Hakama trouser construction

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The hakama is the most structurally interesting garment in the kimono family. It is the only piece in the main wardrobe that is not a wrapped rectangle hung from the shoulders. It is a heavily pleated, separately-cut lower garment with its own joinery, its own closure system, and its own ceremonial logic. In English the hakama gets translated variously as “trousers,” “split skirt,” “divided skirt,” or “Japanese culottes.” None of these is quite right, because the hakama has two structural variants — umanori (divided) and andon (tube) — and the variants have different histories, different uses, and slightly different sewing problems.

This guide walks through how a hakama is built, what the pleat count tells you about the lineage and the use, and what to know if you are sewing a hakama either for martial-arts use or for ceremonial wear. It assumes some familiarity with the kimono cut chart, but the hakama is enough of its own thing that you can read this guide cold and follow it.

The two variants

The two variants of hakama diverge at one structural decision: whether the bottom of the garment is open between the legs.

The umanori (馬乗, “horse-riding”) hakama is divided. The lower portion of the garment splits into two separate leg tubes from about the hip downward — closer to a pair of very wide trousers than to a skirt. The name comes from the original use: this was the cut a samurai needed to ride a horse with the legs apart. Today the umanori is the standard cut for men’s formal hakama and for martial-arts hakama in kendo, iaido, kyudo, and aikido.

The andon (行灯, “lantern” — the cut is a tube like a paper lantern) hakama is undivided. The garment is a single tube of pleated cloth from the waist to the hem, like a long pleated skirt. The andon is the standard cut for women’s hakama, especially the famous schoolgirl uniform of the Meiji and Taisho eras, and is still worn today at university graduation ceremonies and by women in some traditional roles (shrine maidens, certain miko dancers).

In modern usage there are exceptions. Some women’s hakama for martial-arts practice are umanori for movement reasons. Some men’s hakama for non-martial-arts ceremonial use are andon. The variant is not strictly gendered; it is context-driven, and the context matters.

The pleat grammar

A hakama has a specific number of pleats: five at the front, two at the back, on a standard adult cut. The pleats are not decorative. Each has a name and an associated virtue, and the structure is consciously preserved in martial-arts pedagogy.

The five front pleats represent the go-jo, the five Confucian virtues — jin (benevolence), gi (justice), rei (propriety), chi (wisdom), shin (sincerity). The two back pleats represent loyalty and filial piety. This pedagogy is taught explicitly in many martial-arts schools, and a kendo or aikido practitioner is expected to fold the hakama correctly so the pleat structure is preserved between sessions.

For the sewer, the structural facts to internalise are these:

The five front pleats are deep — about 4–5 cm each in the finished pleat — and run vertically from the waistband to the hem. They are pressed crisp and held in place at the waistband only; the lower portion of each pleat is free to hang and swing.

The two back pleats sit on either side of a central back panel (the koshi-ita), which is rigid and slightly raised. The back pleats are typically about 6–8 cm wide each, deeper than the front pleats, and arranged symmetrically around the centre.

The pleat layout is preserved in the cutting chart. A hakama cuts from a continuous strip of cloth at full bolt width, with pleat allowances built into the cut. The cloth requirement is the largest of any kimono-family garment — about 12–14 metres of 38 cm bolt width for an adult umanori hakama.

The waistband and the himo system

The closure of a hakama is one of its most distinctive features.

A hakama has two waistbands: a front waistband (mae-himo) and a back waistband (ushiro-himo). Each waistband is a flat strip about 6–8 cm wide and considerably longer than the wearer’s waist — typically 2–2.5 metres for the front himo and 1.2–1.5 metres for the back himo. The waistbands are sewn into the top edge of the front and back panels and extend well beyond each side seam as long ties.

The back waistband is rigid behind, supported by the koshi-ita — a stiff backing panel (often made of cardboard, plastic, or interfaced cloth in modern hakama) about 18–25 cm wide and 12–15 cm tall, positioned at the centre back. The koshi-ita keeps the back waist of the hakama flat against the wearer’s lower back. It is the only “structural” piece in the hakama in the Western sense — the only piece that is interfaced or stiffened.

