The type of Ryukyu clothes

There was no obvious difference between the Ryukyu and Han clothing at that time. The regular coat was a wide knee-length robe, called a coverlet (チン), with a belt around the waist, wide cuffs, two to three feet long, with the length of the sleeves not covering the fingers, and the cuffs were not sewn, and the style was similar to that of the Taoist priests' clothing, with a belt in the same color as the wrapped cloth, and the footwear, regardless of the nobility, wore straw shoes, also known as the "Sanban" (also known as the "Sansan"). In terms of footwear, they wore grass shoes, also known as "sanban" (also known as "sanqian"), regardless of their rank, and wore shoes and boots only when they met with Chinese emissaries, and only a few literati and scholars wore shoes and boots on weekdays. Summer and fall coverlets were mostly made of kudzu cloth, while winter and spring were mostly made of ? (coarse silk). At the beginning of the establishment of the Ryukyu Kingdom to the second Shang Dynasty in the middle of the Ryukyu people and the Han Chinese difference is only in the hairstyle, they are knotted in the head bun to color cloth (also known as "handkerchiefs") wrapped around the head, the color cloth used in the length of ten feet three feet, around the head of the roll of eight layers, so it is also known as the eight rolls. Some of the literati and scholars also wore Han-style conical hats, especially the descendants of the thirty-six surnames of the Min people who lived in Kume Village. The difference is that the Ryukyu follow the old system of wearing an interjection in the right side of the head, while the Han Chinese wear a netted scarf and a bun in the center of the head. In the beginning, only the Han Chinese wore the net scarf, but the Ryukyu did not wear the net scarf. During the Wanli reign, the uncle of the envoy Xie Jie brought several hundred pieces of net scarves with him to the Ryukyus. To the Ryukyus, the net towel is not sold, Xie Jie on the use of the power of the right to delay the ceremony, the Ryukyus said that they wear Chinese clothing, the day of the ceremony, if any one of the accompanying ministers do not wear a net towel, will not be held in the ceremony, forcing all the officials involved in the ceremony to buy, and so the net towel was snapped up. Since then, only Ryukyu people have the habit of wearing the scarf. When this incident was reported back to Xie Jie's hometown, Changle, Fuzhou, there was a local saying, "Ryukyu people wear net towels," which meant that they were forced to buy and sell them. After the invasion of the Ryukyus by the Satsuma clan and the destruction of the Ming Dynasty by the Qing Dynasty, the Ryukyus began to shave their heads. All adult men from the king on down had their hair shaved in a bun in the center of their heads or on their foreheads, and since then, the Ryukyu people's hairstyles have been the same as those of the local Han Chinese. At that time, the Ryukyus were invaded and controlled by the Satsuma Clan, and although the Qing Dynasty also ordered that the men's hairstyles be changed, the hairstyles of the Ryukyu men were closer to those of the Japanese, and it is possible that the Satsuma Clan forced the local people to change their hairstyles.

At that time, the headgear and hairpins were made according to the status of the people. In the early days, the officials did not wear crowns and hats, but wrapped their heads in eight scrolls (ハチマキ, also known as mantle scrolls, which is a kind of colorful cloth), and the yellow color was the most noble, followed by red, green, and white, and the king wrapped his head in a brocade handkerchief. During the Qing Dynasty, the eight scrolls evolved into hats. The early Qing dynasty hat system is relatively simple, is the paper for the hat tire, with a long ten, three broad cloth wrapped in the hat tire around three turns around a circle. To the late Qing Dynasty, the hat method is more cumbersome, changed to use wood for the bone, wrapped in silk, before the package of seven or nine layers, after eleven, two layers, the color of silk to distinguish between levels, the order of purple, yellow, red, green, green, and the same color with patterns and no pattern to distinguish between the higher and lower.

