A reverent yet stern, and calm appearance is ideal

January 27, 2017

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“Constantly check yourself in the mirror when perfecting your appearance.”

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Jocho Yamamoto (1659-1719) talks about how Samurai should look with
his appearance in his narrative book “Hagakure”.

“You will hardly be trusted if you show off your intelligence in your face.
Without composure and resolve you will appear to lack grace.
A reverent yet stern, and calm appearance is ideal”

It may sound not so fascinating, however, in one way or another,
these men are quite appealing from other men’s perspectives.

Not only relying on intelligence, men tend to live up to their social status, wealth,
ambition, will power, outstanding talents, fine sensibility and so forth.
Freely projecting such abilities and traits on your own appearance may be the prevailing style of
self-expression in these days, but keeping an unwavering stance with daring to veil
your qualifications in your appearance may well be the true style of achieving men’s dignity and integrity.

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“A reverent yet stern, and calm appearance is ideal”

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When Hagakure lectured on one’s appearance,
it gave lessons mainly on how he should look with his body and manner
such as facial expressions and hairstyle, or posture and attitude.
But at the same time, what he wears is another important factor to form his appearance.

When I design clothes, I not only look at brilliant attire with feelings of delight, curiosity,
playfulness and excitement, but also at the strong masculinity for the clothing to be worn
with a straight back and reverent yet stern appearance.

Yoshiyuki Ogata