formerly got along on 11 yen a month, can scarcely now manage under 20 yen. The price of a box for the ten days wrestling matches at Ekō-in, Tōkyō, rose from 40 to 54 yen for the best places, and from 38 to 45 yen for the next best in the single year between January, 1900, and January, 1901. The published accounts of a Tōkyō lady's household testify to the following rise in prices between the years 1877 and 1900:—
| Public bath | 7 rin[1] | 2½ sen |
| Potatoes (per quart) | 3½ sen | 8 sen |
| Charcoal (per bag) | 18 sen | 28 sen |
| Radishes (per bundle) | 4½ sen | 7½ sen |
| Paper (per quire) | 17⁄10 sen | 3 sen |
| do. (best) | 11 sen | 25sen |
| Pickled greens (per barrel) | 41 sen | 75 sen |
| Indoor sandals (per pair) | 5 sen | 7 sen |
| Lamp oil (vegetable) | 3 sen | 54⁄10 sen |
| Best soy (per barrel) | 1 yen 12½ sen | 2 yen 80 sen |
| Firewood (per 50 bundles) | 1 yen 50 sen | 2 yen 80 sen |
| Maidservant per month | 1 yen | Over 2 yen |
| Carpenter (per diem) | 25 sen | 80 sen |
The only household requisites that had become cheaper, according to the same authority, during the quarter century were
| Lamp chimneys | 12 sen | 5 sen |
| Petroleum (per tin) | 2 yen 40 sen | 1 yen 70 sen |
owing, doubtless, to the discovery of native petroleum fields, and to the fact that glass is now manufactured at Tōkyō instead of being imported, as formerly, from abroad.
All the above statements as to prices are endorsed by another notable housewife whom we have consulted, and who points out that a further considerable rise has taken place even between 1900 and 1904 in certain articles, soy, for instance, which now stands as high as 3 yen 75 sen per barrel, charcoal which is 50 sen as against 28, maidservants wages which now range between
- ↑ For this and the other values mentioned, see p. 109.
