Saturday, July 21, 2007

Shinto Wedding


The predominant religion in Japan is Shinto (神道), which means "the Way (道) to Gods (神)".
In a traditional Shinto wedding, the bride wears the traditional white wedding kimono dress called shiro-muku (白無垢, where 白 means "white" and 無垢 means "pure, innocent"). The bride's wig is usually prepared in a style called bunkin-takashimada (文金高島田), and decorated with golden accessories and decorations that resemble a spike, symboling fertility. This wig is usually fitted in the place of the wedding, since it cannot fit in the car. In these pictures, however, the bride is wearing a white hat, named 角隠し (Tsunokakushi), which is traditionally worn to veil the bride's horns of jealousy, ego and selfishness. It also symbolized the bride's resolve to become a gentle and obedient wife. (→いいお嫁さんになります!) Another name for 角隠し is 綿帽子 (Wataboushi).
It takes at least three hours to dress up woman in bridal kimono.

The groom is dressed in a Montsuki kimono (紋付) with a short haori overcoat (羽織) bearing the family crest with pleated hakama (袴) pants.

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