Editing Chonmage (section)

==History==
[[File:Two Japanese barbers; to the left, one is shaving his client Wellcome V0029727.jpg|thumb|upright|A Japanese barbershop in the 19th century]]
The origins of the {{Transliteration|ja|chonmage}} can be traced back to the [[Heian period]] (794–1185). During this period, aristocrats wore special cap-like crowns as part of their official clothing. To secure the crown in place, the hair would be tied near the back of the head.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Between the 1580s (towards the end of the [[Sengoku period|Warring States period]], 1467–1615) and the 1630s (the beginning of the [[Edo period]], 1603–1867), Japanese cultural attitudes to men's hair shifted; where a full head of hair and a beard had been valued as a sign of manliness in the preceding militaristic era, in the ensuing period of peace, this gradually shifted until a beard and an unshaven pate were viewed as barbaric, and resistant of the peace that had resulted from two centuries of civil war.<ref name="Japan alter egos">{{cite book |last1=Toby |first1=Ron P. |title=Engaging the Other: 'Japan' and Its Alter-Egos, 1550-1850 |date=2019 |publisher=BRILL |series=Brill's Japanese Studies Library |isbn=978-9004393516 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZGFDwAAQBAJ&q=tonsorial+difference++edo&pg=PA217}}</ref>{{rp|217}} This change was also enforced during the [[Japanese invasion of Joseon]] (1592–1598), where some Japanese commanders forced the submitted Koreans to shave their heads to this hairstyle, as a method of converting their identities to that of Japanese.<ref name="Japan alter egos"/>{{rp|222}}

A shaven pate (the {{Transliteration|ja|sakayaki}}) became required of the [[Samurai|samurai classes]] by the early Edo period, and by the 1660s, all men, commoner or samurai, were forbidden from wearing beards, with the {{Transliteration|ja|sakayaki}} deemed mandatory. The style of the {{Transliteration|ja|chonmage}} ("topknot") was dependent on the [[Social class|social status]] of the wearer, with that of the samurai being more pronounced than [[artisan]]s or [[merchant]]s.<ref name="Samurai">{{cite book |last1=Nomikos Vaporis |first1=Constantine |title=Samurai: An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=United States |isbn=9781440842719 |pages=124–127 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0BjHEAAAQBAJ&dq=chonmage&pg=PA125}}</ref> [[Rōnin|Ronin]], samurai who did not serve a Lord, were not required to shave their heads. This became an easy way to identify such men.<ref name="Japan alter egos" />{{rp|211}}

Under the [[Meiji Restoration]], the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of {{Transliteration|ja|[[sakoku]]}} in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men.<ref name="Samurai"/> With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by [[Emperor Meiji]] during the early [[Meiji Era]], men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ericson |first1=Joan E. |last2=Matson |first2=Jim |date=2004 |title=Lessons of The Last Samurai |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/lessons-of-the-last-samurai.pdf |journal=Education About Asia |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=13–30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Maidment |first1=Richard A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKJlAgulU3AC&dq=chonmage&pg=PA51 |title=Governance in the Asia-Pacific |last2=Goldblatt |first2=David S. |last3=Mitchell |first3=Jeremy |date=1998 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-17276-9 |language=en}}</ref> effectively abandoning the {{Transliteration|ja|chonmage}}.<ref name="kanban">{{cite book |last=Scott Pate |first=Alan |title=Kanban: Traditional Shop Signs of Japan |date=9 May 2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4ofDgAAQBAJ&dq=Dampatsurei+Edict&pg=PA149 
|location=New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |quote=In 1871 the Dampatsurei edict forced all samurai to cut off their topknots, a traditional source of identity and pride. |isbn=978-0691176475}}</ref>{{rp|149}}