Then There Were
Hundreds Of Paper Lanterns Carried On Long Poles Of Various Lengths
Round A Central Lantern, 20 Feet
High, itself an oblong 6 feet
long, with a front and wings, and all kinds of mythical and
mystical creatures
Painted in bright colours upon it - a
transparency rather than a lantern, in fact. Surrounding it were
hundreds of beautiful lanterns and transparencies of all sorts of
fanciful shapes - fans, fishes, birds, kites, drums; the hundreds of
people and children who followed all carried circular lanterns, and
rows of lanterns with the tomoye on one side and two Chinese
characters on the other hung from the eaves all along the line of
the procession. I never saw anything more completely like a fairy
scene, the undulating waves of lanterns as they swayed along, the
soft lights and soft tints moving aloft in the darkness, the
lantern-bearers being in deep shadow. This festival is called the
tanabata, or seiseki festival, but I am unable to get any
information about it. Ito says that he knows what it means, but is
unable to explain, and adds the phrase he always uses when in
difficulties, "Mr. Satow would be able to tell you all about it."
I. L. B.
LETTER XXX
A Lady's Toilet - Hair-dressing - Paint and Cosmetics - Afternoon
Visitors - Christian Converts.
KUROISHI, August 5.
This is a pleasant place, and my room has many advantages besides
light and cleanliness, as, for instance, that I overlook my
neighbours and that I have seen a lady at her toilet preparing for
a wedding! A married girl knelt in front of a black lacquer
toilet-box with a spray of cherry blossoms in gold sprawling over
it, and lacquer uprights at the top, which supported a polished
metal mirror. Several drawers in the toilet-box were open, and
toilet requisites in small lacquer boxes were lying on the floor.
A female barber stood behind the lady, combing, dividing, and tying
her hair, which, like that of all Japanese women, was glossy black,
but neither fine nor long. The coiffure is an erection, a complete
work of art. Two divisions, three inches apart, were made along
the top of the head, and the lock of hair between these was combed,
stiffened with a bandoline made from the Uvario Japonica, raised
two inches from the forehead, turned back, tied, and pinned to the
back hair. The rest was combed from each side to the back, and
then tied loosely with twine made of paper. Several switches of
false hair were then taken out of a long lacquer box, and, with the
aid of a quantity of bandoline and a solid pad, the ordinary smooth
chignon was produced, to which several loops and bows of hair were
added, interwoven with a little dark-blue crepe, spangled with
gold. A single, thick, square-sided, tortoiseshell pin was stuck
through the whole as an ornament.
The fashions of dressing the hair are fixed. They vary with the
ages of female children, and there is a slight difference between
the coiffure of the married and unmarried.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 134 of 219
Words from 70044 to 70560
of 115002
