It Passes Through All The Streets Between 7 And
10 P.M. Each Night During The First Week In August,
With an ark, or
coffer, containing slips of paper, on which (as I understand)
wishes are written, and each morning
At seven this is carried to
the river and the slips are cast upon the stream. The procession
consisted of three monster drums nearly the height of a man's body,
covered with horsehide, and strapped to the drummers, end upwards,
and thirty small drums, all beaten rub-a-dub-dub without ceasing.
Each drum has the tomoye painted on its ends. 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. The two partings on the
top of the head and the chignon never vary. The amount of
stiffening used is necessary, as the head is never covered out of
doors. This arrangement will last in good order for a week or
more - thanks to the wooden pillow.
The barber's work was only partially done when the hair was
dressed, for every vestige of recalcitrant eyebrow was removed, and
every downy hair which dared to display itself on the temples and
neck was pulled out with tweezers. This removal of all short hair
has a tendency to make even the natural hair look like a wig. Then
the lady herself took a box of white powder, and laid it on her
face, ears, and neck, till her skin looked like a mask. With a
camel's-hair brush she then applied some mixture to her eyelids to
make the bright eyes look brighter, the teeth were blackened, or
rather reblackened, with a feather brush dipped in a solution of
gall-nuts and iron-filings - a tiresome and disgusting process,
several times repeated, and then a patch of red was placed upon the
lower lip. I cannot say that the effect was pleasing, but the girl
thought so, for she turned her head so as to see the general effect
in the mirror, smiled, and was satisfied. The remainder of her
toilet, which altogether took over three hours, was performed in
private, and when she reappeared she looked as if a very unmeaning-
looking wooden doll had been dressed up with the exquisite good
taste, harmony, and quietness which characterise the dress of
Japanese women.
A most rigid social etiquette draws an impassable line of
demarcation between the costume of the virtuous woman in every rank
and that of her frail sister. The humiliating truth that many of
our female fashions are originated by those whose position we the
most regret, and are then carefully copied by all classes of women
in our country, does not obtain credence among Japanese women, to
whom even the slightest approximation in the style of hair-
dressing, ornament, or fashion of garments would be a shame.
I was surprised to hear that three "Christian students" from
Hirosaki wished to see me - three remarkably intelligent-looking,
handsomely-dressed young men, who all spoke a little English.
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