I'd better get an A+ on your homework.
Feb. 27th, 2008 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyhttp://community.livejournal.com/sca_silkroad/25033.html
She Who Sucks The Least does not mind answering questions. She minds answering incomplete questions and discovering that the questioner is leaving stuff out.
Yes, it's really cool to get some SCA garb out of a college project, but it's a college project. That means doing the research for real. That means comprehending what one is reading and looking at. That means going back and looking at something again and again to see if you understand it or not. I've only been doing Japanese in any sort of depth since 2002 and I still find new nuggets in sources I've looked at over and over again.
That also means understanding that sometimes you WILL have conflicting sources and that you will have to pick what makes the most sense to you and make a case for it. Yes, you will have to take the chance that you'll get it wrong too! Particularly when you're trying to study 900 year old clothing with no extant examples of complete garments, some scattered, highly stylized artwork, and translated literature and diaries where the translators inevitably sigh, throw up their hands and decide to call everything a "robe" because there are too many different kinds of robes.
Nobody just said, "Taira out, Minamoto in, we are all going to dress completely differently as of today because it is the Kamakura Period!" Clothing styles change or don't change for a variety of reasons. Context is everything. The evolution of kosode from undergarment to outerwear is not all that unlike the evolution of plain white tee shirt in the late 20th century from undergarment to billboard, but it took longer to disseminate in a traditional, hierarchical feudal environment than one with movies, newspapers, radio and television. Yes, there was a reaction against what the court aristocracy wore by the bushi of the new Kamakura government, but by degrees. Men adopted the hitatare kamishimo (the loungewear of the aristocracy) as their daily wear. Women began wearing fewer layers and eventually abandoned their nagabakama, but they didn't just chuck it all right away because clothing proclaimed status, even in the new order of the Kamakura shogunate. You want to look important, dress like you're important - just tweak it slightly so folks can tell you're important without mistaking you for some wilting kuge flower.
Can I please go to bed now?
She Who Sucks The Least does not mind answering questions. She minds answering incomplete questions and discovering that the questioner is leaving stuff out.
Yes, it's really cool to get some SCA garb out of a college project, but it's a college project. That means doing the research for real. That means comprehending what one is reading and looking at. That means going back and looking at something again and again to see if you understand it or not. I've only been doing Japanese in any sort of depth since 2002 and I still find new nuggets in sources I've looked at over and over again.
That also means understanding that sometimes you WILL have conflicting sources and that you will have to pick what makes the most sense to you and make a case for it. Yes, you will have to take the chance that you'll get it wrong too! Particularly when you're trying to study 900 year old clothing with no extant examples of complete garments, some scattered, highly stylized artwork, and translated literature and diaries where the translators inevitably sigh, throw up their hands and decide to call everything a "robe" because there are too many different kinds of robes.
Nobody just said, "Taira out, Minamoto in, we are all going to dress completely differently as of today because it is the Kamakura Period!" Clothing styles change or don't change for a variety of reasons. Context is everything. The evolution of kosode from undergarment to outerwear is not all that unlike the evolution of plain white tee shirt in the late 20th century from undergarment to billboard, but it took longer to disseminate in a traditional, hierarchical feudal environment than one with movies, newspapers, radio and television. Yes, there was a reaction against what the court aristocracy wore by the bushi of the new Kamakura government, but by degrees. Men adopted the hitatare kamishimo (the loungewear of the aristocracy) as their daily wear. Women began wearing fewer layers and eventually abandoned their nagabakama, but they didn't just chuck it all right away because clothing proclaimed status, even in the new order of the Kamakura shogunate. You want to look important, dress like you're important - just tweak it slightly so folks can tell you're important without mistaking you for some wilting kuge flower.
Can I please go to bed now?