Since King Shang Zhen stipulated the hairpin system, the hairpins used in regular clothes could also be distinguished by shape, material, and decoration. According to Zhang Xueli's "Record of the Ryukyus", the materials of hairpins at that time were divided into gold, silver, copper, tortoiseshell, horn and bamboo, etc. Those who had official positions put in gold and silver hairpins, and the people used copper, tortoiseshell, horn and bamboo hairpins, while the lowly people were not allowed to use hairpins. Ryukyu women often wore clothes without buttons, belts or waistbands, and in the early days, they did not wear pants and tunics, but later on, they did wear pants and tunics with slightly longer lapels and sleeves than men's clothes, and one type of undergarment was a long skirt with fine pleats. Some women wore curtains over their blouses to cover their faces when they met people. Later, there are buttons and laces on the clothes and hands with tattoos, in addition to flowers, birds and animals, there are also square, round or irregular patterns. They wore their hair in long buns, and most common women wore their hair in a bun at the back of their heads. There are also women who wear their hair in a bun on top of their heads with hairpins inserted backwards, and there are other hairstyles, such as the "Japanese bun", in which the front and back of the hair are parted. Women do not wear jewelry other than hairpins, and they only wear magnolia flowers in their hairpins. Just like men, women also wear hairpins of different status and rank, with tortoiseshell hairpins for commoners. They don't wear cosmetics, don't wear footbinding, and wear three boards or bare feet on weekdays.

The upper-class women's dresses were red-type dresses. First, they wore a jacket and skirt, usually bright-colored, up to their thighs, with a belt on the right side, a pleated white skirt (kakan), long enough to cover their feet, and a large-sleeved red shirt (gosai) with bright colors and rich patterns, which was then tied with a purple belt. The color and pattern of the red type are also classified. The Ryukyu Kingdom, influenced by China, regards yellow as a noble color, and there are often patterns such as "dragons" and "phoenixes," etc. The red-type large-sleeved shirts of the royal consort, the lord of the house, and the prince's consort are made of a yellow background with a yellow dye made from the yellow color of the gold color of the Fukutoki wood. The yellow background of the shirts was made using the gold-colored dye of Fukumo. The royal consort wore a large-sleeved shirt with a cloudy dragon pattern, and the inner jacket was lined with a phoenix pattern and had a flower-colored bottom. The upper class women wore the royal sister's clothes printed with hanging peonies and phoenixes, and the royal sister's clothes of the general class women were made of a water-colored background with bird and landscape motifs on them. The higher the status, the larger the pattern on the large-sleeved shirt. One of the costumes for female officials is a red jacket with a white skirt.

The upper class of women were mostly knotted in buns on the top of their heads, with the king consort inserting a phoenix head gold hairpin, other royal women inserting gold hairpins, and the hairpins used by the women of the royal family depending on the rank of their husbands. They will wear Ruo hats when they go out. Children's costumes were similar to those of adults, but some children of the Shih clan had special costumes, which were not sewn three or four inches below the two wounds, but were similar to those of the Edo period in Japan. They do not have the custom of shaving the hair of the fetus, but wear it in a bun with hairpins. Shuri's children's clothes are all lined with red and covered with five-colored brocade, which can be worn on both sides. The kimono can be worn on both sides of the body.

See Zhongshan Chuanxinlu: "For young children, the sleeves of their clothes were worn with three or four inches of hair exposed; for older children, the hair on the top of the head was naginata, and this was sewn on." From the customary paintings, we can see that the bridegroom of the scholarly family wore a red crown (mantle roll or cap), a long black robe, and a large belt. The common people, on the other hand, often wore white when they married their wives. Wang Ji "to make the Ryukyu record" recorded: "(Ryukyu country) married women do not cure the trousseau, the parents walk to send the son-in-law's family clothes are still white."

The wedding clothes worn by the brides of the Shih clan in the early to mid-late Ryukyu Kingdom were mostly jackets and skirts, and some of them wore longer upper jackets, which were big jackets with lower skirts. Because the Ryukyu people used black for auspicious events, there were those who wore black skirts as their wedding clothes, but there were also those who wore red big jackets with skirts of several layers of white, red, and yellow. They cover their heads with a black coat, and later they wear an ankle-length coverlet with a long coat and a black coat covering their heads.

