Hakama!

Yaaay! Today, I finally got my very first Hakama Pants

I should have gotten them around May of 2003, but my ehr.. supplier (Jens).. has been backlogged.. or something :-)

Thanks to Stefan at our Dojo for helping me out.

Hakama? Originally, the Hakama was worn as an outer garment to protect a Samurai horseman's legs from brush, weeds, etc. (similar to a cowboys leather chaps). In Japan, since leather was so very hard to come by, heavy cloth was used in its place.

After the Samurai made the transition from mounted soldiers to foot soldiers, they continued to wear the hakama largely due to the fact that it set them apart and made them easily identifiable. [source: www.loyola.edu web.archive.org]

You can read more about it here:

• en.wikipedia.org
• www.loyola.edu (web.archive.org)
• www.japanesekimono.com (web.archive.org)

Will I be wearing my newly acquired equipment to work.. ? Unlikely :-)