear is a ‘Civilized’ crack.”

My haircut is only a matter of 15 minutes, but it took 2 years to give the Emperor a makeover. Not only is touching the hairstyle of a vain 20-year old a big deal to start with, but Emperors had been tying their hair since at least the year 683, when Emperor Tenmu issued a law requiring all men and women to do the same. Taking an irreversible step out of a 1200 year old tradition required a lot of “oiling the wheels” in advance.

In 1871, they first rid the court of the diehard conservatives by firing large numbers of aristocratic chamberlains and replaced them with former Samurai. In the meanwhile, outside the palace, in August of 1871, western-style clothes, cropped hair and non-wear of swords were introduced as an optional new norm for civil servants.

That was followed up the next month with a notice to court nobility, encouraging them to drop the effeminate court-style “Softie Look” and proclaimed the new government’s intention to revise the national dress code. By doing so, they were also sending the Emperor himself a veiled message to get ready to look more macho.

Then back in the Imperial Court, because it was women who had pretty much control over how the Emperor looked, 36 ladies in waiting were finally sacked in April 1872. With them out of the way, finally, the coast was clear enough to attempt a makeover of the Emperor. To clarify what they wanted to achieve, the Ministry of the Army launched comparative studies on the European practices of monarchs wearing military uniforms.

[Nick Komiya]

At this point, I need to remind readers that though I refer to the protagonist as Emperor Meiji, he was only called that after his death. When a new Emperor takes the throne, the name of the era is changed and his reign was called Meiji, meaning “Enlightened Rule”. When he passes, he gets named after that era. So in his lifetime, all emperors are called Kinjou (今上) or Seijo (聖上), but that is not how he would sign his name. In case of Emperor Meiji, he signed business documents as Mutsuhito (then came, Yoshihito and Hirohito).

Getting back to our story about changing the emperor’s image, my aim is to track the evolution of the emperor’s uniforms. So we need to back up a bit and restart from before he got his haircut.



The Government Official Style Emperor Uniform of May 1872

On 7th April 1872, a tailor was brought to Tokyo from Yokohama. He was there to take measurements of an employee of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, who had a build close to the Emperor’s (no one would dare measure the Emperor himself). In this manner they tailored the Emperor’s first uniform ensemble in the Western style.

It was in a tailcoat cut with elaborate chrysanthemum flower and leaf embroidery in gold on the collar, entire chest and cuffs. His hat featured an embroidered phoenix. This uniform was worn on his trip in May of that year to various areas of southern Japan and those who saw him upon his horse in his new uniform felt indeed that a new age of Enlightened changes had dawned. Of course, at this stage, His Majesty had to wear the fore-and-aft dress hat not to spoil the effect with the bun he still had.

[Nick Komiya]

The Military Style Emperor Uniform of June 1873 and the French Connection

In parallel to the above, when the Imperial Army was first established in 1871, a rank above Field Marshal (元帥 Gensui) existed on paper for a short while called Grand Marshal (大元帥 Dai-Gensui).

There was also a uniform regulation established in September 1872 for this rank, which was assumed to be filled by the Emperor or some other member of the Imperial family. In case the Emperor took this role, buttons of the uniform were to be upgraded to gold buttons with a chrysanthemum design and an additional golden braiding added to the hat and jacket.

This uniform was therefore not quite unique to the emperor in design. It is assumed that he did not wear this uniform for that reason, though he theoretically could have worn it. Thus when he visited the field maneuvers conducted in Narashino outside Tokyo on 30th April 1873, he appeared in the civil-style uniform of 1872, not a military uniform.

It was still the general consensus in government circles at that time that the Emperor’s clothes must be distinctly different from those of his subjects, so instead of the Grand Marshal uniform that never seemed to have been worn, the Ministry of the Army was already working on a military style dress and service uniform design for His Majesty, which was more or less finished by March of 1873 to synchronize with the haircut scene at the beginning of this story.

The short-lived ranks of Grand Marshal as well as Field Marshal were then abolished on 8th May 1873. This prompted the Army to officially introduce on 3rd June 1873, the military style uniform they had been finishing up. This uniform was designed, because Albert Charles du Bousquet, the ex-French officer now employed by the Japanese government campaigned for a military style uniform, saying Napoleon the Third would never wear a uniform looking like a government flunky and would wear instead a full general’s uniform.