When a woman gets married, she often wears a black dress and has her head covered with a blue dyed headdress. Some of the costumes of the Ryukyu kings and the Ryukyu official uniforms and their fabrics were given by China, so the styles, textures, colors, and rules of wearing them were quite similar to those of China, especially the vessels and costumes used for the enthronement ceremonies had to be carried out in accordance with the rituals of the Ming Dynasty, and thus every time they were enthroned, the Ming Emperor would give them crowns and dresses. For example, Chen Kan, "the Ryukyu record" cited Jiajing eleven years (1532) Ming Shizong to the Ryukyu Kingdom issued a decree, mentioned that the king of Shangqing was given a show of horns gauze hat, gold box rhinoceros belt, regular clothes Luo, red gold chest and back, unicorn round neck robe, green cummerbund, green sticker, the leather-bent crown, seven tassels early wrinkled gauze leather-bent crown, jade kuai, five chapters of the silk gauze leather-bent dress, red leather-bent dress, plain white single, pigmented before and after the clothes, pigmented cover the knee one (), color makeup and a (even jade hooks), color makeup, and a (the), and a (the). Even the jade hooks), color makeup flower brocade ribbon (even the gold hooks jade dangdan all), red and white vegetarian belt, red vegetarian nivea slippers (with socks). In addition, there are many bolts of silk clothing given to the King of Shang Qing. Nakayama Shijian" also has a record of giving clothes. Although the clothes given to different generations were different, the leather-bent crown, bent clothes, chest and back, sticking in, and covering the knees were commonly given clothes. During the ceremony of enthronement, the king would wear a python robe and a rhinoceros horn white jade belt.

The king wore a cap with spreading horns, wings upward, and a gold tassel, which was tied at three or four inches under the chin, and inserted a dragon's head gold hairpin. Wear python robe, belt with rhinoceros horn, white jade. Yanju with a brocade handkerchief or red and white raw material, black raw material wrapped around the head, later changed to wrap the five-color hat, in and out of the hat. The leather-bent is a big dress, which is worn after receiving the title and during the boat-viewing banquet.

The royal family, nobles, officials also have a certain system of clothing, the officials at that time to wear, style, pattern, texture, there are strict regulations, can distinguish between rank. There were slight variations in the forms recorded in different canonical books. According to the "Chronicle of the Origin of the Ryukyu Kingdom," from the time of King Sangbong, the court dress of officials with rank was the Tuanqing robe, a long robe made of banana cloth. According to the "Record of the Origin of the Ryukyu Kingdom", when King Shangfeng saw someone wearing a big green coat, he thought that the color was bright and the pattern was beautiful, so he decreed that the uniforms for princes and magistrates should be big green, for those below the rank and file should be big green, for those who threw uccades or eye-fingers, jade, and for those who worked as minutemen, Jia Lai Chee Tau. However, according to the "Kou Yeung", it is said that the Ryukyu Kingdom only began to use the banana cloth as a court dress in the first year of the King's reign, in the year of King Shang Chih's reign, in the year of 1629. According to the Nakayama Chuanxinlu, officials of the first rank wore green robes, while those of the second rank and below wore dark green robes. In the "Renewal of the Records of the State of the Ryukyus," the uniforms were collectively referred to as "duanqing". Since then, the style of court dress of officials did not change greatly, only the Ming official regular clothes and did not bundle large belt, to the Qing Dynasty began to bundle large belt, large belt also has the role of dividing the grade, "Zhongshan Chuanxin Records" in the positive, from the first-grade officials wearing a brocade belt, the second, third-grade officials wearing the Dragon Coiled yellow belt (second-grade officials with merit to give brocade belt), fourth-grade officials with the Dragon Coiled red belt, fifth-grade officials with a variety of colors with the flower belt, the sixth, seventh-grade officials wearing a variety of colors with the "Continuation of the Ryukyu Islands State ZhiLiao". Duanqing robe with a large belt tied at the waist, lifting three or four inches, in order to embrace paper clips, tobacco pouches and other objects. The palace warriors wore red hats and soap clothes.

