Woven hat - Amigasa

A hat made by weaving stalks of rush grass, rice straw, or wild rice. There are six types of hats, depending on the material and purpose: cone-shaped, truncated cone-shaped, hat-shaped, cylindrical, funnel-shaped, and bi-fold. The way they are worn is generally simple, and most only require a string to be attached and tied. The Ayai hat worn by samurai during the Heian period was made of twill and had a koji (protrusion) at the top; the Kumagai and Tofuno hats worn by samurai during the Edo period, the narrow-mesh hats with tight weave, the deep hats that deeply cover the face, the shinobi hats used by samurai to walk secretly, the folded hats that fold in half into a half-moon shape, the Fuji oroshi hat with a mountain-like top, the ichimonji hat that forms a straight line, the fushi hat worn with the front dangling, the tengai hats worn by komuso monks in the late Edo period, and the rokubu hats worn by ascetics on pilgrimages to sacred sites - all of these are types of knitted hat. Also, around the Jokyo and Genroku eras (1684-1704), there were teahouses at the entrances to red-light districts such as Shimabara in Kyoto and Yoshiwara in Edo, and since prostitutes would borrow straw hats with branding irons on them and enter the main gate hiding their faces, these teahouses came to be called Straw Hat Teahouses.

Woven hats were once widely distributed throughout Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to the islands of Satsuma and Nankai in the south, and were particularly densely distributed on the Pacific coast of eastern Japan, the Sea of ​​Japan coast of western Japan, and the Seto Inland Sea coast. Woven hats are called various names, such as "igasa" depending on the material, "oriamigasa" or "bocchigasa" depending on the shape, "higasa" depending on the purpose, and "sendougasa" or "torioigasa" depending on the person who uses them.

In the past, straw hats were worn by both men and women, but nowadays they are generally used by women as shade for farming, peddling, and net pulling, while men only wear them on special occasions such as funerals, festivals, and Bon Odori festivals.

[Mizuo Miyamoto]

"The Trajectory of Research on Folk Tools by Miyamoto Kataro (1977, Kashiwa Shobo)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イグサ、稲藁(いねわら)、マコモなどの茎を材料にして編んでつくった笠。その形態には、材質、用途によって、円錐(えんすい)形、円錐台形、帽子形、円筒形、漏斗(じょうご)形、二つ折形など6型がある。着用装置は一般に簡単で、紐(ひも)をつけて結ぶだけのものが多い。平安時代に武士が着用した綾(あや)編みで頂部に巾子(こじ)（突起）のある綾藺(あやい)笠、江戸時代に武士のかぶった熊谷(くまがい)笠・十符(とふの)編笠、編目の緻密(ちみつ)な目狭(めせき)笠、深く顔を隠す深編笠、武士の微行用の忍(しのび)笠、半月形に二つ折りにする折編笠、頂辺が山なりになる富士颪(おろし)、一直線をなす一文字(いちもんじ)、前下がりにかぶる伏(ふし)編笠、江戸時代後期、虚無僧(こむそう)の着用した天蓋(てんがい)、霊場巡拝に行者の着装した六部(ろくぶ)笠など、いずれも編笠の類であった。また、貞享(じょうきょう)・元禄(げんろく)年間（1684～1704）ごろには、京都の島原(しまばら)や江戸の吉原(よしわら)など遊女町の入口には茶屋があって、遊客はここで焼印(やきいん)編笠を借り、顔を隠して大門を入ったので、この茶屋を編笠茶屋と称したという。

　編笠は、かつて、北は北海道から南は薩南(さつなん)の島々まで、広く日本全土にわたって分布し、ことに東日本の太平洋側および西日本の日本海側、瀬戸内海側各地に濃密に分布していた。なお、編笠の呼び名としては、材質によりイガサなど、形状によりオリアミガサ、ボッチガサなど、用途によりヒガサなど、用いる人によりセンドウガサ、トリオイガサなど、種々ある。

　編笠は、古くは男女にわたって着用されたが、現在、一般には、女性が農耕、行商、網引きなどの日よけ笠として用い、男性は葬送、祭礼、盆踊りなど特殊の場合にかぶるにすぎない。

［宮本瑞夫］

『宮本馨太郎著『民具研究の軌跡』（1977・柏書房）』

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