Never mind the Samurai, they were only katanas at the beck and call of the Daimyo. Let's talk about the Daimyo. This is what I want to know. Did the Daimyo have sexual seigniorage over all unmarried females in his domain?
@@LetsaskShogo i always thought that it is when a fallen samurai normally would be decapitated the hair was function as away to hold it. And if it is an honarable death in battle the piece of the ponytail would be sent back to the family.. now i know better. Watching too much samurai films i guessed. Thank you for the exp.
I believe that despite the "formal"funcional explanations that are worked into it, it might actually have much more to do with a social fuction than a practical one.
@@DanJuega merchants took over the entire world ,it makes sense now ,all the armies and goverments are backed and at some extent controled by those merchants
Thank you, I always wondered why. OT One of my nephews ( we are not Asian) started going bald on top of his head. lots of hair on the sides and back just losing it on top. As a joke, I mentioned the "Samurai hairstyle" . A few weeks later when i drove up to see him and his family, he was sporting it!!! I said I told you to do it as a joke!! He looked into it and started getting immersed in Japanese culture, and got to understand different ways of life and nationalities. He works in construction and wears a helmet , so that strip of hair is used like a cushion, just like what you spoke about.
It had existed in many ancient Asian cultures for centuries, like Japan, China, Vietnam, etc., when the feudal dynasties prioritize agriculture rather than commerce and trading, even closed their doors with foreign merchants. That's why western countries have started getting more powerful than the east since the 17th, 18th centuries.
@@EclecticallyEccentric Maybe but it was mainly because merchants never produce anything with their own two hands. While farmers, artisans and wood workers etc were all producing something from their sweat and toil labour.
Shogo, you're delightful to watch! When your videos pop up in my queue, I get excited because I know I will learn something interesting from my Japanese friend. Thank you for all the content you put out.
I have often commented this to my partner, I was either Samurai or a monk in my past. Either way, there is no shame in losing hair, embrace it and remain yourself.
I appreciate the wisdom and humility of the disclaimer at the beginning. Ancient history is always a matter of an outsider looking in, even when speaking of one's own ancestral culture.
Very interesting. The Europeans just used padding for a liner under their helmets. I suppose relying in your haircut has some advantages in terms of always being prepared to throw on a helmet...although you would have to take time to prepare your hair in that way. Was the hair bound new each day or do you leave it in for a certain period of time?
I wonder if it was due to the more composite nature of Japanese armor through the centuries. While they used lots of iron in helmets, they were not usually the solid pieces of steel the Europeans could make, which would necessitate a separate liner to ensure fit and comfort. I would imagine if a samurai wanted extra pads in their helmet they would have it. Overtime the hairstyle likely became a status symbol as much as anything practical.
@@ghostdivision2021 I like your line of thinking and while I could agree on the comfort aspect, I think it has more to do with shock absorbtion than form fitting. European smiths were experts at forming metal to fit human bodies with amazing precision. You see padding worn across all qualities of metal armor, even under chain armor which is about as form fitting as you can get.
Kabuto used liners too. A helmet doesn't do much to dampen impact if it isn't separated from the head by a gap and/or cushion layer. It's theorized that helmet wear was also a reason for the odd Norman haircut.
Makes sense. When I played varsity football, I used to always shave my head because it felt better under the helmet. My senior year I decided not to, but ended up getting heat stroke during two-a-days (summer preseason) in the brutal 100+ Texas heat.
I feel very well informed about a part of samurai culture I never knew about. Your briefing style is condensed and direct, amazing. Great video, thank you.
I happened to stumble upon some of the shorts you've done, maybe, 2 or 3 months ago. I've been hooked since. You are definitely one of my top 5 favorite RU-vidrs. You have great content. Interesting, educational, and the production quality of your videos is outstanding in my opinion. Thank you for teaching us about your truly amazing culture. Much love and respect from Hempstead Texas!
Great stuff, shogo-san i always wondered what the dope was on that hairstyle, but never managed to google it. Glad i came across one of your videos. Your channel is one of my favorite YT subscriptions!
