Aikidogi

Aikidogi (合気道着 or 合気道衣). This is the official Japanese name for the attire in aikido training. Most people call it a gi or dogi. Usually, most aikidoka wear an aikidogi made of bleached or unbleached cotton fabric, but sometimes also from a fabric that is half cotton and half polyester.

In practice, aikido falls somewhere between judo and karate in terms of training. For this reason, it is very common for aikidoka to use, depending on their preference, lighter gi like those used in karate or heavier gi like those used in judo (The judo gi is quite thick so that it can support the weight of the person wearing it.) Consequently, when it comes to attire in Aikido, both types of uniforms are more durable than typical Western clothing.

Hakama

Aikidoka usually wear a type of loose-fitting pants resembling a skirt, known as a hakama, which was traditionally worn by samurai. The classic gi worn in aikido, as well as in other martial arts such as karate or judo, was originally used as undergarments and is now a tradition for most aikido schools.

Originally, the hakama was intended to protect horsemen, for example, from chafing against the saddle, much like a cowboy’s leather chaps. Because leather was scarce in Japan at that time, they used thick fabric. After the samurai were demoted as a social class to ordinary foot soldiers, they continued to wear the horsemen’s uniform because it set them apart from the rest.

At that time, there were different types of hakama. The modern type with cuffs, worn by those involved in martial arts, is called joba hakama. There is also a hakama without cuffs that resembled a tube skirt, as well as another similar to the second type but much longer. This particular hakama was worn during visits to the Shogun or the Emperor. It was approximately 3.5 to 4.5 meters long and was folded and placed between the wearer’s legs and the back of their body. In this way, the visitor was forced to walk on their knees (shiko) to approach their interlocutor, thus making it impossible to conceal a weapon or launch a sudden attack.

The seven pleats in the hakama (five in the front, two in the back) are said to represent the following virtues:

Yuki = courage, boldness, bravery
Jin = compassion, charity, kindness
Gi = justice, morality, integrity
Rei = etiquette, grace, politeness (also means a deep bow)
Makoto = sincerity, honesty, truth
Chugi = devotion, loyalty
Meiyo = honor, glory. It also means reputation, dignity, prestige

In many schools, only black-belt students wear hakama. In some others, everyone wears them without exception. In some places, women begin wearing hakama earlier than men for reasons of modesty because, as mentioned above, the gi was originally underwear.

Osensei insisted strongly that EVERYONE must wear a hakama. However, he came from a time when the hakama was standard formal attire.

An excerpt from Saito Sensei regarding the hakama at Osensei’s dojo in the old days:

“Although it was mandatory to wear a hakama, most students were too poor to buy one. If they couldn’t get one from an older relative, they would take the cover from an old mattress, cut it, dye it, and give it to a seamstress to turn it into a hakama.

But because they had to use cheap dye, after a while, the colorful pattern of the mattress began to show through, and the mattress filling slowly started to spill out.”

Shigenobu Okumura Sensei, “Aikido Today Magazine” #41:

“In postwar Japan, it was very difficult to get hold of things, including fabric. Because of the shortages, we practiced without hakama. We tried to make hakama from the black curtains used during World War II air raids, but because of their long exposure to the sun, the fabric would melt right at the knees as soon as we started doing suwariwaza. We were constantly trying to patch them up. That’s when someone suggested: “Why don’t we agree to wear hakama only once we reach shodan/black belt?” We implemented this idea temporarily to save money, not because the hakama is a symbol of dan rank.”