TAE Journal, Edition 12, ‘Keikogi’, Dōgi’, ‘Gi’ – whatever you call your training uniform, what is its origin? By Adrian Punt
- adrian9973
- Apr 3
- 4 min read
FROM EDITION 12 OF THE TRADITIONAL AIKIDO EUROPE JOURNAL – JANUARY 2025
Keikogi (稽古着) (keiko meaning 'practice' and gi meaning 'dress' or 'clothes', i.e., practice clothes), also known as dōgi (道着) (dō meaning way and again gi meaning cloths, i.e., cloths of the way), is a uniform worn for training in Japanese martial arts and their derivatives. The top part of the dōgi is called the uwagi (上着, lit. upper / outerwear). The trousers of the dōgi are called shitabaki (下穿き, lit. under and below clothes), or zubon (ズボン, 'trousers').
The dōgi is a relatively recent invention and is generally attributed to Kanō Jigorō (1860– 1938), a Japanese martial artist, educator and politician and founder of Kodokan Judo. Pedagogical innovations also attributed to Kanō include the use of black and white belts and the introduction of the dan ranking system (based on the Japanese strategy game of Go) to show the relative ranking among more senior members of a martial art style [1].
Kanō is said to have developed the dōgi “for reasons of dignity and safety” [2]. The development of the dōgi was not recorded in any specific way, it wasn’t considered of any importance at the time. Nonetheless, a young Kanō, in the 1870s, would have been practicing ju jutsu (Tenjin Shinyo-ryu and Kito-ryu styles) in informal dress, potentially a jacket with legs naked.
The development and adoption of the dōgi as a training uniform in Judo would appear to have been quite rapid. For instance, photos held by the Kodokan (the headquarters of the Judo community and founded in 1882) from late in the 19th century (potentially in the 1890s) show Kanō and other judoka in their jackets or ‘uwagi’ that look almost exactly like the hanten, the thick and heavy cotton jackets of the Japanese firemen of the time (and also used as winter coats). Photos dated to 1913 and 1920 then show Kanō and students in white dōgi virtually identical to their modern-day descendants [2]. Although Morihei Ueshiba is often pictured in traditional Japanese garments, photos and video footage from the 1930s show that adoption of the dōgi in Aikido practice was commonplace, for students at least, in pre-war Japan.
It has also been suggested [3] that the origin of those earliest dogi is a type of garment worn under the kimono – likely the 襦袢 juban or 半襦袢 han (half) juban. In the 1880s, daily use juban, particularly of commoners of modest means, were simple, sturdy cotton. Juban covers a wide range of garments which are worn by men and women between the silk kimono and the skin, to protect the delicate, expensive and often unwashable kimono from sweat and skin oils [4]. The modern-day western equivalent is probably best described as a t-shirt.
The Kano Chronicles [3] notes that Kanō described the final, premodern keikogi jacket as a “white cotton (undyed), tight sleeved, lined juban with sleeves extending beyond the elbows, a longer ‘coat tail’ to reach mid-thigh and gathered in front and held by an obi (belt)”. The trousers are described as cotton exercise trousers. Did Kanō just use the term juban to imply clothes worn next to the skin?
How influenced was he by heavy hanten jackets? We don’t know. What we do know is that from traditional schools of ju jutsu he established a new modern system (Judo), and over a few short years, a standardised training uniform to be used in that system (one that was then adopted by Aikido, and in a modified form by other Japanese martial arts such as Karate).
Mitsugi Saotome Sensei (a post-war Aikido student in Tokyo from 1955) notes in his 1989 publication "The Principles of Aikido" book [5] how he was chastised by O-Sensei when he forgot his hakama (all students were expected to wear hakama irrespective of grade). He notes that:
I was preparing to step on the mat for practice, wearing only my dogi, when O-Sensei stopped me. "Where is your hakama?" he demanded sternly. "What makes you think you can receive your teacher's instruction wearing nothing but your underwear? Have you no sense of propriety? You are obviously lacking the attitude and the etiquette necessary in one who pursues budo training. Go sit on the side and watch class!"
In the quote above, the dōgi is referred to as ‘underwear’. Whatever O-Sensei said at the time has been interpreted and translated (possibly more than once). Does our modern-day, western interpretation of the term ‘underwear’, and the societal expectation of ‘not being seen in your underwear’, match what he meant? I doubt it. Perhaps he accepted that the training uniform (whether termed keikogi or dōgi, as popularised through Judo), was a modern invention, and something to stay, but too casual on its own. For someone accustomed to the multi-layers of traditional Japanese clothing, a single layer of clothing must have been very informal, or at least not in keeping with standards and appearance of the samurai of old.
So, whatever you call your training uniform (keikogi, dōgi, gi) it is a relatively modern thing, developed for the purpose of training in a Japanese martial art. It is not ‘samurai underwear’!
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[1] Kanō Jigorō – Wikipedia
[2] Dave Lowry (2006). In the Dojo, A Guide to the Rituals and Etiquette of the Japanese Martial Arts
[5] Mitsugi Saotome (1989). Principles of Aikido
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