Why do Japanese call headbands “Katyusha” after the character of Tolstoy novel?
So, I found out that this style is already 107 years old!
And it gained popularity thanks to the production of the play based on Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" by the Tokyo Art Theater in March 1914.
The dramatization of the novel was created by Shimamura Hogetsu (1871-1918) - a famous Japanese writer, poet, director and playwright, one of the pioneers of the naturalistic literary movement and the founder of a new theater in Japan based on the European model.
And the trendsetter of wearing a ribbon on the head was the Japanese actress Matsui Sumako (1886-1919), who played Katyusha Maslova in the play.
The main character became incredibly popular with the Japanese audience, and the hair accessory in which Matsui-san allegedly appeared on stage, everyone began to call "Katyusha", and this hairstyle quickly became fashionable at that time.
Playwright Shimamura, despite being married and having four children, was in a love affair with Matsui Sumako, and many then believed that he put all his experiences and the bitterness of forbidden love into the production.
But let's return to the production of the Tokyo Art Theatre, which at that time had such a huge success that 1914 can easily be called the year of Katyusha Maslova in Japan.
According to contemporaries, the name of Tolstoy's heroine was on the lips of all Japanese - from jinrikisha (rickshaw) to aristocrats, so attractive was Katyusha Maslova and touching her fate!
At that time, the great writer Leo Tolstoy, one might say, captured the souls and minds of the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Katyusha's sad song, "Katyusha no Uta", which sounded in the play, also played a big role. Performed by Matsui Sumako, it caused a storm of delight among the audience!
Katyusha no Uta was sung by everyone, young and old, and it became a national hit of that time.
Well, a hairstyle with a ribbon or headband on the head - "like Katyusha's" - has firmly entered fashion and is still popular among Japanese women. I must say, it suits them very well!
In Japan there is a Katyusha Song Day, it is celebrated on March 26.
