Kasa is the correct way to pronounce the word when it stands alone.Rendaku causeskasa to change to-gasa when it is preceded by another word specifying the type of hat, as injingasa.
Kasa shares its etymology with the Japanese word for "umbrella" (also pronouncedkasa, but written as傘).
Antique Japanese samurai leatherjingasa (war hat) in thenirayama style.
A number of different styles ofkasa have been used throughout most all levels of Japanese society.
Some types ofkasa include:
Ajirogasa (網代笠): a wickerworkkasa made of shaven bamboo or wood.
Amigasa (編み笠): a wickerworkkasa. Anamigasa is a straw hat of the type traditionally worn in some Japanese folk dances.
Fukaamigasa (深編み笠): a deep wickerworkkasa.
Jingasa (陣笠): a type ofkasa commonly worn by samurai andashigaru. The samurai class in feudal Japan, as well as their retainers and footsoldiers, used several types ofjingasa made fromiron,copper,wood,paper,bamboo, orleather.[2][3]Jingasa almost always hadcrests on them.
Rōningasa (浪人笠): typically a conicalamigasa with a flat top, often worn byrōnin.
Sandogasa (三度笠): a bambookasa for traveling with a wide, flat shape that offered protection from the sun and rain. Favored bysando hikyaku, couriers who regularly traveled between Edo and Kyoto.
Sugegasa (菅笠): a conical, pointed wickerworkkasa made ofsedge. This hat shape is called anón lá in Vietnam ordo'un in Cambodia.
Takuhatsugasa (托鉢笠): a Buddhist mendicant'skasa. A woven rice-strawkasa worn by mendicantBuddhist monks, thetakuhatsugasa is made overlarge and in a bowl or mushroom shape. Unlike an Asian conical hat, it does not come to a point, nor does it ride high on the head like asamurai's traveling hat, instead covering the upper half to two-thirds of the face, masking the identity of the monk and allowing him to travel undistracted on his journey.
