"Oh, they roll up the beds and store them away for the day in the closets, take down the mosquito nets, sweep and dust the rooms, wash the porches, and the dishes, maybe. The market people come with baskets to the door sometimes. Ko-yeda or her mother or grandmother used to go to the go-down and select what was to be the decoration for the day and one of them spent a long time arranging the flower vases. Then there always seemed to be some kimonos or something to be ripped up or dyed, for they use them over and over while there is anything left of them, and whenever they are washed they must be taken apart."
"Again like the primitive methods of our grandmothers and our thrifty New England women," said Nan.
"Just what class do the Sannomiyas belong to?" asked Mary Lee.
"I think that they must have been in the daimio class," Jean told her, "for they showed me some wonderful embroidered robes that had been in the family for years. I asked Ko-yeda why she didn't wear them, and she said that there was no class distinction nowadays, that the castles were done away with, for Japan is quite democratic."
"What has that to do with the robes?" asked Jack.
"The handsome embroidered robes were worn only by nobility," Jean told her. "The daimios were proud as Lucifer and their establishments in their castles must have been very much like those we read of in old feudal times. I believe there are still very exclusive households who keep up many of the old traditions."
"And the samurai class?" interrogated Nan.
"They were the military who had their special lords, and served them and the Shogun to the death. They were what we might call retainers, and they were the class between the upper nobility and the common people."
"And what were the ronin? Don't you know we are always hearing that tale of the 'Forty-seven Ronin'?"
"They were the masterless samurai, who wandered about, owing no special allegiance to any master."