"The cotton cloth inscribed with the prayer and the name of the deceased, to be efficacious, can be purchased only at the temples. I have been told, and it is no secret, that rich people are able to secure a napkin which, when stretched but a few days, will rupture, and let the water pass through at once. The poor man can get only the stoutest and most closely woven fabric. The limit of purgatorial penance is thus fixed by warp and woof, and warp and woof are gauged by money. The rich man's napkin is scraped thin in the middle. Nevertheless, the poor mother secures a richer tribute of sympathy from her humble people; for in Japan, as in other lands, poverty has many children, while wealth mourns for heirs; and in the lowly walks of life are more pitiful women who have felt the woe and the joy of motherhood than in the mansions of the rich."[116]
Dress.
The men shaved the front and crown of the head, leaving a sort of tuft on top; the boy's head was shaved in different ways, but at fifteen the boy's hair was dressed exactly like a mature man, because then he attained his majority. Among the women the hair was worn long but arranged differently for a married woman than a young girl, and, too, the married women removed the hair of the eyebrows.
The infant was free from swathing; at three its clothes was bound at the waist with a girdle. At seven or later the boy of noble birth wore a short sword in his girdle which at fifteen, when he became a man, he would exchange for the two swords of the samurai.
Regulations.
"The following are examples, first, of the rules applying to the bungen (station in life) of a farmer of seventy-five to one hundred koku ($375 to $500), and, second, to that of a common farm-laborer:
I. For a Farmer of 100 Koku.
1. Such a farmer may build a house whose length is ten ken (about sixty feet), but there must be no parlor (zashiki), and the roof must not be tiled. If the householder wishes to tile the roof, to protect it against fires, he must first get permission.
2. On the occasion of a marriage of a son or daughter, the gifts of the householder must be limited to the following:
- Two nagamochi (a chest used for bed-clothes).
- One tansu (a chest of drawers).
- One tsuzura (a vine used in basket making).
- One hasami-bako (a case for scissors).
- A yuinō obi (a present, usually the sash called obi, exchanged
- at the time of the wedding).
- One sensu (a fan).
- One taru (a vessel containing wine).
- Surume (a kind of fish).
- Kobu (a kind of seaweed).
- Tai (a kind of fish, used on occasions of ceremony).