A is any one of several traditional

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese hats. These include and .

Grammar and etymology

is the correct way to pronounce the word when it stands alone. causes to change to when it is preceded by another word specifying the type of hat, as in . shares its etymology with the Japanese word for "umbrella" (also pronounced , but written as ).

Types of

A number of different styles of exist. Varieties of were used throughout most all levels of Japanese society. Some types of include: * : a wickerwork made of shaven bamboo or wood. * : a wickerwork . An is a straw hat of the type traditionally worn in some Japanese folk dances. * : a deep wickerwork . * : a type of commonly worn by samurai and foot soldiers. The samurai class in feudal Japan, as well as their retainers and footsoldiers, used several types of made from

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

, or

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

. almost always had crests on them. * : typically a conical with a flat top, often worn by . * : a bamboo for traveling with a wide, flat shape that offered protection from the sun and rain. Favored by , couriers who regularly traveled between Edo and Kyoto. * : a conical, pointed wickerwork made of sedge. This hat shape is called a

nón lá Nón lá (; ) or nón tơi () is a type of Vietnam, Vietnamese headwear used to shield the face from the sun and rain. It is a common name for many types of hats in Vietnam, but now it is mainly used to refer to Cone, cones with pointed tips. ...

in Vietnam or ''do'un'' in Cambodia. * : a Buddhist mendicant's . A woven rice-straw worn by mendicant

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the prātimo ...

, the is made overlarge and in a bowl or mushroom shape. Unlike an Asian conical hat, it does not come to a point, nor does it ride high on the head like a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

's traveling hat, instead covering the upper half to two-thirds of the face, masking the identity of the monk and allowing him to travel undistracted on his journey. * : (see ) * : a folded , worn for the

Awa Dance Festival The is held from 12 to 15 August as part of the Obon, Obon festival in Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku in Japan. Awa Odori is the largest dance festival in Japan, attracting over 1.3 million tourists every year. Groups of choreographed dancers a ...

. * : the family crest of

Yagyū clan The were a family of ''daimyōs'' (feudal lords) with lands just outside Nara, Nara, Nara, who became the heads of one of Japan's greatest schools of swordsmanship, Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. The Yagyū were also Kenjutsu teachers to the Tokugawa sh ...

, not an actual kind of .

Gallery

Image:Japanese buddhist monk hat by Arashiyama cut.jpg, A Buddhist monk wearing a . Image:A begging criminal-J. M. W. Silver.jpg, The hat in this print is a of the sort known as , worn by , mendicant monks of

Fuke Zen The term "Fuke" is Japanese and may refer to: * Fuke, known as Puhua, in Chinese, the legendary precursor to the eponymous Fuke Zen school of Buddhism in Japan * Fuke Zen, a distinct and ephemeral sect of Zen Buddhism that once flourished in Jap ...

. Image:Awaod001.jpg, These women at the

wear the characteristic of the dance. Image:Return of the Samurai 14.JPG, Various from the ''Return of the Samurai'' exhibition of Samurai art and artifacts, held in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada in 2010. Image:50番繁多寺前で托鉢する遍路P1010122.jpg, A Buddhist pilgrim asking for alms outside a Buddhist temple.

References

External links

Haiku Topics (01) ..... (WKD - TOPICS): Hat (kasa)
at Haiku Topics {{Japanese clothing Hats Japanese headgear Samurai clothing Japanese words and phrases

Grammar and etymology

Types of

Gallery

See also

References

External links