Haori
A haori is a traditional Japanese jacket worn over a kimono. It looks like a shortened kimono without the overlapping front panels, it is tied at the front with two short cords, and in our reading its lining is where some of the boldest pictures in Japanese dress have been kept.
Definition
A haori differs from a kimono in three ways a collector can see. It has no okumi, the overlapping front panels, so the fronts hang straight and meet at the centre. Its collar is usually thinner than a kimono collar. And it has two thin triangular gussets set into the side seams. It is closed with a pair of short cords called haori himo, which attach to small loops sewn inside the garment.
Haori are worn by men and women today. A formal men's haori is black with family crests, the kamon, and the number of crests marks the formality; in our handling, five crests mark the most formal and a single crest a lighter occasion.
Origin
The haori took its familiar place in the Edo period. Economic growth gave the wealthy but low-ranked merchant class money to spend, and much of it went on clothing. Because sumptuary edicts restricted what merchants could wear in public, merchant-class men began to wear haori plain on the outside with lavishly decorated linings, a habit still seen in men's haori today.
Until the early 1800s haori were worn only by men. Then the geisha of Fukagawa in Edo, known for their stylish and unusual fashion, began to wear them over kimono, and by the 1930s women wearing haori had become commonplace.
Haori were also made from older garments. A kimono could be shortened, its okumi taken off and its collar re-sewn to make a haori, part of the long Japanese habit of reusing cloth. In our handling, that is one reason a haori's face and lining sometimes seem to come from different decades.
Key facts
| Garment | Jacket worn over kimono |
|---|---|
| Construction | No okumi, thinner collar, triangular gussets at the side seams |
| Fastening | Haori himo, two short cords |
| Hidden decoration | Lavish linings, from the Edo period |
| Worn by women | From the early 1800s, Fukagawa geisha; commonplace by the 1930s |
How to identify it
- Open the jacket. The lining is often the piece. In our handling, linings carry painted or dyed landscapes, zodiac animals, heroes and sometimes erotic scenes; describe the lining as carefully as the face, and photograph it in daylight, because painted silk changes colour under lamps.
- The cords. In our handling, original himo are often missing or replaced; replacement cords are normal and are described as such.
- Count the crests. Crests sit at the back, the sleeves and the chest; read their number for formality and their design for family.
- Look for the gussets. The triangular side panels and the straight fronts separate a haori from a shortened kimono.
- Cloth. Silk crepe, tsumugi pongee and hemp each tell a different story of use; workwear-weight cotton points instead towards the hanten.
Where it appears in the collection
Haori sit on the kimono and textile heritage shelf. Examples include an antique black five-crest haori with a hand-painted zodiac lining, a one-crest tsumugi haori with a hidden shunga lining and a Taisho boro haori in patched indigo cotton. For the full outfit, see our page on haori and hakama.
Related entries
- Shunga: the hidden pictures of some haori linings.
- Wagara: the patterns that cover them.
- Kimono remake: where old haori cloth goes next.
Sources
- Haori, encyclopaedia entry, construction and Edo-period history. wikipedia.org
- Kimono, encyclopaedia entry, section on reuse. wikipedia.org
Last reviewed 15 November 2026. The Japonista Curation and Concierge Team, Tokyo, Japan.