Kasa (hat)

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This display case at Gifu Castle shows many kasa of the type known as jingasa.

A kasa (笠) is a term used for any one of several traditional Japanese hats.[1] These include amigasa and jingasa.

Grammar and etymology[edit]

'Kasa' is the correct way to pronounce the word when it stands alone. Note that rendaku causes "kasa" to change to "-gasa" when it is preceded by another word specifying the type of hat, as in jingasa.

Kasa shares its etymology with the Japanese word for "umbrella" (also pronounced kasa, but written as 傘).

Types of kasa[edit]

Antique Japanese samurai leather jingasa (war hat) in the nirayama style.

A number of different styles of kasa exist.Varieties of kasa were used throughout most all levels of Japanese society.

Some types of kasa include:

  • Ajirogasa: a wickerwork kasa made of shaven bamboo or wood.
  • Amigasa: a wickerwork kasa. An amigasa is a straw hat of the type traditionally worn in some Japanese folk dances.
  • Fukāmigasa: a deep wickerwork kasa.
  • Jingasa ("war hat"): a type of kasa commonly worn by samurai and ashigaru (foot soldiers). The samurai class in feudal Japan, as well as their retainers and footsoldiers, used several types of jingasa made from iron, copper, wood, paper, bamboo, or leather.[2][3] Jingasa almost always had crests on them.
  • Roningasa: typically a conical amigasa with a flat top, often worn by rōnin.
  • Sandogasa: a kasa for travelling.
  • Sugegasa: (see Asian conical hat)
  • Takuhatsugasa: a Buddhist mendicant's kasa. A woven rice-straw kasa worn by mendicant Buddhist monks, the takuhatsugasa 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'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.
  • Tengai: (see Komusō Monk)
  • Torioigasa: a folded kasa, famously worn for the Awa Dance Festival.
  • Yagyūgasa: the family crest of Yagyū clan, not an actual kind of kasa.

Gallery[edit]

  • A Buddhist monk wearing a takuhatsugasa.

  • The hat in this print is a fukāmigasa of the sort known as tengai (天蓋), worn by komusō, mendicant monks of Fuke Zen.

  • These women at the Awa Dance Festival wear the characteristic kasa of the dance.

  • Various jingasa from the Return of the Samurai exhibition of Samurai art and artifacts, held in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada in 2010.

  • A Buddhist pilgrim begging for alms outside a Buddhist temple.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kasa hat Retrieved 03-19-2016
  2. ^ Tanaka, Fumon (2003). Samurai Fighting Arts: The Spirit and the Practice. Kodansha International. p. 46. ISBN 978-4-7700-2898-3.
  3. ^ Ratti, Oscar; Westbrook, Adele (1991). Secrets of the Samurai; A Survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. C. E. Tuttle. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-8048-1684-7.

External links[edit]

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