Mino (straw cape)

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A mino (蓑) is a traditional Japanese raincoat made out of straw. Traditional mino are an article of outerwear covering the entire body, although shorter ones resembling grass skirts were also historically used to cover the lower body alone. Similar straw capes were also used in China,^[1] Vietnam and Korea.

Overview

Rice straw has naturally water-repellent properties, with water droplets that hit a mat of straw tending to flow along the length of the fibres, rather than penetrating underneath it. For this reason, early Japanese rain gear was often made of straw, which had the added benefit of being cheap to acquire, easy to weave and fasten, and being light in weight; however, this rain gear was also bulky in size, and highly flammable. In earlier eras,^[when?] straw clothing had the additional advantage of affording a significant degree of camouflage in certain terrain,^[1] including forests and wetlands, similar to modern ghillie suits.

As

The

portmanteau of ミノムシ (minomushi), the Japanese word for bagworm, and the Japanese suffix -cchi, which denotes a cute nickname. Minomushi itself is a portmanteau of mino and mushi, meaning "bug". This means that Burmy's Japanese name roughly translates to mean "a cutie in a straw coat".^[5]

The Ice-type Pokémon Snorunt is based on a yukinko, a Japanese folklore spirit from the snow, which also wears a mino.^[citation needed]

The sound ninja from Naruto Dosu Kinuta wears a Mino on his shoulders.^[6]

See also

• Straw hat
• Asian conical hat
• Thatching

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Japanese Mino (Rainwear)". costumes.unc.edu. Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
2. ^ M. Shaver, Ruth (1966). "6". Kabuki Costume (1st ed.). Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company: Publishers. p. 91. "Actors went to great lengths to produce striking effects. For example, Bandō Shūka, playing the role of an onna hinin (beggar woman), appeared on the stage covered with a komo (straw mat sometimes used as a raincape) made of gold threads instead of the usual rice straw.
3. ^ "Sarumino (The Monkey's Raincoat), book in hanshibon format, two volumes Edited by Kyorai and Boncho Genroku 4 (1691) Izutsuya Shobei, publisher | 細道・より道・松尾芭蕉". basho-yamadera.com. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
4. ISBN 978-0-231-51614-3
   .
5. ISSN 1046-2821
   .
6. ISBN 1421506572
   .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mino (Japanese rain gear).

• Signboard for Mino seller in Torii-no-moto (Hikone, Shiga prefecture) on the Nakasendo route (June 2017).