A
hachimaki (鉢巻) is a stylized
headbandA headband is a clothing accessory worn in the hair or around the forehead, usually to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Headbands generally consist of a loop of elastic material or a horseshoe-shaped piece of flexible plastic or metal...
(
bandanaBandana can refer to:*Another name for a kerchief*Bandana *Bandana *Bandana, Kentucky, a small town in the United States...
) in
Japanese cultureThe culture of Japan has evolved greatly over millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jomon culture to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America...
, usually made of red or white cloth, worn as a symbol of
perseverancePerseverance is a term for human endurance and autonomy which may refer to:*Perseverance , an album by metalcore band Hatebreed*Perseverance , an album by rapper Percee P...
or effort by the wearer. These are worn on many occasions, for example, by sports spectators, by women giving birth, students in
cram schoolGakushū juku are special private schools that offer lessons conducted after regular school hours and on the weekends.They have been much debated, and often criticized in the late twentieth century...
, office workers, expert tradesmen taking pride in their work,
bōsōzokuis a Japanese subculture associated with motorcycle clubs and gangs.They were first seen in the 1950s as the Japanese automobile industry expanded rapidly. The first bōsōzoku were known as kaminari-zoku...
(teen biker gangs) and even rioters. Japanese
competitive eaterCompetitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to consume large quantities of food in a short time period. Contests are typically less than 15 minutes in length, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner...
Takeru Kobayashiis a Japanese competitive eater and a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating . He held the world record for hot dog eating for nearly six years, and holds several other eating records, and is ranked second in the world for competitive eating according to the International...
wore a hachimaki for the Nathan's hotdog eating competition.
They are generally decorated with inspirational
sloganA slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish and Irish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm...
s, like 日本一 (
Nippon Ichi, "the best of Japan" or "Japan [is the] best"), but most typically with the
rising sun- Country :*Land of the Rising Sun, a name for Japan. The Japanese names for Japan, Nippon and Nihon, literally mean "the sun's origin", translated as the Land of the Rising Sun.-Entertainment:Music...
motif.
The historical origin of hachimaki is uncertain.
A
hachimaki (鉢巻) is a stylized
headbandA headband is a clothing accessory worn in the hair or around the forehead, usually to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Headbands generally consist of a loop of elastic material or a horseshoe-shaped piece of flexible plastic or metal...
(
bandanaBandana can refer to:*Another name for a kerchief*Bandana *Bandana *Bandana, Kentucky, a small town in the United States...
) in
Japanese cultureThe culture of Japan has evolved greatly over millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jomon culture to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America...
, usually made of red or white cloth, worn as a symbol of
perseverancePerseverance is a term for human endurance and autonomy which may refer to:*Perseverance , an album by metalcore band Hatebreed*Perseverance , an album by rapper Percee P...
or effort by the wearer. These are worn on many occasions, for example, by sports spectators, by women giving birth, students in
cram schoolGakushū juku are special private schools that offer lessons conducted after regular school hours and on the weekends.They have been much debated, and often criticized in the late twentieth century...
, office workers, expert tradesmen taking pride in their work,
bōsōzokuis a Japanese subculture associated with motorcycle clubs and gangs.They were first seen in the 1950s as the Japanese automobile industry expanded rapidly. The first bōsōzoku were known as kaminari-zoku...
(teen biker gangs) and even rioters. Japanese
competitive eaterCompetitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to consume large quantities of food in a short time period. Contests are typically less than 15 minutes in length, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner...
Takeru Kobayashiis a Japanese competitive eater and a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating . He held the world record for hot dog eating for nearly six years, and holds several other eating records, and is ranked second in the world for competitive eating according to the International...
wore a hachimaki for the Nathan's hotdog eating competition.
They are generally decorated with inspirational
sloganA slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish and Irish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm...
s, like 日本一 (
Nippon Ichi, "the best of Japan" or "Japan [is the] best"), but most typically with the
rising sun- Country :*Land of the Rising Sun, a name for Japan. The Japanese names for Japan, Nippon and Nihon, literally mean "the sun's origin", translated as the Land of the Rising Sun.-Entertainment:Music...
motif.
The historical origin of hachimaki is uncertain. One theory links the cloth to those worn by early religious ascetics. Another theory states that they originated in headbands worn by
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
that kept their helmets on, to absorb perspiration, and keep hair out of their eyes. "Hachimaki" translates as "helmet-scarf."
Perhaps the most infamous usage of the hachimaki was by the
kamikazeThe were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
pilots toward the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Kamikaze pilots would frequently don a hachimaki, usually with the
kanjiare the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet . The Japanese term kanji literally means "Han characters".- History :Chinese characters first came to Japan on...
characters 神風 ("Kamikaze") before flying to their deaths. The hachimaki was also worn by Daniel, in the famous movie "Karate Kid".