Japanese Choirs: Froebel Boys Choir




Figure 1.--The Tokyo Froebel Boys Choir wear pink shirts, shorts, and kneesocks in 1996.

The Froebel Boys Choirs is located in Tokyo. I believe the Froebel Choir was founded in 1959. We have not, however, been able to find much information about the choir.

Publishing Company

Floebel is a publishing company for chidren, producing educational books.

Costumes

Like many Japanese choirs the boys have different costumes

Performance in 1996

The image here looks like the boys wore pink short pants were a special costume in this concert. The boys were dressed in all pink. They wore pink shirts, pink short pants, and pink kneesocks. This was unusual as most Japanese choirs wear white kneesocks. Pink is not common used for boys clothes in Japan as the same gender based color conventions have been adopred by the Japanese. Pink is generally viewed as a girl's color. In recent years, some boys wear pink shirts, but all pink clothes are uncommon. The use of pink outfits is probably an attempt to appeal to the audience. One Japanese observer reports, "It is true that Japnese choir listeners love for the boys to dress cutely." A reader writes, "Do you have independent confirmation that the choir wore pink,or is it based on the photo accompanying the story? The reason I am asking is that the picture shown looks less like an all-pink uniform than a color-balance problem with either the stage lighting or the photograph. My guess would be that they were wearing khaki pants with white shirts and socks." This may well be. The only information we have is the image here (figure 1).


Figure 2.--The Tokyo Froebel Boys Choir wear light blue blazers, white short pants, and white kneesocks in 1997. Also note the destinctive berets.

Performance in 1997

The boys appear to perform in formal clothes, usually a colored blazer with short pants. One costume shows the boys wearing open necked white shirts, light blue blazers, white short cut short pants, white kneesocks, and black dress shoes worn with black berets. They also have costumes with other color combinations. The Froebel choir appears to give considerable attention to the costume. Note in the available photographs how all the boys have their kneesocks smartly pulled up. The blazers appear to be a destinctive trademark of the Froebel Choir.








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Created: November 2, 1998
Last updated: 7:30 PM 4/7/2007