On the Meaning of Sashes and Strings in the Costume Fashion : Their changes in fashion and its significance

Abstract

Since the age of "Manyo", people thought that belts, sashes and strings had magical power. Those things which had been considered as magical turned to ornamental accessaries in the course of time, and the fashion underwent changes in turn, mainly led by "Kabuki" actors and other entertainers. At the root of people's mind, however, there remained an idea that "to tie sashes or strings is to connect human souls." Even at the present time, still living is this idea of "Enmusubi" : to tie strings in order to have closer relations with other people. The act of tying lovers with a sash was considered in Edo Period to be the way to express love symbolically in order to make their human relation firm and eternal. This act of tying and its symbol can be observed particularly in Chikamatsu's play, Double Suicide at Sonezaki.