This dude wanted 10k subs by July 2021 but has already like 5 times more. Just watchkng a few vids and his sub-count got 1k higher. Definitely deserved🙌🏼
I've often wondered if the reason many cultures have various forms of head shaving, especially around the top, is because whoever was influential at some point had male pattern baldness and thought "if I can't have hair then nobody can!" and made up some reason for all the other guys to follow. Only has to happen one time and that's the culture set.
Fashion trends throughout history usually seemed to have started out as function, and popularized by nobility and/or warriors, and finally imitated by commoners. High heels started out as a way for cavalry men to have better grip on their stirrups. Clean shaven faces became trendy because soldiers were told to shave their faces to properly wear gas masks. In Japan, besides the chonmage, geta shoes and tatami mats had been symbols of nobility which trends spread to commoners. Honestly, I first thought that the chonmage was to make yourself look older and more dignified as male pattern baldness signifies age.
This was absolutely fascinating, thanks a million man! Love and respect from Dublin Ireland. I was always interested in Japan's rich culture and this has put be on a learning rabbit hole. Cheers!
In many of the films that Toshiro Mifune acted in, he wears a hair style that does not include the shaved pate and bundled hair section of the chonmage. It looks like he just ties it back in a loose queue. Is that because he was playing the part as ronin, and therefore not privileged to wear that sign of the samurai? Yojimbo comes immediately to mind...
I've noticed this too. At first I thought it was to make the lead look more attractive by modern standards, but that could well have been my western perspective more than anything else. The ronin thing sounds likely, since I've watched dozens upon dozens of jidaigeki films and I can't recall any ronin characters whith shaved heads, despite landed samurai, merchants, peasants and yakuza all do it.
During medieval times in Ireland and Scotland priests would shave the frontal part of their heads;the practice was known as "tonsuring", and a young man who was accepted into the priesthood was said to be "taking the tonsure." As a matter of fact my own surname;McMillan,literally means "Son of the tonsured one",denoting that my familial ancestors were those who mainly joined the priesthood.
Was that only in Ireland and Scotland? Didn't the Franciscan friars have this hairstyle in the New World during the colonial times as well? Very interesting how men back then didn't give a f$#@ about going bald. Very based and GigaChad moment. Also awesome that you're family has a cool backstory.
The title 😂 ive been questioning this all the time but never searched for the answer and suddenly this video crossed my yt home like an epiphany 😅 thanks for creating such informative video!
Some of our Western Indigenous Tribes here in America traditionally sported a nearly identical hair style to the Chonmage. My Tribe typically wore the opposite with the sides shaved or plucked to keep cool in our hot humid climate and the top and back braided or tied up.
I very much enjoyed this video. Thank you, Shogo-san, for answering a question I have often asked myself. Your voice is very pleasant to hear, and the words are so well spoken and informative! I wanted to share my thoughts regarding the added sound effects whenever a new text appears on the screen. I perceive these sound effects as noise, and I must admit that they distract me from the spoken words. I also admit that I am challenged by issues of mindfulness! Likewise, I do not wish for this minor critique (i.e. my noise) to distract from the fact that this is excellent content!
Thank you so much for all the information. Also in my country of Iran, ancient warriors and wrestlers who practiced a unique form of martial arts called Varzesh-e-Pahlavani (training of the warrior) used to shave the front part of their head. Like in Japan, this was a sign of a Pahlavan or warrior´s high social class and great status.
This has been on my mind ever since I saw it in movies and wondered why 20 year olds had bald heads. I always figured it was a "rank" or "spiritual" thing. But now I know; and thank you.
I love how you explain some less common, but very interesting topics about Japan and Kyoto in paritcular. Can you talk about machiya? I've seen websites that sell them, and I would love to be able to afford a renovated one in the Kyoto/Otsu area someday!
Shogo, your videos are always interesting and very clear. I like the way you expose topics trying to be as impartial as you can, and discovering of Japanese tradition has never been so easy and fun. どうも有難う御座います!
Fascinating, gratitude for sharing! May I offer this in return: the collective word is "Samurai" (not "samurais"). So one can say "the Samurai has different styles of chonmage", rather than saying "samurais". Hope this helps, & CONGRATULATIONS on the excellent channel.
I've tied my hair up in a sort of top knot of sorts. I was inspired in part by the look of the samurai, but it makes it difficult for me to wear hats so I don't do it very often.
