53 What are "buruma?" (The History of Japanese School Uniforms and the "Bloomers" Scandal)

On this episode of Ichimon Japan we ask: Whar are buruma?

Topics Discussed

• What buruma/bloomers are
• A brief overview of the history of school uniforms in Japan
• About the gakuran style school uniform
• About the supposed link between gakuran uniforms and Prussian military uniforms
• About sailor uniforms (sērā fuku)
• About "blazer" style uniforms
• The controversy over whether it was a school in Kyoto or Fukuoka that first introduced the sailor uniform in Japan
• The "second button" tradition
• The story behind why schools across Japan began having female students wear bloomers in the 1960s and why they stopped in the 1990s
• The urban legend that bloomers became popular due to the Japanese women's volleyball team wearing them in the 1964 Olympics
• The 1993 incident in Singapore that was the final straw that led to the disappearance of bloomers from schools in Japan
• About girls being able to wear slacks instead of skirts as part of their school uniforms
• About koromogae (changing school uniforms in accordance with the change of the seasons)
• And much more!

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• Support on Patreon

Sources, Links, Videos, Etc.

Here are some of the Japanese language articles found when researching the topic of this episode.

• 高校の制服の歴史
• 昔の制服を試着！椙山歴史文化館
• 学校制服としてのセーラー服の歴史
• 学院の歴史資料
  • This is the website of Kyoto Heian Jogakuin. This is one of the schools that takes the credit for being the first to introduce sailor uniforms in Japan. On this page you can see a photo of this early version of the sailor uniform. This is the photo Ryan refers to that has a dog in it.
• セーラー服
• 学ランの由来と歴史について知ろう！