Monpe

Monpe (もんぺ /モンペ)[1] otherwise called moppe or mompei, and in Korean, ilbaji (see Baji),[2] is an umbrella term used for the traditional style of loose agricultural work-trouser in Japan.

[4] Monpe was popularised as an informal uniform in Japan during the 1930s and 1940s, and Pacific War, because it used existing materials within the home and could be easily altered and repaired, and this was a necessity in wartime.

The production of traditional monpe today continues to be labour intensive, but it has become mechanised in some parts of the process, such as weaving the fabric, and making the dye.

In premodern Japan, strict sumptuary laws were enacted by the Shogunate, which forbade farmers from wearing certain textiles such as silk, and colours such as purple, crimson, and plum-coloured dyes.

[16] Since the Taisho period (1912-1926) monpe have been made using more adventurous and brighter colour palettes, such as orange and purple, although even today indigo blue continues to be the most common.

Once conceived, owing to their simple construction, monpe did not change significantly in style for centuries, and continued to be practical garments to wear during outdoor work.

[17] In the early 1930s, the ethnologist and folklorist, Kiyoko Segawa (1895–1984)[citation needed], travelled throughout the countryside and remote villages to study traditional rural clothing.

[22] There were also a monpe workshop held at a school in Tokyo and sponsored by the Home Ministry to encourage female students to sew their own clothes.

[23] The garments utility ease of construction quickly made them a default choice for urban women, who wore it in factories, during air-raids, and as their everyday wear with old shirts and kimono.

In the late 1930s, monpe were distributed and enforced in colonial Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and other occupied areas, as quick practical pieces of clothing to wear for air-raids or fires.

[27] They continue to be worn as work clothing in the postwar period, but in order to "expunge the vestiges of Japanese colonization,” the garment was renamed ilbaji, meaning 'work pants'.