Japan requires uniforms for everything. High school uniforms, of course, are the most famous, but spend any amount of time in Japan and you\u2019ll notice that not just students but employees are also required to don clothing of uniform style and color, from train attendants to office workers to servers<\/b>
\nJapan requires uniforms for everything. High school uniforms, of course, are the most famous, but spend any amount of time in Japan and you\u2019ll notice that not just students but employees are also required to don clothing of uniform style and color, from train attendants to office workers to servers at fast-food restaurants. There\u2019s even a\u00a0book illustrating 150 years of Japanese uniforms.
So it\u2019s no surprise that a squad of New Year\u2019s security guards at Kamakura\u2019s Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine would require a uniform to distinguish themselves from the crowd. What\u00a0is\u00a0surprising, though, is how\u00a0popular their bright red, long, trench-coat-like uniforms became on Twitter.
They call themselves \u201cThe Redcoats\u201d,\u00a0which is appropriate since they look very much like anime versions of really cold English Redcoats. Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, which is the most prominent shrine in Kamakura, recruits new Redcoats\u00a0every year, and according to their recruitment web page, they are a\u00a0\u201cspecial guard formed to ensure the safety and security of the many guests who visit the shrine during the New Year.\u201d
Though they used to have navy blue uniforms, they have been wearing these red ones since 1996, because they stand out in the dark and at a distance, and also because they \u201cpreserve the dignity of the shrine\u201d. They were custom-ordered by shrine management, so you can only see these red-uniformed\u00a0security guards at this particular shrine.
Some of the guards wear armbands, as is common practice in Japan to signify staff members at big events, and the TSG logo on the uniform stands for \u201cToukai Security Guard\u201d. Though some people might see a resemblance between these uniforms and those used during WWII, there\u2019s no real connection intended between the two.
Japanese netizens like the practicality of the uniforms too, leaving comments like:
\u201cThe long coats are nice. I bet they\u2019re super warm, but more than that, they\u2019re super cool!\u201d
\u201cIf you Google \u2018red uniforms\u2019 it comes up with the English soldiers\u00a0or Sheryl Nome from Macross, which look pretty similar.\u201d
\u201cI think it\u2019s good that it\u2019s a color and design that New Year\u2019s shrine visitors probably wouldn\u2019t wear, so it\u2019s really practical considering they need to be clearly visible to direct the visitors.\u201d
\u201cI didn\u2019t know they were actually called Redcoats! I get that the red is for visibility, but it\u2019s a shame that the color isn\u2019t related to Hachimangu\u2019s history or anything.\u201d
If you think they look pretty cool yourself, you may have missed the window for New Year\u2019s, as they were mostly around from the 31st to the 5th, but netizens also say they\u2019ll be back again for\u00a0Setsubun next month,\u00a0so you can head on over to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura to see them for yourself.
Source:\u00a0My Game News Flash<\/p>\n