First of all- thank you for your work with this blog. I really enjoy the information you share, and the kimono designs are wonderful. I have a question- I know you've talked about how 'men don't/didn't wear Bright Colorful Designs' is more complicated then people assume! (Which makes sense- saying 'in X period men Never Wore Colors' isn't true about, say, the Victorian era either!).
But to get to my point- I happened to be reading a very old collection of mysteries called "The curious casebook of Inspector Hanshichi". In them, a young Hanshichi is described as wearing a very bright red and yellow striped kimono that made him 'look like a merchant'. At the time I assumed this implied he was dressing a little flashily- I'm curious if I was right about that!
You most welcome :D
And the parallel you draw with Western men fashion is pretty accurate: we tend to think menswear was always pretty dull (arf modern business suits) when in fact this tendency is quite recent!
As to your question about fashionable Inspector Hanshichi (for those who don't know: hero of early 20thc detective novels with "supernatural" elements written by Kido Okamoto), I think you are right. The "look like a merchant" is probably a mix of:
He's dressing below/above is condition. I don't remember Hanshichi exact social status (is he a yoriki? a doushin?), but samurai class were supposed to dress differently from merchants for ex.
He dressing flashy - "nouveau rich" style. Merchant class was at the bottom of social order BUT hold in fact all financial power in Edo period. Some merchants tried to emulate samurai dress (=conservative), while others didn't hesitate to show their wealth and dictate new fashions.
He is dressy flashy - dandy style. Hanshichi is a wakamono (young) and probably fashionable man, following whatever trend he likes - a late Edo heritage of early Edo kabukimono (flashy young samurai)
