• Human Ecology Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.395-406
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• 2019

This study examined what meaning East Asian women showed in their costume history through a discourse of hair adornments such as wigs and that Gache was not just a luxury decoration. In addition, we examined Gache hair trends with Eonjeun-meori (braid wraps around the entire head) in the Joseon dynasty (Korea), Gigye(旗?) hair in the Quing dynasty (China) and Mage(?) hair in the Edo period (Japan) during the $18^{th}$ and $19^{th}$ centuries. The significance of the phenomenon of East Asian Gache culture in the $18^{th}$ and $19^{th}$ centuries was analyzed from the internal desires of women. The details are as follows. First, the magnification by the hair decoration was identified with self-authority and used as a sign to express self-respect or a desire for self-esteem. The extended Gache was an external body extension to raise self-authority and increase activeness. Second, self-satisfaction through showing off was associated with a women's search for identity. There was excessive consumption to boast status, wealth and femininity, but the mania continued because women obtained psychological satisfaction by feeling that their sacrifices for the Confucian order were compensated. Third, the frenzy of Gache was accepted as a way for women to resist social regulations and find themselves as main participants in social activities. Showing their appearance in East Asian Gache culture was a way of inner self-searching and a process for women to find themselves as a social entity.