It is quite possible that du Bousquet had done a lot more than just campaign for the military look. In a school for fashion designers in Paris called AICP (Académie Internationale de Coupe de Paris）exists a design drawing (according to Professor Takako Tokuyama, a fashion historian), with the caption, ”DOLMAN DE L’EMPEREUR DE JAPON” (Jacket of the Emperor of Japan), with a 5-ribbed front and adorned by embroidery of chrysanthemum flowers and leaves, what can only be Emperor Meiji’s 1873 military style jacket.

The uniform design is based on a cavalry uniform, having its roots in 15th century Hungary. There are minor differences between the French design drawing and the final uniform which most notably got epaulets added, so clearly it was initially designed in France, but rearranged in Japan. Besides this uniform, many other Japanese government uniforms were designed in France. Thus AICP has many more examples in its archives. It is almost certain that du Bousquet had served as go-between in the preparation of the Emperor’s first military style uniform. He certainly had the motive and also the means.

The Western-style makeover of Emperor Meiji was finally complete, hair and wear, which produced the famous photograph of 8th October 1873, in which the Emperor sat with his new hair proudly on show, as he kept his fore-and-aft hat on the table beside him. This was the photo that spread throughout the world, because it was widely distributed to government and military facilities all over Japan and also was used to exchange greetings with other royalties of the world for more than 15 years. He would also actively wear the new uniforms for greeting foreign dignitaries and at ceremonies, so he finally seemed to be comfortable with his new look.

The ribbed jacket is nicknamed 肋骨服 (Rokkotsu Fuku) in Japanese, which means “Rib Bone Outfit”, as the cord decorations in front make it look like a skeleton’s ribcage. This was the beginning of a long and loyal friendship between the Emperor and his beloved ribbed jacket.

This 1873 uniform is currently in the collection of Meiji Shrine, Tokyo along with his other uniforms.
The new uniform’s drawback became evident in summer, however, as it was thick heavy fabric. So light-weight white summer uniforms in two styles were added in July 1875. However, the designs are no longer known, as the Emperor hardly seemed to wear them and there are also no designs found in documents.

[Nick Komiya]

The 1880 Uniform

The next uniform change for the Emperor was announced on 11th October 1880 as “Decree Number 55 by the Grand Council of State”. Starting with this decree, the designs of His Majesty’s uniforms were recorded as attached drawings to the announcements. This time, the change aimed at bringing the appearance of the Emperor’s uniform closer to what was worn by his generals since 1870, and more in line with the European style concept of a monarch’s military dress. However, no one was yet bold enough to make the Emperor wear a jacket identical to a general’s. So extensive differences still remained not only in insignia, but also in how it was decorated.

Already on 5th December 1879, the army had delivered a full prototype set of the dress uniform items to the Ministry of the Imperial Household, so the Emperor had ample time to get involved in the designing.

This time, they added a frock style dress uniform besides giving the ribbed service uniform a makeover. An extra braid of gold was added to the 7-braided sleeve decoration of a full general and, as a unique feature for the Emperor, the cuffs were adorned with gold embroidery in an arabesque pattern with chrysanthemum flowers. There was now a kepi for the dress uniform and a black visor cap with a white cap band and piping for the ribbed uniform. Additionally there was an overcoat for winter this time. A white summer uniform also followed a year after on 22nd August 1881 to complete the series.

The frock-style dress uniform was worn when greeting foreign royalty and ambassadors, awarding of orders and other national ceremonies. The ribbed jacket on the other hand was worn for greeting foreign bureaucrats and Imperial visits inside Japan. The coat was worn when he once went rabbit hunting, but there is no record of him having worn the white summer uniform. Instead he preferred to wear the winter version of the ribbed jacket throughout the year.

The official studio photo he took in his 1873 uniform was now outdated, and it was high time to get a new portrait taken, but he absolutely hated being photographed, so they couldn’t get any official photos of him in this 1880 uniform. Thus this uniform faded away in history, though Emperor Meiji’s famous 1882 Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors was delivered in this uniform. Instead he would be remembered in his next uniform update of 1886.