The first dress was initially eight scrolls, and after the Qing Dynasty it became a hat. Whether it is wrapped around the head or crown hat are material, color to distinguish between high and low, "the Ryukyu Kingdom from the record" and Zhang Xue Li "to make the Ryukyus record" are eight volumes, piece of hat color and material provisions of the description, "the Ryukyu Kingdom from the record" briefly described the eight volumes of cloth color can be divided into red, yellow, yellow and soapy clothes, and other objects. The color of cloth can be divided into red, yellow, purple, green, black, etc., and purple, yellow for the noble, red, green, followed by green is the lowest, Zhang Xue Li "to make the Ryukyus record" is recorded in the prince (including the king's uncles and brothers, sons and nephews) with yellow damask, clan (according to the Division) with yellow damask, the Division of the law, the Zijin Daifu with purple damask, the Daifu, the ambassador, and other officials with red silk, the Cultivation of the use of red silk, servants and miscellaneous duties with red cloth, the regent is to wear a flower cap! as identification. In addition, "Zhongshan Chuanxinlu" and Zhao Xin "Renewal of Ryukyu Kingdom Zhiliao" also recorded the color and material of officials' hats. Zhongshan Chuanxin Records" contains, the positive, from the first-grade officials wear colorful satin cap, the second-grade officials carry purple damask cap, the third-grade to the fifth-grade officials wear yellow damask cap, the sixth and seventh-grade officials wear yellow silk cap, the eighth and ninth-grade officials and officials wear big red crepe cap, miscellaneous officials wear red silk cap, Zhao Xin "renewed Ryukyu Kingdom Zhiliao" in addition to the sixth and seventh-grade officials of the cap for the yellow cap, with the "Zhongshan Chuanxin Records" and "renewed Ryukyu Kingdom Zhiliao" also recorded the official hat color material content. Hat, and "Zhongshan Chuanxin Lu" contained the same. To Qianlong fifty-six years, the king of Shang Mu imitated the Chinese system to tassel hat, the provisions of the prince, according to the Secretary with green silk tassel, the law below the king and the tassel with black silk, the seat of the following with black cotton tassel. When it was cold, a piece of hat was worn, and a leather hat was used by the officials.

Hairpins also differed according to official rank and status, and the actual system recorded in different books varied. Xia Ziyang's "Record of Envoys to the Ryukyus" recorded that hairpins were divided into gold hairpins, gold-plated hairpins, silver hairpins, and copper hairpins, with gold being the most expensive, gold-plated hairpins being the second most expensive, silver hairpins being the second most expensive, and copper hairpins being the next most expensive. In the Record of the Origin of the Ryukyu Kingdom, it is written that the king's son inserted a gold flower koi hairpin when he wore a piece of hair, and a large hairpin with a flower dragon when he did not wear a piece of hair. The Prince, the Secretary of State, and the Purple Floating Weaver inserted gold flower and sunflower hairpins, and the Secretary of State and the Purple Crown inserted yellow sunflower and gold stem and silver hairpins. Officials below the Ojoksidan and general members of the clergy put in silver flower koi and silver daikatsu flower hairpins. When the new seneschal does not take up a position, he puts in a silver flower hairpin. When a prince does not tie a hairpin, a gold hairpin is inserted instead. The general members of the scholarly class under the Ministry of Justice inserted silver hairpins when they did not tie their hair in pieces. Zhang Xueli's "Record of Envoys to the Ryukyus" was slightly different from the previous one, stating that the king used a flowery gold hairpin, the prince used a bright gold hairpin, the officials of the three departments used a purple gold hairpin, the senior officials used a flowery silver hairpin, and the senior officials generally used a bright silver hairpin. The Zhongshan Chuanxinlu has a clear record of the hairpin and first dress regulations for officials at all levels, with the first-ranking officials wearing colorful satin hats, brocade belts, gold hairpins, and end-green robes. Officials of the second grade wore purple silk hats, dragon coiled brocade bands and crowns, of which the second grade inserted gold hairpins and the second grade inserted gold flowers and silver pillar hairpins. The third to fifth-grade officials wear yellow damask hat, to distinguish rank by belt, the third-grade official with a dragon coiled yellow belt, the fourth-grade official with a dragon coiled red belt, the fifth-grade official with a multicolored flower belt. Sixth and seventh grade officials dress in the same form, red crepe hat, colorful sash, third to ninth grade officials are inserted silver hairpin. The Old Records of the Kingdom of the Ryukyus also contains a record of the hairpin system, which states that except for the king's gold hairpin with a dragon's head, the hairpins of officials at all levels and members of the clergy were all in the form of flowers. The king's son, the prince, the press secretary, the judge wore sunflower head gold hairpins, the purple and gold officials wore silver stems and gold sunflower hairpins, the royal side to the rank of the scholarly children wore jade flower silver hairpins, and the unranked scholarly people wore jade flower copper hairpins.

In addition, they inherited the system of the Zhongshan Kingdom, and wore clothes modeled on the Ming Dynasty system, such as the official's complementary clothes, when the Ming Dynasty's envoys arrived. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, they switched to wearing the native style of clothing during the enshrinement ceremonies.

