Nobunaga’s Underwear Discovered!
Find reveals Nobunaga to have been a fancy pants.
A recent find by researchers in Gifu has proven to be the fundoshi underwear of Oda Nobunaga. An unassuming box stored for around 450 years in a traditional storehouse contained a number of bolts of multi-colored cloth, recognized as traditional men’s fundoshi underwear. Closer examination revealed the Japanese idiom “fundoshi o shimete kakaru” (tighten your loincloth) which is similar to the English phrase "roll up your sleeves" , or in other words, prepare for some hard work ahead, a favourite phrase of Nobunaga, was found embroidered along the leading edge, together with Nobunaga’s distinctive Kao signature, proving the items to have been his possessions.
Fundoshi come in several basic styles. The most relaxed type consists of a strip of cloth, wound around the hips, secured at the small of the back by knotting or twisting, with the excess brought forward between the legs, and tucked through the cloth belt in front to hang as a short apron.
The type discovered was the rokushaku fundoshi style preferred by active people, particularly samurai, formed when the cloth is wound around the hips so that there is an excess of apron, which is brought back again between the legs and twisted around the belt-cloth in back. The rokushaku fundoshi is a length of cloth, the dimensions being one shaku (34 cm) wide and six shaku (2.3 m ) long; roku is Japanese for six, hence roku-shaku.
It appears that Nobunaga, long known to have enjoyed gaudy fashion styles, also wore some fancy pants. Traditional fundoshi were merely a white strip of cloth, while Nobunaga’s were multi-colored. This is believed to have been another of the innovative warlord’s Japan firsts. Researchers have authenticated the pieces, which after being laundered will go on display at Gifu Castle, Nobunaga’s former residence. Lead researcher Kimino Shitagi and Nobunaga specialist Outsuke Kipposhi announced their findings on Monday.
I really the design of the storage objetcs in samurai era. This box is very stylish.
He chose some nice fabrics!