To wear: the back of the hakama is positioned at the wearer’s hips with the koshi-ita centred. The back himo is brought forward, wrapped around the waist, and tied at the front. The front of the hakama is then brought up, the front himo is wrapped around the back, brought forward again, and tied in a complex knot that secures both waistbands together. The exact knot varies by school and by gender; the tate-musubi (vertical knot) is the most common men’s formal tie.

This himo system is the reason the hakama hangs correctly. The garment is suspended from the himo, not from the waist; the hakama itself never grips the body directly.

Construction: cutting the front panel

The front panel of an umanori hakama is the largest single piece of cloth in the entire kimono wardrobe.

For an adult cut, the front panel is approximately 100 cm wide (after pleating, ~50 cm — pleats consume half the width) and 95–110 cm tall, depending on the wearer’s leg length. The full panel is cut from 2.5–3 bolt-widths of cloth (or two widths if the cloth is wider than 38 cm), seamed at the centre front.

The five front pleats are marked on the panel as five pairs of vertical fold lines, 8–10 cm apart at the waistband, narrowing to 4–5 cm finished after the pleat is folded. Each pleat is folded toward the centre on the wearer’s right side (mountain fold at the pleat’s outside edge, valley fold inside) and pressed crisply. The pleats are then basted at the waistband only; the lower portion of the pleat is free.

For umanori construction, the front panel is split vertically at the centre from a point about hip-height down to the hem. This split is then sewn into the corresponding back panel split to form the two leg tubes. The split point is critical — too high and the hakama gaps unflatteringly at the front, too low and the leg movement is restricted.

For andon construction, the front panel is not split at all. The pleats simply run from the waistband to the hem and the bottom edge is a single open hem.

Constructing the back panel

The back panel is shorter than the front but contains the more structural elements.

The back panel is approximately 80–90 cm wide (after pleating, ~45 cm) and 70–85 cm tall. The cut is from two bolt-widths seamed at the centre back. The two back pleats are marked symmetrically around a central rectangle that will accommodate the koshi-ita.

The koshi-ita is constructed separately. It is a flat rectangle of stiffened cloth (often layered cotton with a cardboard or plastic core) sewn into the centre back of the back panel at the waistband. The koshi-ita protrudes slightly upward from the waistband line — its top edge sits about 3–5 cm above the back himo — and presents a flat, visible back panel.

For umanori construction, the back panel is split at the centre matching the front panel split. The two splits are sewn together along the inner edges to form the two leg tubes. For andon construction, no split is cut.

Hemming and finishing

A hakama hem is wide and consequential. The pleats meet the hem at the bottom of the garment and the finish has to allow them to hang straight.

For umanori hakama, each of the two leg tubes is hemmed separately. The hem is wide — typically 5–8 cm of allowance — and folded twice, then hand-stitched with a kuke (hidden hem) stitch. A weighted hem is occasionally used on formal hakama but is uncommon in modern construction.

For andon hakama, the single tubular hem is similarly wide and double-folded. The hem is sometimes finished with a contrasting binding for women’s formal hakama, especially the maroon-and-gold combinations seen at university graduation ceremonies.

A pair of Gingher dressmaker scissors and a long aluminium yardstick are useful for marking and trimming the long pleat lines accurately.

Fabric choices

The fabric for a hakama varies dramatically by use.

Martial-arts hakama (kendo, aikido, iaido) are conventionally heavy cotton in indigo blue or black, or — in modern dojo use — polyester or polyester-cotton blend for washability. Kendo hakama specifically uses a very heavy cotton in a deep navy that bleeds dye on the first several washes, a known feature rather than a defect.

Formal men’s hakama are silk or fine wool, often in a fine stripe (shima) pattern in grey-and-black or grey-and-blue. The matching kimono is conventionally a black formal montsuki.

Women’s andon-bakama for graduation ceremonies are traditionally maroon, deep purple, or dark green silk or polyester. The colour combinations are formalised — maroon andon with a light kimono and a boots-style footwear is the classic Meiji university look.

