2024.07.05
Okinawa's Unique Wearable Culture: The Love for Hometown & Identity Shown by "Kariyushi Wear"
If you have ever traveled to Okinawa in the summer, think back to your experience. Whether it was at Naha Airport, supermarkets, restaurants, or hotels, haven't you seen people wearing colorful shirts?
These shirts may all have matching designs or unique patterns for each person. Seeing such people makes many feel, "I have arrived in Okinawa."
Those "colorful shirts" are indeed the uniquely developed "Kariyushi Wear" of Okinawa.
It might be surprising, but around 90% of people working in Okinawa switch to Kariyushi Wear when it gets warm. This is because it is considered formal summer attire in Okinawa.
Why has the culture of Kariyushi Wear developed so uniquely in Okinawa? To explore the reasons, we spoke to Erika Mino from the Okinawa Apparel Sewing Industrial Association, which manages the trademarks, tags, wholesale, and PR planning for Kariyushi Wear.
PROFILE
Eriko Mino
Joined Okinawa Apparel Sewing Industrial Association in Heisei 30 (2018), appointed director in Reiwa 2 (2020).
Inspired by Aloha Shirts
Mino, who responded to our interview, was wearing a refreshing Kariyushi Wear with a blue no-collar shirt featuring the traditional Okinawan craft "Bingata" around the collar.She explained that in Okinawa, the Kariyushi Wear season spans more than half the year, from April to October. Additionally, Okinawa in early May already felt like summer, so many people were working in Kariyushi Wear.
Today, Kariyushi Wear is commonly worn as both work and casual attire, but its history dates back to 1970, two years before Okinawa's reversion to Japan.
"In 1970, still under U.S. administration, members of the Okinawa Tourism Association went on an inspection trip to Hawaii, one of the world's top tourist destinations.
"During the trip, the Hawaiians hosting them said, 'Why are you still in suits and ties in Hawaii? Please change into Aloha shirts and feel the Hawaiian breeze.' They changed into Aloha shirts on the spot.
"That experience made them think, 'Why not create clothing in Okinawa that lets people feel the essence of Okinawa just by wearing it?' And thus, the prototype for Kariyushi Wear was born."
There are several theories about the origin of Aloha shirts, one being that early 20th-century Japanese immigrants to Hawaii remade their kimonos into a type of open-collar shirt called "Palaka."
It's hard not to feel a sense of destiny in the meeting of Okinawa, once under American rule, and the Aloha shirt, which has a theory of origin tracing back to Japan.
Following the Hawaii inspection, the production of "Okinawa-style clothing" began in earnest. However, in the 1970s, the name "Kariyushi Wear" didn't exist, and there were no specific manufacturing rules.
"Back then, there were no specific motifs; we simply made tropical-themed shirts that evoked Okinawa.
"They were sold under various names like Tropical Wear, Okinawa Shirts, and Okinawa Aloha by different companies. The name Kariyushi Wear was unified in 1990, based on a public solicitation by the Okinawa Prefectural Department of Commerce and Labor.
"'Kariyushi' is an Okinawan word meaning auspicious or good fortune, chosen for the feel-good vibes it conveys just by wearing it."
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