Hello Shogo-san, Thank you for these videos. They are very educative and interesting. I learn a lot of very interesting things in each video and I really lovc learning about Japan. Congratulations on reaching 10000 sunscribers! I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.
When I was in Japan, I asked alot of my students about the reason for that haircut, and nobody really had an answer. I suspected it had to do with the admiration of one particular warrior from the past who was naturally balding, so they tried to emulate him....but he was lost to time....but it was only my theory. I knew the sumo have that haircut as a sort of natural helmet, so your answer makes sense.
I heard that often in ancient times the reason for adoption of a particular style of haircut was that it was best suited to wear helmet. Hindu people tied hairs into a protective pillow on the top, Koreans wore their hairs in knots so it would form a natural hinge for helm to rest at, I think samurai reasons were similar.
Love your channel and your presentation style! Unfortunately your sound effects, although awesome, are distracting because they are too frequent throughout your video. Take care my friend, and thanks for the great content!
Great video! I have a question, did the scene in The Last Samurai where the chonmage of Katsumoto's son actually happened in real life? Did Japanese law enforcement actually cut the chonmage of samurai?
Thank you so much for leaving a comment! I remember that shocking scene... It was against the laws to have Chonmage at one point in Japanese history, so it could of happened. Although, I've so far haven't found any historical evidence of someone getting their Chonmage cut off in public... I'll keep you undated if I find anything interesting! Thank you again!
@@angelus_solus I remember the Yokozuna Akebono crying when his chonmage was cut in real life, look it up! He went to a career in K1 and, later, pro wrestling.
since my visit in tokyo last year i am really into japanese culture. Now I am playing ghost of tsushima and your videos are a perfect addition to that topic 👍🏼
They probably wanted to be *exactly* like the European countries both in industrialization and being. From what I gathered from previous videos they must have thought of the Europeans as more dignified, probably because they were defeated by them.
The japanese saw and quickly understood that westerners, americans and europeans, were the preeminent powers of the world. So their line of thought was probably that it was in their own best interest to follow along.
Thanks, I did wonder about it but had figured it may have started out to help keeping the helmet in place. Because hair might cause sliding. The "keeping it cool" approach hadn't occurred to me. Thanks, love cultural details like this.
Hello, Shogo-san! Thanks a lot for the video! Just one question. On photos made in the Bakumatsu period i've noticed that some samurais don't have their head shaved at the top (e.g. Katsura Kogoro's photos). How this could be explained? Does it show some status difference with those wearing traditional "Chonmage"?
Nice, I honestly assumed the style was enforced by a _balding ruler_ (too many movies I guess), who made everyone else shave their heads too because of insecurity. Knowing that it was functionality over bad _fashion-sense_ is pretty cool.
During Edo, the hierarchy backfired on the samurai as the merchant class became incredibly rich while a lot of samurai became working class to dirt poor bureaucrats. Oh and 95% of Edo samurai never fought with a sword and couldn't defeat a wet paper bag with a stick.
"Samurai" means one is a servant. Your boss could order you to dump his poop on a daily basis, and that is all he might have you do as your responsibility.
my only problem with the video is there are many sound bits throughout the explanation. They are a little distracting and disrupt the pace of the video in my opinion. besides that, I liked the explanation and the short history of the hair style
I find it interesting that the meiji government went to such lengths to make Japan a westernised nation but right now, the edo period is romanticised by the west. Is it still illegal for regular people to have this hairstyle or has the culture just moved past it due to that law?
I like how the merchants were the lowest class in Japan. In Europe the lowest class were peasants because of feudalism. I never realised why Japan had it differently until my friend who is half Japanese from her father's side explained to me how merchants were practicaly the most "useless" for society in Japan :D
Thank you so much for leaving a comment! I made this new video about this topic, I hope you can take a look! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W8SKDVLIM70.html
This is clearly a case of powerful men going bald and wanting everyone to join the in their suffering. If baldness is in fashion then the true baddies locks don't have to suffer the embarrassment.
So It was different haircuts the reason why they went to war with mongols - they shawed off the opposite part of the japanese.. Sometimes it's different hats, sometimes hair..
