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she is married is evident, for every hair is plucked from her eyebrows, and her teeth are varnished jet black, There are the distinguishing marks of married women, and are said to have been originally adopted by the wife of the Emperor many hundred years ago, as a sacrifice offered on the shrine of conjugal fidelity, she having thus destroyed her beauty to prove the absence of all wish or design to captivate admirers! It seems to me that it was making the husband pay rather dear, although it doubtless fully answered the purpose. But the fashion set by the wife of the Emperor of Japan five hundred years ago was universally adopted and remains to this day, in permanancy quite different from the fashions set by the late Empress of France.
In all countries the appearance of the female population is interesting to the stranger. This is especially true in the East; the status accorded to them, and their treatment by the “lords of creation,” differing so widely from what is seen in western lands. In some eastern countries hardly any females are seen out of doors, and those who are visible are only of the poorer class. In few of them is the freedom allowed equal to that enjoyed by the sterner sex. But in Japan, although the wives and daughters of the aristocracy are seldom seen, all other classes of women enjoy perfect liberty. Women and girls are met with—shopping, walking, or visiting—in numbers hardly inferior to the men, and their nice, tidy, modest demeanor is remarkable. Their peculiar dress—perhaps it is the absence of crinoline—at first seems unbecoming, and the awkward, shuffling gilt, produced by their high wooden pattens, is anything but graceful, But it is the “fashion of the country” and as the eye becomes accustomed to them the females convey a very pleasing impression, both in appearance and manner.
Here come two girls nicely dressed, of the respectable middle class. One is carrying an umbrella of bamboo, which are made here very light and cheap, and universally used as a sunshade, as well as for protection against rain. Their teeth are very white, their complexion light as Octoroons, their robes are of fine, dark-colored material, which is relieved by the large, bright-colored sashes worn around the waist. This, with the Japan lady, is the article of dress par excellence. It is called the Obi, and is always of the finest texture that her means will afford. It is tied in a very large knot
