Kasa (hat)

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title: "Kasa (hat)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hats", "japanese-headgear", "samurai-clothing", "japanese-words-and-phrases"] description: "Traditional Japanese hat" topic_path: "geography/japan" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa_(hat)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Traditional Japanese hat ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Gifujyou5834.JPG" caption="jingasa}}."] ::

A is any one of several traditional Japanese hats. These include ja and ja.

Grammar and etymology

ja is the correct way to pronounce the word when it stands alone. ja causes ja to change to ja when it is preceded by another word specifying the type of hat, as in ja.

ja shares its etymology with the Japanese word for "umbrella" (also pronounced ja, but written as {{linktext|傘}}).

Types of {{transliteration|ja|kasa}}

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Nirayama_jingasa.JPG" caption="nirayama}} style."] ::

A number of different styles of ja have been used throughout most all levels of Japanese society.

Some types of ja include:

• : a wickerwork ja made of shaven bamboo or wood.
• : a wickerwork ja. An ja is a straw hat of the type traditionally worn in some Japanese folk dances.
• : a deep wickerwork ja.
• : a type of ja commonly worn by samurai and ashigaru. The samurai class in feudal Japan, as well as their retainers and footsoldiers, used several types of ja made from iron, copper, wood, paper, bamboo, or leather. ja almost always had crests on them.
• : typically a conical ja with a flat top, often worn by ja.
• : a bamboo ja for traveling with a wide, flat shape that offered protection from the sun and rain. Favored by ja, couriers who regularly traveled between Edo and Kyoto.
• : a conical, pointed wickerwork ja made of sedge. This hat shape is called a nón lá in Vietnam or do'un in Cambodia.
• : a Buddhist mendicant's ja. A woven rice-straw ja worn by mendicant Buddhist monks, the ja is made overlarge and in a bowl or mushroom shape. Unlike an Asian conical hat, it does not come to a point, nor does it ride high on the head like a samurai's traveling hat, instead covering the upper half to two-thirds of the face, masking the identity of the monk and allowing him to travel undistracted on his journey.
• : (see ja)
• : a folded ja, worn for the Awa Dance Festival.
• : the family crest of Yagyū clan, not an actual kind of ja.

Gallery

Image:Japanese buddhist monk hat by Arashiyama cut.jpg|A Buddhist monk wearing a ja. Image:A begging criminal-J. M. W. Silver.jpg|The hat in this print is a ja of the sort known as , worn by ja, mendicant monks of Fuke Zen. Image:Awaod001.jpg|These women at the Awa Dance Festival wear the characteristic ja of the dance. Image:Return of the Samurai 14.JPG|Various ja from the Return of the Samurai exhibition of Samurai art and artifacts, held in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada in 2010. Image:50番繁多寺前で托鉢する遍路P1010122.jpg|A Buddhist pilgrim asking for alms outside a Buddhist temple.

References

References

1. "Kasa – traditional Japanese hats".
2. Tanaka, Fumon. (2003). "Samurai Fighting Arts: The Spirit and the Practice". Kodansha International.
3. (1991). "Secrets of the Samurai; A Survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan". C. E. Tuttle.

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