Monks in Modern Dress: The Dilemma of Being Japanese and Asian

Abstract

Using several case studies, Tankha illuminates the range of reactions among key cultural figures in Japan—including members of the monastic community—to the constant tug-of-war between becoming modern and maintaining a strong local identity through experiments with dress. Style and fashion were consciously deployed to shape national identity. The Nishi Honganji monk Kitabatake Dōryū, the cultural bureaucrat Okakura Tenshin, the designer and educationist Nishimura Isaku, and a group of monks within the Honganji, who formed the Black Robe Society, each in their own way articulated a vision of Japan as open to the outside and modern, but one that was not always subordinate to Western modes of behavior; Western styles were freely integrated into the most nationalistic agenda’s. Despite the prominence of state politics in the Meiji period, no single fashion rule prevailed as “national.” In fact, several of the key figures designed their own clothing for specific self-presentation, liberally borrowing from multiple cultures, East and West. Even religious communities codified their attire to better articulate their beliefs and internal hierarchies. To dress like a “Japanese” defied simple generalization, indicating a widespread effort across the social spectrum to promote an empowering national character with physical, intellectual, and spiritual transformations.