Many of the men appear in foreign dress, but there is little change in women’s apparel. Some of the costumes of the men, half native and half foreign, look very curious, and it is odd to see some with bath-towels around their necks as comforters, and coolies wrapped up in bed-spreads. But such incongruities are disappearing. One great advance in civilization is that the coolies are obliged to wear clothes, and no longer appear in an almost nude state—at least, this is the case in or near the great cities. They have, or pretend to have, in their bath-houses separate apartments for men and women, and the people now usually dress before they go out on the streets.
The Sunrise Kingdom (1879)
I do not know if the Japanese authorities have made any law in the matter of dress, but I soon saw that in this also a great change was taking place. We had not gone far before we met natives who had more or less adopted the European articles of costume. Many were to be seen entirely metamorphosed, every article they wore being of the European cut—the stuck-up collars, bright-coloured scarf with gold pin, Albert watch-chain, boots, and everything got up as perfectly as you would see in the streets of London. Those who have adopted only parts of our dress present in many cases rather a hybrid appearance. An Inverness cape and a Glengarry bonnet is a favourite rig-out with many. As the Inverness cape is not so unlike their own wrappers, they have taken to it—particularly the old men—with evident fondness, and it is so common that it might now pass for the principal part of their national costume. The Glengarry bonnet is a great favourite, but the wide-awake competes with it for the suffrages of the Japs. The soft felt wide-awake, in fact, carries the day as the head-covering in Japan. They are so much in request, it is said, that ships cannot bring them fast enough to supply the demand. The Japanese never wore pig-tails like the Chinese. They shave the whole crown of the head in monkish fashion, and the back hair is turned up into something like a queue, about three or four inches long, and so tied that it lies forward over the middle of the shaven part of the crown. This peculiar tonsorial form is fast disappearing before the advent of wide-awakes and Glengarry bonnets. The proprietress of a tea-shop, who had a grown-up boy, called my attention to his head, and pointed out that the hair was “all the same” as mine, and an English brush and comb were produced to show me that they had the necessary implements for the process. The lady did this with evident satisfaction at the result. It was a trifling incident, but, seen in connexion with other phenomena, it indicates much, showing that changes appear not only in great matters, but that all through the affairs of Japanese life everything is undergoing alteration. The feet are also changing their covering as well as the head. Clogs about three inches high have hitherto been used by almost every one in Japan, but boots and shoes are now taking their place. As yet the women have not made any alteration in their costume, but I am told that some of the ladies in the higher ranks of Japanese society have been making inquiry into some of the mysteries of dress as worn by their European sisters. This is ominous, and, to a traveller like myself, to be regretted, for the Japanese-female costume is most quaint and picturesque, and the fair creatures will not, I fear, improve their personal appearance by any change of this kind.
Meeting the Sun (1874)
In the ‘good old times,’ twenty years ago, the coolies wore no clothes to speak of, and the running footmen, ‘bettos,’ only a neat-fitting livery of tattoo. One sees photos of them still. The design and colouring of the tattooing was a work of art; but one day the Government ordered everyone to wear clothes, so now these funny little people (we have not yet met a man in Japan as tall as the average Englishwoman) encase themselves in the tightest of black suits, and cut their hair, which had for centuries been plastered down and tied back, ‘in order the better to see their enemies’; the result is, it stands up straight, and, together with their black tights, gives the little waiters skipping about our hotel an impish appearance. When I ring the bell one of these sprites, leaving his straw sandals at the door, suddenly appears, bowing low, and, drawing in his breath with the peculiar whistling sound always made when addressing a superior, answers me in lisping English and vanishes.
Journal of a Lady’s Travels Round the World (1883)
In traveling through the rural districts of Japan, the tourist soon becomes accustomed to the peasant’s lack of clothing. It is not the exception here to be undressed—it is the rule. Even in the streets of Tokio one will behold, on rainy days, thousands of men wearing neither trousers nor stockings, walking about with tucked-up clothes and long white limbs, which gives them the appearance of storks upon a river-bank. Even those who have adopted the European dress will frequently, on a muddy day, practice economy by discarding their trousers, and, unconscious of any incongruity, will take their “constitutional” on wooden clogs, with bare legs and feet, though having the upper part of their bodies covered with a frock-coat and a Derby hat!
Japan (1897)
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