At that time, the performances of court music and dance, such as the royal seat music, group dancing and court dance, were performed by the sons of the scholarly family, and the music boys in the royal seat music were young scholarly men wearing women's clothes and red socks. In addition to the performers, there are some special positions of the court personnel, including medical officer (also known as "five officials"), Zongsou (responsible for the Palace of tea, also known as the Royal Tea Soup), the Division irrigation garden, musicians, etc. are different from other people's clothing, they are shaved like a monk, wearing a black six-pronged mantle with wide top, known as a piece of the hat hat, this is because they are busy and urgent duties. This is because they were too busy and eager in their duties to comb their hair. In addition to the coverlet, they would wear an extra short coat on the outside, and later the medical officer would not shave his hair. The musicians would change to wrap their heads with a red handkerchief when they played. The common dress of the men of the common people was a coverlet, with sleeves two or three feet wide and no longer than the length of the fingers, without a tie attached to the clothes, similar to a kimono, which was made of banana cloth and banana kudzu, or made of satin, silk, or ramie, and had to be tied with a separate belt. In the Duanjongsillok of the Joseon Dynasty Annals, it is written that the clothes were black, white, and red, and in the Sejosillok, it is written that their clothes were mainly black and white. The cuffs of the sleeves and clothes of the honored ones were embroidered with five-color silk in the form of beasts, and their feet wore straw shoeboxes, while a few literati and scholars wore shoes and boots on weekdays, and the "Annals of King Seongjong" states that they mostly wore white clothes and wrapped their buns in silk, and those who had a job wrapped them in ban-dyeing fabrics, wore white ramie cloth, and knotted a red-dyeing silk sash.

Like the men, the women of the common people wore plain clothes made of banana cloth, and some of the women of the rich and noble clergy would wear ? and upper cloth. Women again wore coverlets like men. Earlier when not wearing pants, clothing, after the early female coverlet no belt without buttons, walking to use their hands to pull the lapel, and the later portrait of the coverlet and heirloom objects in the right side of the belt, some of which have buttons on the neck. In addition to the coverlet there are other styles of women's clothing records, such as "Duanzong real record", "Chengzong real record" mentioned that Ryukyu women in addition to coverlet, but also wear jacket, 襦裙, similar to the Ming Dynasty and the Korean dynasty women's clothing at the time of the portraits were also painted in the jacket and skirt Taxi women, the rich and noble families will wear colored satin clothes. The jacket was not embroidered and the skirt was mostly white. In the old paintings, there is also a coat with a knot around the neck. They wore three boards on their feet, not very different from men. Shi women will go out wearing Ruo hats or white cloth scarf over their heads. From the customary paintings, the common people's women usually also wore headscarves. The hairpins inserted by commoner women were made of tortoiseshell, and they had no other jewelry and did not put on makeup, but the hairpins inserted could be used to identify their status. The silver hairpins were inserted by the scholar women who came from families below the Shijiazhuang family, and the hairpins inserted by the married scholar women depended on their husbands' rank. The women of the common people were not allowed to put in gold or silver hairpins, and they mostly put in tortoiseshell hairpins.

According to the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty," the dress of the women of the common people around the Yaeyama and Miyako Islands was different from the above, and the women of the islanders of Yonaguni wore their hair in long buns with wooden combs on their temples, and some of them wore their hair down to the ground, and the shortest of them was above the knee. They wore straight-necked or collarless clothes made of ramie fabric, with short and wide sleeves, mostly in blue and green colors, and green clothes underneath. The dresses of the women of Iriomote Island (Seongjongsillok as "Tokonoshima"), Irobe Island (Seongjongsillok as "Irofujima" or "Irof Yoma"), and Tarauma Island were similar to those of Nakuni Island. The women of Iriomote Island (Irobe Island) and TARAMA Island have similar dresses to those of Nakoku Island. Women in Iriomote Island have a custom of piercing their noses with small kuroki holes on both sides of their noses, and they also wear small green beads on their shins that are a few inches wide, while women in Irabe Island wear large crystal beads around their necks. In Hateruma and Arakijima, women wear crystal beads around their necks, while in Hateruma and Arakijima, women wear the same decorations as men.

