Tokin (headwear)

The tokin (頭襟、兜巾、頭巾、ときん) is a small, black, box-shaped hat traditional to Japan, which yamabushi (mountain ascetic hermits) of shugendō wear on their foreheads.

When practising shugendō in the deep mountains, they wear suzukake, a set consisting of upper robe and trousers, Yuigesa (結袈裟), a harness or sash adorned with pom-poms on the body, irataka nenju (Buddhist Prayer beads) on the side, a tokin on the head, Kyahan (脚絆), on the calves, sandals made from straw, hold Shakujō (錫杖), a metal rod, in their hands, wear Oi (笈), a kind of backpack, and katabako, a box borne on the shoulders containing prayers, paperwork and writing supplies, and blow a Horagai (法螺貝) (conch-shell horn).

[2] Tengu, dangerous yet protective spirits of the mountains and forests, are depicted in the style of yamabushi, and are also shown wearing the tokin.

[2][3] The tokin is usually a small, black box-shaped hat, which is made of lacquered and hardened cloth or wood.

[2][1] In common and modern Japanese, the word tokin is rendered with the same kanji as the word 頭巾 (zukin), another type of Japanese headgear that mainly wraps or folds cloth to cover the head and face;[5] however, despite being written identically, tokin and zukin are quite different.