[Nick Komiya]

The 1886 Uniform

On 6th July 1886, army officer uniforms underwent a revision, which served as an opportunity for the emperor’s uniform also to be tweaked. In April, the army was given the OK to study an update for the Emperor’s uniform as well, and on 24th June, Iwao Oyama, the Minister of the Army sounded out Hirobumi Ito, the Minister of the Imperial Household whether they had any objection if the army differentiated the Emperor’s uniform from a full general’s only by the epaulets on the shoulders. He explained that in European nations such as Austria, Italy, Germany and Russia, the Monarch wore uniforms identical to his generals instead of a special uniform unique to him. The Emperor was quick with his answer, and gave the army the go ahead already on the next day.

On 19th August, Oyama sent Ito a list of 23 uniform items he was planning for the Emperor and among them were 5 items for the Emperor’s summer uniform, but again the Emperor seemed not to like them and these items were missing from the final lineup. Gone were the special chrysanthemum arabesque embroidery that had adorned the cuffs and collar of the 1880 uniforms and he now wore a straightforward full general’s uniform like the European monarchs. Epaulets only worn on the dress uniform were the only special feature for the Emperor. Sandwiching the 3 stars of a full general, there were two dragons (one ascending and the other descending) featured on them. The dress uniform and bluish black ribbed service uniform of this 1886 style are both in the museum at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

Though the samples at the Meiji Shrine are proof that the 1886 uniform existed and was worn, regulation changes were never made to acknowledge this uniform nor the special epaulets with the dragons. Thus on paper, the 1880 uniform and its 1881 summer versions were kept alive as official uniforms until they were proclaimed discontinued in 1913 when the next uniform change took place.

[Nick Komiya]

The 1889 Portrait of Emperor Meiji and the Italian Connection

The Emperor had been using his 1873 portrait photo for the past 16 years in the swaps he made with foreign monarchs, but he was now approaching 40, no longer the 20-year old young man of his official photo, not to mention the uniform which was two generations out of date. It was becoming embarrassing, but there was no way to get him into a studio again. Allowing him to be sketched from the other side of a screen was as much as he could accept.

So an Italian employee of the Japanese government did a quick sketch of the Emperor’s face. Then he put on the 1886 dress uniform and got photographed, posing as the Emperor. He used that photo and sketch to paint a portrait of the Emperor that saw wide circulation after it was completed in August of 1889.

The Italian’s name was Edoardo Chiossone (1833-1898) and he was hired by the government to print bills and stamps. In this connection, many of the famous portraits from the Meiji period were his work.

The portrait he finished was made into a photograph and these were also issued to all elementary schools in August 1890, so this was the trademark image that came first to mind when someone thought of Emperor Meiji. In 1893, Chiossone also finished another portrait of the Emperor, this time in the ribbed service uniform and standing. These photos were called Go-Shin-Ei (御真影) and were treated like treasures put inside an altar at schools.

[Nick Komiya]

Between the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)

(The Army Battles the Emperor for Uniforms in Khaki)

As the war with China broke out in July of 1894, an Aide-de-Camp was assigned to the Emperor the following month to keep him in constant contact with the army. Before this war, he also wore civilian frock coats at meetings and other nonpublic functions, and put on his military uniforms only for ceremonies and greeting dignitaries. However, from this time onwards he was constantly in army uniform. He was becoming extremely fond of his ribbed bluish black army service uniform and this became his trademark look; so much so that he stubbornly resisted the efforts of the army to modernize its uniforms after the two major wars of his reign.

The baptism of fire for Japan’s modern army uniform, the Sino-Japanese War, revealed some shortcomings that required reconsideration. In general, the uniforms were regarded as pretty, but not practical. Thus an initiative was launched after the war to review all its uniforms and combat equipment, which came up with a new uniform concept.

This idea was composed of a shorter bluish black tunic with a single row of buttons, and just by removing the insignia from the dress uniform made it into a service uniform, instead of having two distinctly different uniforms. Shoulder boards were found to be useless distinctions of rank for someone mounted on a horse, because they couldn’t be seen by someone on foot, so radical changes in insignia were also proposed. There also used to be not much point in discussing concealment in the field, while gunpowder still gave off big puffs of smoke to give away one's position. But now the tactical advantage of using smokeless gun powder, which was developed in the last decade, could only be fully exploited if mouse grey or other such uniform colors were adopted to provide better concealment. Thus such earth tone colors became of interest. However, these colors had the drawback of tending to show off soiling, so they were proposed to be reserved for maneuvers and wartime use.