In terms of hairstyles, the Zhongshan Chuanxinlu and Xia Ziyang's Ryukyu Lu Lu recorded that they wore their hair until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, with the natives wearing an interjection on the right side of their heads, and the 36 Min people wearing a bun in the center of their heads, and with silver hairpins for those below the rank and file and bamboo or tortoiseshell hairpins for the commoners, and later on, with a netted scarf. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, they began to shave their top hair and put it in a bun in the center of their heads, with short hairpins. However, the Records of Duanzong said that they wore their hair in a bun over the left ear, and the rest of their hair in a ring over the right ear, wrapped in white cloth. It is possible that they were dressed differently depending on the region. They did not often wear crowns and hats on weekdays, but they wore two kinds of crowns and hats, the Ryukyu native crowns and hats and the Ming-style crowns and hats, as mentioned above. In addition, there are also hats such as the Katana hat and the bucket hat, and the bucket hats are made of different materials such as bamboo, wood, and shapes depending on the purpose, and they are also dyed in different colors.

The dress of the men of the common people of the Yaeyama and Miyako Islands was different from the above at the beginning of the Second Sang Dynasty, and it was recorded in the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty," the "Annals of King Seongjong," that the dresses of the men of the islands of Yonaguni (Ruyi Ismol, Ruyi Island), Bojomajima (Bajojomajima), and Bajojomajima (Bajojomajima) were different from the above. ), Bajomae Island ("Seongjongsillok" is called "Gwolrao-ma-il-ma" and "Gwolrao-ma-il-do"), and Sinsung Island ("Seongjongsillok" is called "Gwolrao-ma-il-ma." The island of Sinsung is called "Gwolrao-ma-il-do, Shorarajima"), Tarauma Island (called "Tama-rima" and "Tama-rima" in the Seiryo of King Seongjong), Miyakojima Island (called "Sokko-rima" in the Seiryo of King Seongjong), and Miyakojima Island (called "Sokko-rima" in the Seiryo of King Seongjong). The dress of the men of the islands of Miyakojima (called "Makojima" and "Makojima" in the Records of King Narimune) is similar in that they wear their hair braided with ramie strings and tied up in a bun around their necks, and they grow long beards, some of which are braided or tied up in a bun. They wear a blue or green colored straight-necked or collarless Ramie garment with short sleeves, and a three-paneled white cloth apron as a middle skirt. In TARAMA and Miyakojima, the clothes are made of blue-dyed ramie cloth, which looks like colored satin, and the men in these areas do not wear shoes.

Hateruma Island had a custom of piercing the ears with small green beads and stringing beads around the neck, while the people of Arakanoshima Island strung green beads around their arms and calves

Toward the end of the Second Sho Dynasty, the clothing of these areas was influenced by Okinawa Honto, and was similar to that of Okinawa Honto, except for the fact that they used cloths of different materials and patterns produced by the local communities themselves to make their own clothing. The Ryukyu Kingdom was destroyed by Japan in 1871, and the Ryukyu Clan was established in the following year. The last king of the Ryukyus, King Sangtai, was appointed as a Ryukyu Clan King, and retained the royal dress. In 1879 (the 12th year of the Meiji era), when the clan was abolished and a prefecture was established, the Ryukyu royal family and nobility no longer had a noble status, and the red type of clothing was introduced to the common people, and since then, it has been used as the clothing of participants in Ryukyu performing arts, and as the clothing for major traditional festivals and ceremonies (such as weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, and the return of armor). The regular clothes of the common people continued to be worn in the daily lives of the Ryukyu people, and the red dyeing technique was used for the regular clothes as well.

Before the twenty-eighth year of the Meiji era (1895), the Ryukyu clothes worn by all classes of Ryukyu people were mostly the same as those of the previous generation, and there were no major changes. After that, men began to wear their clothes without buns, and men's Ryukyu clothes were influenced by the kimono, while women's clothes changed very little, and they still wore the same clothes and buns as they did during the Ryukyu era, but they seldom overlapped the left side of the head. The custom of tattooing both hands was not abolished until the 15th year of the Meiji era when the Japanese government banned it. After World War II, the Ryukyu kimono became closer to the kimono, but the special fabrics and dyeing techniques used were still different from those of the kimono, and the obi was still worn with a sash tied at the front.

Until the middle of the twentieth century, people switched to western clothes and fashion, and Ryukyu clothes were only worn for traditional culture-related events, festivals, weddings, or when there was a need to wear a representative national costume, and they were also worn by tourists to experience Ryukyu culture. Modern Ryukyu clothes generally retain the traditional style, but there are also improved styles, and belts are no longer the exclusive property of men; modern women's Ryukyu regular clothes also have belted styles.