A bolt of medium-weight cotton works for a practice or muslin-style hakama for fitting purposes. For a finished martial-arts hakama, source dyed indigo cotton from a martial-arts supplier rather than from a general fabric store; the colour and weight matter.

Pleat folding and storage

Once a hakama is sewn, the pleats are the maintenance concern.

Between wearings, a hakama is folded with the pleats preserved. The standard fold for an umanori is: lay the hakama flat on the floor, smooth the front pleats so all five lie crisp, fold the leg tubes inward, fold the lower half upward, fold the upper half down over it, and tie the himo around the resulting bundle in a specific knot (the jumonji-musubi, “cross knot,” is taught in kendo). The folded hakama is then stored flat in a drawer or hung carefully on a hanger.

If the pleats lose their crispness, they can be re-pressed with a steam iron and a press cloth. Hard creases that have gone soft can be sharpened with light starch.

For more on long-term storage practices, see our cleaning and storing guide.

When to sew your own hakama

A practical assessment: sewing a hakama is a moderately advanced project. The pleat geometry requires patient marking and pressing, the cloth requirement is large, the koshi-ita construction is unfamiliar to most Western sewers, and the himo length and placement are easy to get wrong on a first attempt. A first-time hakama sewer should expect to spend 30–50 hours on the build.

The reasons to do it anyway:

For a custom fit. Off-the-rack hakama come in approximate sizes calibrated to typical Japanese male body proportions. Women’s andon hakama are often available in fewer sizes than men’s umanori. A custom hakama in your own measurements drapes better and has the himo set at the right length for your waist.

For colour and fabric choices not available off-the-rack. Vintage striped hakama silk is collectible and beautiful; sourcing a 12-metre length of vintage cloth and sewing it into a hakama is a project that produces something genuinely irreplaceable.

For martial-arts purposes, where a hakama may be cut for a specific style or rank (the kendo shihan-cut is slightly different from the standard student cut, for example), custom sewing allows exact specification.

For most practitioners new to the garment, however, buying a ready-made martial-arts cotton hakama and learning to fold and care for it is the right first step. The cost of a competent ready-made kendo hakama is 80–150 USD; a comparable custom-sewn version represents about 50 hours of work for fabric costs around the same.

What this guide does not cover

This guide describes the structural decisions in a hakama and the conventional construction sequence. It does not provide a complete pattern or measurement-driven draft — see Marshall for a workable English-language draft of an umanori hakama. It does not cover the specific tying knots (jumonji, tate-musubi, otaiko-musubi for hakama) — those are best learned visually from a video or in person. And it does not address the rank-specific cuts used in particular martial arts (the kyudo gomafuku-hakama with extra movement room at the leg, for instance), which are specialised modifications of the umanori cut.

What this guide does is give you the structural map of the hakama so that when you encounter one — in a dojo, at a graduation ceremony, or in a vintage shop — you can read what cut it is, what use it was made for, and what attention its pleats and waistband need.

Figures

Bibliography

• Marshall, John. Make Your Own Japanese Clothes: Patterns and Ideas for Modern Wear. Kodansha International, 1988 (reprinted 2013). Amazon US
• Dobson, Jenni. Making Kimono and Japanese Clothes. Batsford / Bloomsbury, 2005. Amazon US
• Milhaupt, Terry Satsuki. Kimono: A Modern History. Reaktion Books, 2014. Amazon US
• Liddell, Jill. The Story of the Kimono. E.P. Dutton, 1989.
• Yamanaka, Norio. The Book of Kimono. Kodansha International, 1986.
• Wikipedia contributors. Hakama. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakama
• All Japan Kendo Federation. Reiho (etiquette and dress) guidelines, available on the AJKF website.

Related guides

• Men’s Kimono Proportions and Differences
• The Obi: An Introduction
• Cleaning and Storing a Hand-Sewn Kimono
• Kimono Formality Ranks: From Yukata to Uchikake
• Haori Jacket Construction
• Reading a Traditional Kimono Cut Chart

Last updated 2026-05-29. Komon Lab guides are free and released under CC-BY-4.0. If you used this guide for a project we would love to see it.