---
node: fashion_nara
type: fashion
slug: nara_period_fashion
title: "Fashion in the Nara period"
lead: "In the Nara period the ritsuryo state fixed court dress by law: the Yoro Clothing Code set three grades of official costume on the Tang Chinese model, and an edict of 719 ordered robes closed left-over-right (migi-mae), the rule still followed today."
published: 2026-07-27
updated: 2026-08-15
image_file: nara_period_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E9%B3%A5%E6%AF%9B%E7%AB%8B%E5%A5%B3%E5%B1%8F%E9%A2%A81.jpg"
image_author: "Unknown (Nara period, 8th century)"
image_license: "Public domain"
renamed_from: "nara_period"
---

## Overview

The Nara court wrote its clothing down. The Yoro Code's clothing ordinance defined what officials wore, in what grade, on which occasion, on a Tang Chinese model — and one administrative order of this period settled a rule that every kimono still obeys.

## Key garments and style

The code distinguished three registers: raifuku, the most formal ceremonial dress; chofuku, ordinary court dress; and seifuku for officials on duty, with robe colour assigned by rank so that a court gathering displayed the hierarchy at a glance.

The lasting rule is the fold. An order of 719 required the garment to be closed left panel over right, following continental practice, and that convention has governed Japanese dress ever since — right over left is now used only to dress the dead, which is why the rule is still taught to anyone putting on a kimono.

The material record is exceptional. The Shosoin repository at Tōdai-ji preserved eighth-century textiles, garments and accessories in their thousands, sealed and largely undisturbed, including dyed and woven silks, so Nara cloth can be examined directly rather than reconstructed from paintings.

## Transition

When the embassies to Tang ended in the following century, this borrowed court dress began evolving into the distinctively Japanese layered costume of the Heian court.