One-off Kurosawa Hat Question

Alex Zahlten Alex.Zahlten at gmx.de
Thu Jan 6 21:02:05 EST 2011


I don't know if this helps, but: To me the Kurosawa Marine Cap indeed looks a lot like the Prinz Heinrich cap (certainly more than it resembles the pre-war Japanese Naval Officer's Cap); the picture of the Prince Heinrich cap on wikipedia may be a bit misleading, there are versions of the cap that look a lot more like the Kurosawa cap (in Germany).

The Prinz Heinrich cap was actually quite popular, and experienced an additional boom through chancellor Helmut Schmidt in the 1970s; he was from Hamburg and liked to project a certain cool, aristocratic (some would say technocratic) image. The Prinz Heinrich fit his nordic flair perfectly, and it became a big thing among the conservative upper-middle class crowd.

It was also very popular in the inter-war period, and if you think of the amount of exchange going on between Japan and Germany then, it's not improbably that it travelled to Japan in a slightly modified form.

Alex


-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Thu,  6 Jan 2011 13:16:07 -0500 (EST)
> Von: mccaskem at georgetown.edu
> An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Betreff: One-off Kurosawa Hat Question

> Since we got into the area of clothing with respect to film, it seems an 
> appropriate time to ask about Kurosawa's trademark hat. I've always
> wondered.
> 
> It's sold today as the "Kurosawa Marine Cap"
> 
> http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/ishiihat/91b.html
> 
> But it is somewhat reminiscent of a pre-war Japanese Naval Officer's Cap
> 
> http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/ishiihat/m-400.html
> 
> I once attempted some research on the subject, and it seemed that,
> according to 
> Japanese sources, perhaps this kind of Japanese cap was originally modeled
> after 
> a cap that Prince Heinrich (brother of Wilhelm II) wore in a famous yacht
> race 
> against King Edward VII. That seems arcane to me.
> 
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prinz-Heinrich-Muetze.jpg
> 
> This does not appear much different from a Greek fisherman's cap, which
> seems 
> quite different from the Kurosawa Model.
> 
> If someone knows the origin of the Kurosawa Hat, it would be great to find
> out 
> what it really was. Was this a common cap in the old days? One does not
> see 
> anyone wearing this kind of cap these days, though apparently you can
> still buy 
> and wear one if you really wish to.
> 
> Many Thanks,
> 
> Michael McCaskey
> GU

-- 
alex at nipponco



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