These ideas were presented to Emperor Meiji on 18th October 1897. However, the next day, he responded by ordering the army to reconsider its plan. In the end, this ambitious redesign of the army uniform never got off the ground and was squashed by Emperor Meiji.

The Army’s proposal for the uniform regulation change, in consequence, would have discontinued the ribbed uniform for the majority of the troops, only to retain it for optional wear by generals. The Emperor’s official criticism of the new scheme was that it would have been acceptable had the army proposed to continue with the ribbed uniform for all officers, which would have kept a clear distinction between officers and men, but having them all look the same was something he could not accept.

The army had paid dearly in lives, in their opinion, because of the conspicuous colors of their uniforms, which was blue black for winter and completely white in summer with nothing in between, so introducing neutral colors was becoming a desperate need in the field. The army was awakening to the modern need for camouflage, but the Emperor simply did not want to hear about it.

At age 45, he seemed to be resisting change, but beneath it all seemed to be his somewhat childish infatuation with his “Rib-Bone” uniform that he refused to see being outdated.

[Nick Komiya]

While the Army suffered from His Majesty’s stubbornness, the Navy was also not faring any better at this time.

The Emperor was actually given a full set of navy uniforms in October of 1896, but he simply continued to ignore them. Unlike in Britain, where the Royals give precedent to naval uniforms for their public appearances, Emperor Meiji had a clear dislike for the navy uniform and was caught wearing the ribbed army uniform repeatedly even at naval ceremonies in 1904 and 1905.

This was an outrage for the navy, but even the polite plea by the Minister of the Navy in 1904 went unheeded. So finally on 21st October 1905, the Prime Minister was pressured into the task of belling the cat by making an official suggestion. The Emperor must have reluctantly agreed, because next day, on 22nd October 1905, he finally did the navy justice by donning his navy set for the great “Victory over Russia” Fleet Exhibition in Yokohama. However, after that event, his appearances in naval uniform, once again, continued to be scarce as before, a handful of times at best.

Let’s get back to the army’s dilemma. The Boxer Rebellion of summer 1900 was an event that really highlighted the suicidal mistake of having its men in pure white summer uniforms. The Japanese Army seemed to suffer much higher casualties in comparison to its Western allies that came equipped with khaki uniforms. The uniform improvements which the army had to put on the backburner for 3 years, due to rejection by the Emperor in 1897, was now scaled down to something less ambitious for another match with the Emperor.

By now it was clear to the army that it was taboo to touch the ribbed uniform, so the uniform was retained for all officers just as the Emperor had suggested. They were able to discontinue, however, the white summer version of it, which the Emperor never wore anyway. In its place they issued a single front, 5-button summer jacket, but it was still killer white in color. This new uniform regulation was launched on 10th September, 1900, but the Army was still not ready to give up on uniforms in khaki for better concealment in modern warfare.

So in the following year, on 17th June 1901, the Minister of the Army presented the Emperor with a uniform in khaki and requested approval. What he did get finally was only an approval to put it to a field test by one of the units in Tokyo.

The difficulty the army faced in bringing khaki into the field was not only because of the stalling by an old man, but there was a technical reason as well. They did not yet have the know-how to dye different fabrics for winter and summer uniforms in the same khaki tone. Finding the right dye for the winter uniform was the bottleneck.

This problem was solved in time, however, for the Russo-Japanese War by Katsutaro Inabata (1862-1949) an industrialist, trained and educated in France (a graduate of the University of Lyon). He is better known as the motion picture pioneer of Japan, but he was the one that developed the breakthrough know-how to dye different fabrics in the same khaki color.

So when the war with Russia broke out in February of 1904, the Army was in a position to introduce on the 10th of that month khaki summer uniforms for NCOs. At the same time, they could finally switch the officer uniforms to single-breast models, though still blue black in color.

[Nick Komiya]

Although khaki uniforms were limited to NCOs only, the advantage of this color soon became obvious, as one report from August 1904 reported that “At a distance of 2000 meters, one could see the horses, but not the riders dressed in khaki. This color should be applied to overcoats and winter uniforms as well for all members of the army”.

