Peeps at Many Lands: Japan | Page 3

girt about the
body with a large sash, called an obi. The obi is the pride of a Japanese
girl's heart. If her parents are rich, it will be of shining costly silk or
rich brocade or cloth of gold; if her parents are poor, they will make an
effort to get her one as handsome as their means will allow. Next to her
obi, she prides herself on the ornaments which decorate her black
hair--fine hairpins, with heads of tortoiseshell or coral or lacquer, and
hair-combs, all most beautifully carved.
A boy's obi is more for practical use, and is not of such splendour as his
sister's. When he is very small, his clothes are of yellow, while his
sister's are of red. At the age of five he puts on the hakama, and then he
is a very proud boy. The hakama is a kind of trousers made of silk, and
is worn by men instead of an under-kimono. At five years old a boy is
taken to the temple to thank the gods who have protected him thus far;
and as he struts along, and hears with joy his hakama rustling its stiff
new silk beneath his kimono, he feels himself a man indeed, and that
his babyhood of yesterday is left far behind.
Upon the feet are worn the tabi--thick white socks, which may be called
foot-gloves, for there are separate divisions for the toes.
These serve both as stockings outside the house and slippers inside, for
no boots are worn in a Japanese house. When a Japanese walks out, he
slips his feet into high wooden clogs, and when he comes home he
kicks off the clogs at the door, and enters his home in tabi alone. The

reason for this we shall hear later on. In Japanese clothes there are no
pockets. Whatever they need to carry with them is tucked into the sash
or into the sleeves of the kimono. The latter are often very long, and
afford ample room for the odds and ends one usually carries in the
pocket.
But fine kimonos and rich obis are for the wealthy Japanese; the poor
cannot afford them, and dress very simply. The coolie--the Japanese
working man--goes almost naked in the warm weather, wearing only a
pair of short cotton trousers, until he catches sight of a policeman,
when he slips on his blue cotton coat, for the police have orders to see
that he dresses himself properly. His wife wears a cotton kimono, and
the pair of them can dress themselves handsomely--for coolies--from
head to foot for a sum of 45 sen, which, taking the sen at a halfpenny,
amounts to 1 S. 10-1/2d. in our money.

CHAPTER III
BOYS AND GIRLS IN JAPAN (_continued_)
When Japanese boys and girls go to school, they make very low bows
to their teacher and draw in the breath with a buzzing sound. This is a
sign of deep respect, and the teacher returns their politeness by making
low bows to them. Then the children sit down and begin to learn their
lessons.
Their books are very odd-looking affairs to us. Not only are they
printed in very large characters, but they seem quite upside down. To
find the first page you turn to the end of the book, and you read it
backwards to the front page. Again, you do not read from left to right,
as in our fashion, but from right to left. Nor is this all: for the lines do
not run across the page, but up and down. Altogether, a Japanese book
is at first a very puzzling affair. When the writing lesson comes, the
children have no pens; they use brushes instead. They dip their brushes
in the ink, and paint the words one under the other, beginning at the top
right-hand corner and finishing at the bottom left-hand corner. If they

have an address to write on an envelope, they turn that upside down
and begin with the name of the country and finish with the name of the
person--England, London, Kensington Gardens, Brown John Mr.
But Japanese children have quite as many things to learn at home as at
school. At school they learn arithmetic, geography, history, and so on,
just as children do in England, but their manners and their conduct
towards other people are carefully drilled into them by their parents.
The art of behaving yourself towards others is by no means an easy
thing to learn in Japan. It is not merely a matter of good-feeling,
gentleness, and politeness, as we understand it, but there is a whole
complicated system of behaviour: how many bows to make, and how
they should be made. There are different forms of salutation to
superiors, equals, and inferiors. Different ranks