Denethor doesn’t have a beard! (At least, not a mentioned one!) And yeah, BEARDS AS CLASS SYMBOL LOL

Must be a mis-remembered line (because I know I was thinking “wait that can’t be right”). And yeah, beards as a class symbol but in a mixed way because native Gondorian citizens are still going to look down on the influx of brand new Northmen settlers and entrepreneurs (some who will be wealthy, some dirt-poor looking for all the no-empty land). The carpetbaggers would be the other very obvious parallel, and closer to this situation than the influx of Norman nobility after 1066. (That I’m using Japanese history instead of English/European as my inspiration is an affront to Tolkien’s universal underpinning, I know.) So maybe having obviously fake beards/sideburns-comb-downs to fake it are seen as more refined (and time intensive and expensive to yes obviously this) is seen as higher class than a natural beard or completely clean-shaven. Or could be a ridiculed fad. idk

Male hair-length, to be honest, I’m still trying to pin down. Long hair (a la Faramir as you’ve eloquently and repeated argued) was as much a late-Third Age Dúnedain choice for men as much as it was for elves. Short hair for men I’ve decided was a mid to late Númenorean look, and thus to wear your hair long as a man was to profess Faithful ideology (until it became unsafe to do so, thus hair shorter than earlobe length was seen as Númenorean). Castamir seeped himself in Faithful iconography. Trousers and certain motifs and color choices and cuts would be the sign of Northmen. To have light hair, to dye and bleach hair- that would be a trend started in Eldacar’s grandfather’s day.

Still, to go back to the Meiji era- men stopped wearing their hair in the traditional samurai cut. None of the characters in RuroKen do- most have the very Western/modern hair, except our hero with his long low loose ponytail. Which in the Vagabond Gondor universe is a holdover from being raised and trained by an old Noldor elf. Businessmen, the police officer, and government officials in Western-style suits. Thus the parallel must be a more ‘barbarian’ cut for men’s tunics and robes. Which, Byzantine parallels, I’m kosher. 🙂 

(None of the main or secondary characters in RuroKen have facial hair except Okubo, so that still fits with Tolkien. And having Eldacar’s royal court have a passion for beards means Okubo can keep his whiskers.)

KINSTRIFE GONDOR IS BACK!!! (also, now I’m imagining Gondorians plastering fake sideburns to their jaws, lol)

It doesn’t go away, it just hibernates. But it’s attached to RuroKen (as the glorified re-write of said manga in the Tolkien setting), and that’s a fandom love that is so deep in my psyche nothing will remove it. So yeah, you sort of need to wait until the Kenshin feelings well up in me again and then I start feeling guilty about not writing this fic idea… Though if I re-watch the RuroKen live-action movie again and tell myself I don’t need to have a perfect memory/recreation for everything Gondorian, I could write something. Also, that post about Pippin’s Westron reminded me again of the hilarity that is Himura Kenshin’s very antiquated in-universe and extremely humble method of speech – that unless he is reverting to behavior modes from during the war, his personal pronoun is sessha – very archaic, literally ‘this clumsy one’. Thus I wonder if, aside from a formal/informal you divide of which Pippin is ignorant of to Denethor’s amusement, if there would be other levels of formality, and if a Quenya or Sindarin form would be seen as more formal, less, as pretentious or if a way to capture that excessive and self-effacing mannerism that characterizes Kenshin/our elf-raised red-haired Northman. 

The Meiji mix of Western and traditionally Japanese styles is such a neat part of the era, and something I wouldn’t want to loose in any crossover/fusion. And hey, enough fics focusing on Númenor having their styles aping the elves with fake pointy-ears looks or such, so turnabout is fair play. And medieval trends going back and forth on hair length and facial hair is truth, plus it’s amusing, you have to admit, what with Tolkien’s statements about pure-blood Dúnedain like Aragorn being naturally clean-shaven (yet doesn’t Denethor have a beard? tres confused, am heget)