SaracenX
Veteran

SaracenX 说:Hows bout some topknots?
"The hairstyle for men in Okinawa (as well as Japan) prior to the modern era was to tie long hair in a knot on top of the head and secure it with a single hairpin, as shown here, or with two hairpins pushed through the topknot from different angles. The two hairpin option is probably what Soken used for kusanku (kanku) kata practice since one could be held in each hand. In the begining of the kata the hands are raised overhead, a move which could be modified into a grab of the hairpins. Hairpins also differed. Men of the noble class wore special hairpins in their Samurai-style topknot to signify their social position as shown in this drawing. Made of metal or bone, hairpins were pointed on one end and had a round flat end or wire configuration that would hold the pin in place. Sometime after Japan formally annexed Okinawa, the Meiji authorities outlawed the wearing of topknots (as an old style warrior symbol) and thus hairpins were no longer used."
http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=426




