Serafuku (セーラー服) – A Japanese School Uniform

Serafuku (セーラー服) is one of common Japanese school uniforms, Seitofuku (生徒服). It is very popular since it appears most in the Japanese public and private school. This is also something that can be easily found in the anime, manga, or dorama. Serafuku is generally worn by female middle school and high school students, and occasionally, elementary school students.

Photo of A Girl Wearing Serafuku

I googled some stuffs about Serafuku. And this is what I got when browsing around wikipedia. Sērā-fuku (セーラー服) means sailor outfit. In 1920, it was introduced as a school uniform in Heian Jogakuin (平安女学院). And in 1921 it was introduced by Elizabeth Lee, the principal of Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University (福岡女学院). It was modeled after the uniform used by the British Royal Navy at the time, which Lee had experienced as an exchange student in the United Kingdom.

When watching animes, I sometimes find that the serafuku worn by female character is different with serafuku in another anime. I noticed that in Inuyasha when Kagome wears white-green serafuku. While Amamiya Yuuko in ef Tales of Melodies wears black serafuku. What are the differences? I soon found the answer: Every school has its own particular style of serafuku.

From this site I got an explanation:

Most Japanese school uniforms had been "traditional style", sailor blouses, eton suits, and so on. But later 1980's, one private girls' senior high school in Tokyo changed its uniform into "modern style", and then it won grate popularity. Since then, many private high school and some public high school changed their uniforms into the modern style. But many public junior high schools' uniforms have been left the traditional style. Every school which has school uniforms has two kinds of uniforms, summer cloth and winter cloth. Summer clothes are worn in a period form May 1 to the end of September, while winter clothes are worn in another period, from October 1 to the end of May. In addition, many schools have regulation gym clothes, school bags, shoes, socks, winter coats, indoor shoes, etc.

Hakuho Girls High School's Seitofuku

 As you can see on the both pictures above, they are quite different, right? The first picture is more simple without the jacket or even a vest. The second picture is a kind of modern style uniform.

The uniform generally consists of a blouse attached with a sailor-style collar and a pleated skirt. There are seasonal variations for summer and winter: sleeve length and fabric are adjusted accordingly. A ribbon is tied in the front and laced through a loop attached to the blouse. Several variations on the ribbon include neckties, bolo ties, neckerchiefs, and bows. Common colors are navy blue, white, grey, light green and black.

Design of Summer Serafuku

Talking about serafuku, it has a strong relationship with pornography in Japan. Serafuku becomes one of popular fetish items, in Japan they call it buru-sera, which means bloomers (buru) and school uniform (sera).

Japan equates youthful innocence with eroticism, a notion supported by the hundreds of buru-sera magazines in print in Japan, most of which feature young models dressed as schoolgirls giving readers (viewers) tantalizing looks at their cotton unmentionables. It was even a short-lived trend to sell panties in vending machines along with a photo of the girl that wore them. These vending machines mostly appeared in porn-drenched Chiba City in Chiba Prefecture.

Buru-sera Shop

Whoah... they even sell second-hand underwears, lol!!

These are some animes that featured seifuku: Sailor Moon, ef Tale of Melodies / Memories, K-ON!, Shikabane Hime, Clannad, Natsu no Arashi, Shakugan no Shana, Toradora!, To Love Ru, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, etc.

Sailor Moon