The is a small, black, box-shaped hat traditional to Japan, which (mountain ascetic hermits) of wear on their foreheads. The has been worn since the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

(1185–1333) or the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

(1336–1573).(ja
Kotobank Kokugo-Daijiten
(retrieved 09 June 2022)

and

The is one of the standard items which wear as a uniform. When practising in the deep mountains, they wear , on the body, on the side, a on the head, on the calves, hold metal in hand, wear and on their back, and blow a (conch-shell horn). These sacred items may guard them from the malicious spirits, thus they are safe in the deep forests. This style was established in the Kamakura or Muromachi period, and the contemporary keep this tradition today. , dangerous yet protective spirits of the mountains and forests, are depicted in the style of , and are also shown wearing the .(ja
Kotobank Sekai-Daihyakkajiten
(retrieved 09 June 2022)

Forms and symbolism

The is usually a small, black box-shaped hat, which is made of lacquered and hardened cloth or wood. The top of the looks like a small round tower. It has the pentagonal box shape, and twelve folds surround this pentagon. Its pentagonal form represents , the jeweled crown of the five wisdoms, which is the crown of the

buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

Vairocana Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...

. Twelve folds represent ; the color black represents the kleshas of human beings. There are also different forms of . Large-type cover the head entirely.

and

In common and modern Japanese, the word is rendered in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

like the word , another type of Japanese headgear that mainly wraps or folds cloth to cover the head and face;(ja
digital daijisen
(retrieved 09 June 2022) however, despite being written identically, and are quite different.

References

Japanese headgear Headgear Shugendō Religious clothing Japanese words and phrases {{Clothing-stub