The Chonmage: A History of the Samurai Topknot

In Japanese prints and films about the samurai, one detail appears again and again: the topknot. A shaved strip on the crown of the head, the remaining hair oiled and gathered into a small tail folded forward over the top. This is the chonmage, and for most of the Edo period it was not simply a fashion. It was a visible sign of a man's place in society. Its story runs from imperial court caps to the battlefields of the Warring States period, through the long peace of the Tokugawa shoguns, and into the modern sumo ring.

Our Cultures section introduces hair traditions in Japan. This story looks closely at one of the most famous.

What a chonmage is

The traditional chonmage combines two elements. The first is the shaved pate, the shaved area at the front and top of the head. The second is the topknot itself: the hair on the sides and back is grown long, oiled, tied into a small tail and folded onto the top of the head ^[1]. The precise form varied with period, region and social status, and the term chonmage is often used broadly for several related topknot styles.

Roots in the Heian court

The origins of the style can be traced to the Heian period, from 794 to 1185 ^[1]. Aristocrats at the imperial court wore cap-like crowns as part of official dress. To hold these caps securely, hair was tied near the back of the head. Tying the hair was therefore a practical part of courtly clothing, long before it became a samurai emblem.

Topknots of various kinds also appear in many other cultures, from ancient China and Korea to South and Southeast Asia, and the broader history of the topknot is a rich subject in its own right ^[2]. In Japan, however, the chonmage developed a particular form and an unusually strong link to social identity.

From the Warring States to the Edo peace

Between the 1580s, at the end of the Warring States period, and the 1630s, at the start of the Edo period, Japanese attitudes to men's hair shifted significantly ^[1]. In the preceding era of constant warfare, a full head of hair and a beard had been seen as signs of manliness. In the long peace that followed, those same features came to be seen as rough and unsuited to the new order.

A popular explanation for the shaved pate links it to warfare: shaving the top of the head may have made a heavy helmet cooler and more comfortable. That explanation is often repeated, and it may contain truth, but it is best treated as a theory rather than an established fact. What the sources clearly show is the result. By the early Edo period a shaved pate had become required for the samurai class, and by the 1660s all men, whether samurai or commoner, were forbidden from wearing beards, with the shaved style considered mandatory ^[1].

A hairstyle that showed rank

In Edo society, hair was a public statement. The style of the topknot depended on the social status of the wearer, and that of the samurai was more pronounced than that of artisans or merchants ^[1]. Someone familiar with the conventions could read a man's position from the shape of his hair.

There was one notable exception. Ronin, samurai who did not serve a lord, were not required to shave their heads, and their unshaven or untidy hair made them easy to identify ^[1]. In popular stories and later films the shaggy-haired ronin became a familiar figure, an outsider whose hair advertised that he belonged to no household.

The Meiji haircut edict

The world of the chonmage ended quickly. In 1868 the Meiji Restoration returned political power to the emperor and launched an ambitious programme of modernisation, much of it modelled on Western institutions ^[3]. The new government saw many samurai customs as unsuited to a modern nation, and appearance was part of that.

In 1871 the Dampatsurei edict, issued in the name of Emperor Meiji, encouraged men of the samurai classes to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the chonmage ^[1]. Short, Western-style hair became a symbol of the new Japan. Within a few years the topknot, once required, had become old-fashioned, and then a symbol of the past. The speed of the change is remarkable. A hairstyle that had defined male identity for more than two centuries largely disappeared in a single generation.

The chonmage in sumo today

The chonmage survives today mainly in two places: among kabuki actors, who wear it as part of historical roles, and among professional sumo wrestlers ^[1]. All professional sumo wrestlers wear a topknot once their hair is long enough. The Japan Sumo Association employs specialist hairdressers who prepare the wrestlers' hair, a skilled job that takes years to learn ^[1][4].

The sumo style differs from the Edo samurai version in one important way: the pate is no longer shaved. Instead, hair on the crown may be thinned or trimmed so that the topknot sits neatly, usually about once every three months ^[1]. Senior wrestlers wear a more elaborate topknot on formal occasions, with the end of the knot fanned out into a shape often compared to a ginkgo leaf ^[1].

When a sumo wrestler retires, the topknot is cut off in a formal ceremony attended by family, colleagues and supporters, each of whom may make a symbolic snip before the final cut. The ceremony marks the end of a career, and it is one of the most emotional moments in the sport. In a sense it is a small, personal echo of 1871: cutting the topknot means leaving a world behind.

Hair, identity and the state

The story of the chonmage is a vivid example of how governments have used hair to shape identity. Edo rulers made a specific style mandatory and used it to mark social status. The Meiji government encouraged the opposite, short Western hair, to signal modernity. A similar story unfolded in China, where the Qing dynasty required men to wear the queue, a long braid with the front of the head shaved, until the early twentieth century, a subject explored in our Journal story on the queue in Qing China.

In both cases hair was never only personal. It was a way of showing loyalty, belonging and status, and changing it could be an act of obedience or of rebellion.

Caring for long, tied hair

For sumo wrestlers and others who wear their hair tightly tied for long periods, tension is a practical concern. Hair pulled firmly in the same direction for years can stress the follicles at the hairline. Traditional oils used to style the topknot also need to be washed out properly to keep the scalp healthy. Readers interested in scalp care for tightly tied styles can find educational resources from the trichology community at https://trichology.com.

The chonmage in one paragraph

The chonmage grew from a Heian-period practice of tying hair to secure court caps, became a mandatory sign of status for samurai and then all men in the Edo period, and was abandoned after the Meiji government's 1871 haircut edict. Today it survives with sumo wrestlers and kabuki actors, prepared by specialist hairdressers, and is cut off in a solemn ceremony when a wrestler retires.