Cultural Fashion: Aunt Wu
Okay, I officially retract my previous post about Aunt Wu’s head dress.
By pure accident, I’ve stumbled across the real inspiration behind Aunt Wu’s character design: jūnihitoe (十二単) robes. Junihitoe robes are a style of formal court dress first worn during the Heian period by noble women and ladies-in-waiting in the Japanese Imperial Court. Nowadays, this style of dress can be seen on hina dolls and members of the Japanese royal family during important ceremonies. Although much less elaborate, Aunt Wu’s clothing shares a similar silhouette and many design elements with junihitoe robes: wide sleeves, thigh-length coat, and a long skirt split down the middle to show off an underskirt.
Paired with the ceremonial junihitoe robes is the ceremonial hairstyle called osuberakashi (大垂髪), meaning “great bound hair”. Osuberakashi is a hairstyle meant to show off the impressive length of a woman’s hair; the hair close to the scalp is styled into a large bouffant while the remainder of the hair is tied into a low ponytail. The bouffant is decorated with traditional hair accessories or kamiagegu (髪上げ具): the crescent-shaped accessory is a decorative hair comb called a hirakushi (平櫛) and the circular accessory is called a hirabitai (平額). The ponytail is decorated with colorful hair ties. Aunt Wu’s hair possesses all of these characteristics and accessories, although her hirabitai lacks the decorative prongs of the original— probably for ease of animation.
I don’t think there’s any particularly deep reason for why they chose this style for Aunt Wu. The overall junihitoe aesthetic looks elegant, important, and long-standing— an image that Aunt Wu tries hard to foster. I guess we could headcanon that Aunt Wu might originally be from Kyoshi Island, since her cultural inspiration is the same (Heian-period Japan).
Fun Fact: Wigs emulating this traditional hairstyle are available online. They’re called marukamoji (丸髢).
Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^
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