Fundoshi

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The fundoshi (褌) is a traditional Japanese male loincloth, made from a strip of cotton cloth, one "shaku" (traditional Japanese foot, 35 cm = 14 inches) wide and about 2.4 m (92 to 96 inches, = "six-foot", hence roku-shaku) long, which is twisted to create a thong effect at the back.

A man wearing a Japanese traditional swimwear FUNDOSHI -red rokushaku- frontside

A man wearing a Japanese traditional swimwear FUNDOSHI -red rokushaku- backside

[edit] Types and uses

The fundoshi is first mentioned in the classic history the Nihongi. They are also depicted on clay figures, haniwa. The fundoshi was the indispensible nether garment of every Japanese male, rich or poor, high or low status, until after the Second World War, when Americanization popularized elasticised underpants.

The fundoshi comes in several basic styles. The most relaxed type consists in a strip of cloth, wound around the hips, secured at the small of the back by knotting or twisting, with the excess brought forward between the legs, and tucked through the cloth belt in front to hang as an apron.

The second style, for people who are active, is formed when the cloth is wound around the hips so that there is an excess of apron, which is brought back again between the legs and twisted around the belt-cloth in back. It is also the standard male "bathing-suit." Male children learning to swim (during the 60s) were often told to wear this kind of fundoshi because a child in trouble could be easily lifted out of the water by the back cloth of his fundoshi.

The third style, called "etchu fundoshi", alledgedly referring to a province of imperial China, as the etchu-fundoshi is popularly supposed to be derived from a Chinese loincloth (there seems to be little or no information on the wear of loincloths in China), is a long rectangle of cloth with tapes at one narrow end. One ties the tapes around the hips, with the cloth at the small of the back, and then pulls the cloth between the legs and through the belt, letting the remainder hang as an apron. Such fundoshi were issued to Japanese troops in World War 2, and often were the sole garb of Allied POWs in tropic areas.

There are many other varieties of fundoshi as the variations on the principle of a loincloth are almost infinite. For example, the mokko-fundoshi [literally "earth-basket loincloth" because it looks like the traditional baskets used in construction], is made like the etchu-fundoshi but without a front apron; the cloth is secured to the belt to make a bikini effect. The kura-nekko fundoshi [literally "black cat fundoshi"] is like the mokko-fundoshi except that the portion that passes from front to back is tailored to create a thong effect.

The samurai (military elite) wore it as underwear with armor, combined with a shitagi shirt.

Fundoshi are often worn with hanten (a short cotton jacket with straight sleeves) during summer festivals by men who carry mikoshi (portable shrines) in Shinto processions.

Outside Japan it is perhaps best known from the spectacular giant drum Kodo (taiko group) appearing dressed in nothing else than a white fundoshi and a head band, arduously drumming themselves into honest sweat, as members of Japan's lower classes did in various professions, especially in open air.

Fundoshi are still used as traditional swimsuits. In some high schools, boys do the long-distance sea swim wearing the fundoshi. The present Crown Prince of Japan also swam in fundoshi in his childhood. In the pools and beaches of Japan, fundoshi swimmers can still be seen.

Fundoshi are still used as traditional sports underwear; like a Jock strap the rokushaku fundoshi is tight on the scrotum and lifts the penis to the side upwards positions.