558

THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

The hair of the women is dressed very elaborately, so that the services of a hair­dresser are required to arrange it. For this reason, it is said, they adopted the wooden pillow, that the hair might not become disarranged during the night, as they can scarcely afford the hairdresser more than once or twice a week. The coiffure is held in place by long hair-pins or combs made of tortoise-shell or wood, and is so plastered with oil that it could not easily become ruffled. Cosmetics are very largely used, the most important being a paste-like preparation of impure white lead and starch, with which the face and neck are smeared. Carmine was formerly used to redden the lips, but at the present time rose aniline is a favorite dye for the purpose. The color it gives is quite as good as that of the more expensive carmine when seen in the proper light, but the peculiar green, metallic luster ‘is very conspicuous in a side view, and soon dispels the illusion of rosy lips. It has been customary for all married women to shave off their eyebrows and stain their teeth black, to show fidelity to their husbands, but this custom is falling into disuse, particularly in the cities. The recent adoption of foreign dress by the empress and her court is being followed by so many that there is quite a revolution in the manners and customs of the higher classes.

Although woman occupies a position quite inferior to man, so far as I have observed she is not abused nor harshly treated. Among the lower classes she works as industri­ously as her husband, frequently at the same labor. Among the higher classes her principal duty seems to be to make herself a well-dressed household ornament. Woman in the past has not received the advantages of a general education, but the daughters of good families are taught several accomplishments, among these singing, playing certain musical instruments and dancing are the most usual. The latter is a system of graceful movements and passes, with fans, parasols and other implements. Every movement is most carefully studied to ensure the utmost smoothness and grace, and no young woman who has received a course of training in this art ever makes an ungraceful movement or gesture. In this, as in a thousand other matters, the Japanese habit of studying the minutest detail results in most wonderful effects.

The houses throughout the country are built upon one common plan, differing in size and in the quality of the materials used. For the finer houses the principal building material is cryptomeria wood, while for the cheaper ones pine is used. The Japanese house is a low building of light framework, with no foundation, but with a heavy pro­jecting tiled roof, which is very picturesque.

The rooms may be entered from any part of three sides, by pushing aside one of the sliding, paper-covered doors. There is no privacy whatever. These doors serve the purpose of windows, not to see through to be sure, but to admit light. A room of ordinary size will have four such doors on each of the three sides, about three feet wide, or exactly the width of the Japanese floor mats. These mats are made of rushes, which are cultivated like rice, upon marshy ground, the inside filled with straw, mak­ing them about two inches thick. The edges are bound with blue cotton cloth. They always measure thirty-four and one-half inches by five feet nine inches, and the size of the room is determined by the mats—a small room is a four-mat room, one of ordinary size, eight mats. The mats are used in the poorest hovels and the richest dwellings. Chairs are unknown, and all the people sit on the floor in a manner peculiar to themselves.

The fourth or closed side of the room will probably consist of a sort of double recess, three or four feet deep, called the tokonoma , for the beauty of which the Jap­anese houses are justly famed. The floor of the tokonoma is of polished wood, usu­ally dark in color, is raised a few inches above the floor mats. An upright parti­tion separates tf^e two parts. On one side will be a clear space, where a kakemono —a painting on silk—always hangs; on the other side will be a shelf, not a plain board shelf such as we would probably put in, but a Japanese shelf, which is made in two parts, running from opposite sides at a slightly different level, the ends over­lapping a few inches about the middle of the space. Upon this shelf stands some ornament, and below, on the floor, there is generally a low stand, with a vase of shrubs.