This view simply gained more traction as the war progressed, and on 20th of January 1905, Iwao Oyama, (after whom a town is named in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada), Supreme Commander of troops in Manchuria, wrote a plea to both the Chief of General Staff and the Minister of the Army, echoing a similar message. On 1st February 1905 they confronted Emperor Meiji again to discontinue black and dark blue uniforms and switch entirely to khaki ones “for the sake of saving the lives of our men”.

But the Emperor still continued to procrastinate until Masatake Terauchi, the Minister of the Army confronted the Emperor on 9th June 1905 and begged again, showing him a prototype uniform. He went as far as claiming that the war could not be won without khaki uniforms, and on 11th July 1905, khaki was finally made the standard “Army Wartime Uniform (陸軍戦時服)” to emphasize to the Emperor that the color switch was only for the duration of the war. The halfcocked measures introduced in February of the previous year were thus cancelled.

In the end, the war was won, and on 12th April, 1906, in the Japan-wide euphoria of this victory, the Army was able to get the Emperor to sign a regulation amendment that made Khaki the standard uniform color for both war and peace time, without having to make such preposterous and corny claims like “it was khaki that won the war”.

The Army finally got what it wanted after 8 years of chipping away at the Emperor’s resistance to change, and the Emperor still came out wearing his favorite ribbed jacket, which the army retained for its generals.

The very first time Emperor Meiji wore his new khaki uniform in public was on 30th April and 1st May of 1906 at Army celebrations of the victory over Russia. He was in this uniform again for the army’s annual field maneuvers for the years 1908 to 1911. But he still doggedly continued to wear his ribbed uniform for all occasions other than Army and Navy ceremonies.

On 24th February 1912, came the introduction of the army’s so-called Type 45 (for the 45th Year of Emperor Meiji’s reign) uniform series. This was actually the very first time the Army had unified the uniform regulations of officer uniforms and those for NCOs and enlisted men. Until this time, the uniform regulations for officers were issued separately from the other ranks.

Khaki uniforms now became the standard uniform, and the ribbed uniform continued to be available, but to generals only. Previously the ribbed uniform was simply called the service uniform (軍衣 literally “Military Wear”), but since it no longer had that status as a standard uniform, they now called it the dark blue wool jacket (紺絨衣). The dark blue visor cap was also carried over from the old regulations for wear by generals only. Otherwise the uniforms were now all khaki, a color the army had to fight so hard for.

The respectful token gesture by the army to keep the Emperor’s favorite uniform on the active list soon was wasted, as Emperor Meiji passed away on 30th July and the era changed at that point to Taisho.

His state funeral was held on 13th September and on that day, General Nogi, the hero of the Russo-Japanese War took his life along with his wife to follow Emperor Meiji. Nogi was also famous for his ribbed uniform, so even the diehard fans finally did die out, and the jacket would be discontinued the following year on 29th November, 1913.

In October 1921, construction of The Pavilion of Treasures (宝物殿) commenced at the Meiji Shrine to house personal belongings of Emperor Meiji, and four of his uniforms were selected for donation for display there. They are generally uniforms that had become his trademark. The 1872 civil servant style tailcoat style uniform, the 1873 French designed military style jacket, the 1886 Army dress and ribbed service uniforms and finally though far from being a trademark, the 1896 Navy uniform (not to embarrass the navy) were selected for display there and can be seen there to this day.


The 1913 Uniform for Emperor Taisho

Now in the reign of the 34-year old Emperor Taisho (Era of Great Justice is the meaning) or Yoshihito as he would sign documents, the Emperor’s uniforms were also updated to conform to the Type 45 uniform regulations on 14th November 1913.

However, this update had more than doubled the size of his wardrobe, because from this point in history, the Imperial Household Ordinances (皇室令) would also automatically include Navy Military uniforms in addition to the army ones in its Emperor uniform updates.

At that point the ribbed uniform still existed, but two weeks later, the army officially discontinued it on the 29th of that month, marking the end of an era for the Emperor’s uniforms. The 1880 uniforms kept alive on paper were also finally discontinued in this 1913 change, so all the trademarks of Emperor Meiji except the dress uniform were finally taken out of service.

On the army uniform, the chrysanthemum crest was added to the Army’s full general’s shoulder boards to denote the Emperor, and the braided designs on the sleeves of the dress jacket is composed of 8 lines instead of the 7 worn by full generals. The navy uniforms also feature the chrysanthemum crest on insignia and extra brocade tapes on the sleeves to position him above Admiral.