The boatmen are almost naked, and look most disgusting, for, unlike the Hindoo, they are by no means of a very dark complexion, their skin being almost as fair as that of the European; so that the exhibition of their forms appeared to us all the more glaring, lending no additional charm to the surrounding scene, but rather forming an eyesore one would gladly dispense with.
A Lady’s Visit to Manilla and Japan (1863)
Shimo-no-Sewa is the Aix-les-Bains of this country; just now (6 p.m.) the rank and fashion of Japan are pretty generally standing or splashing about in the large tanks of warm mineral water, open to the street at the door of every tea-house. A lady and her little child have emerged from the bath, and are sitting down to cool on the doorstep opposite the room I write in. Neither of them has a scrap of clothing on, only some long tortoiseshell pins in the hair; and now I see she has slipped on her straw sandals, while a gentleman, also unclothed, has come up to talk to her, and hang himself out to dry. It is really very startling at first. She is a respectable matronly woman, but certainly, on the whole—and we have opportunities of judging here—the costume of Eden is not becoming to fat middle-aged ladies. Other people are sauntering up and down, as on the promenade at Homburg; but seem entirely comfortable with nothing whatever on.
Journal of a Lady’s Travels Round the World (1883)
What is the right definition of the word “modesty?” Such was the question I put to myself when I first, this day, entered a Japan bathing-house. There were men of all ages, women, girls, and children, standing by dozens washing themselves, with as much unconcern as though they were drinking tea, and, to tell the truth, the European visitor looked on as much unconcerned as any. “The immodesty is in the remark,” said Madame de Staël, to a young officer, who asked her if she did not think some statue of Hercules, or Venus, which they were looking at, was very immodest. So I resolved to think no evil of the naked modesty of Japan.
Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific (1861)
We had now passed beyond treaty limits, into a district rarely visited by foreigners. There is not much in the scenery to attract; but to me everything is novel and interesting. A tendency to nudity appears more frequent as one leaves Tokio behind; we encounter children of both sexes, even up to six or seven years of age, absolutely naked, making mud-pies by the wayside, or chasing each other about the street. At work, a simple cloth about the loins was the only garment of the labourer, or even of the lounging traveller at the wayside inn. I came across one old man, a pilgrim, resting for a while under a tree, whose entire body was tattooed with pictures of dragons, tigers, and every kind of imaginable beast. Descending from the karuma, and approaching him for a nearer view, he very hurriedly robed himself in a blue cotton gown, and started off as if greatly frightened. Doubtless he mistook me for some government official, stopping my journey to arrest him for law-breaking. It is strictly against the law to go thus scantily clad; but one can hardly hope to change by a stroke of a pen a natural custom, to which for centuries the people have been inured. In Tokio, at least, the law seems very strictly enforced.
Rambles Through Japan Without a Guide (1892)
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