Hairpins
- Japanese/Okinawan: 簪 (kanzashi / jiifaa)
Hairpins were commonly worn by both men and women in the Ryûkyû Kingdom, and were a marker of social status; only the royalty and aristocracy were permitted to wear hairpins of gold, silver, or copper, while commoners wore hairpins of non-metallic materials, including wood and coral.
Women of the royalty and aristocracy wore particularly elaborate hairpins at times, with ornaments in the form of dragons or flowers. Boys of royal or aristocratic birth who had not yet come of age wore their hair similarly; those who traveled to Kagoshima or Edo as performers (known as gakudôji) were particularly renowned in Japanese sources for their beauty. The largest and most elaborate golden hairpins were worn by the king, queen, kikoe-ôgimi, and other top-ranking members of the royal family.
Generally speaking, members of the royalty and top two ranks of the aristocracy wore gold hairpins, the middle ranks of the aristocracy wore silver hairpins, and low-ranking aristocrats copper or brass.[1] A system of rank as indicated by hairpins was also introduced by Shô Shin around the same time as the hachimaki ranking system, in the early 16th century, but did not settle into the gold, silver, brass system more standard in later periods until the 17th century.[2]
