I remember reading that Japan was closed to outsiders until relatively recently (1800's). Only the Portuguese traded with them, in only one area. Maybe look in Portuguese sources.
The Portuguese arrived in Japan in the 1540s or 1560s, not totally certain. Japan had closed its borders to China, but not to other trading countries. There were the Portuguese and the Dutch, mainly, at the time, because the Spanish were too busy conquering South America ;-P That is, until Japan closed its borders completely around 1650 - then they only allowed the Dutch to do trade, and only in some very specific places.
In any case, Portugal and Spain were under the same rule for a while somewhere around 1600, give or take about 50 years (and then became independant again), so the royalty must have been wearing the same thing, which should have trickled down to the lower classes. If you look at Portuguese and Spanish paintings of royalty at the time, they really are wearing almost the same thing. Alcega might be portraying the higher classes, but he does NOT portray royalty. This is stated quite clearly in the introduction. So, in 1585, the poufy pant thing was not happening in his part of Spain at least.
In any case, Spanish OR Portuguese, I am totally unable to find anything even resembling long poufy pants. Anywhere but on Japanese representations of European traders.
Also, finding Portuguese sources is another challenge. I didn't find much out there about Portuguese fashion in the Renaissance... especially not for the merchant class!
_______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
