A JAPANESE LADY OF THE UPPER CLASS (p. 68).
They take hardly any exercise, and one wonders sometimes how the little ladies employ their time. There seems so little to be done in a Japanese house. To begin with, there are no regular meals. The shops near at hand supply daily numberless minute dishes, which seem to be eaten at all hours of the day and night, a few pecks with those impossible chopsticks at a time. Nothing is kept in the larder except some slices of ‘daikon’ (fermented turnip), some rice, and sweet biscuits.
‘The honourable live fish’ is sold by men who carry round large water-tubs from house to house, and cut off as much as is required from the unfortunate fish, replacing the sadly mutilated but still struggling remains in the tub.
Eggs are cheap and plentiful. Bread is never used, so there is no necessity for an oven.
The great stand-by is tea. A Japanese lady is seldom seen in her home without the quaint little tea-tray by her side and the inevitable pipe, containing one whiff of tobacco, which is in constant requisition.
There is practically no furniture in a Japanese house. The beds consist of large quilted rugs called ‘futons,’ which are rolled up every morning and put in the cupboards concealed behind the ‘shoji,’ or panels, in the walls. There are no carpets, curtains, tables, or chairs, only the straw ‘tatami,’ and a few small, flat cushions on the floor.
Instead of our European fireplace, a brass or wooden ‘hibatchi’ (fire-box) is substituted, containing charcoal. The boxes can be moved about a room as desired.
Everything is spotlessly clean. No muddy shoes are allowed inside a house, and one can generally judge of the number of inmates by the row of wooden clogs placed in a row outside the front-door.
A TEA-HOUSE VERANDA.