The Flowery Kingdom and the Land of the Mikado or China, Japan and Corea; Containing Their Complete History Down to the Present Time - Manners, Customs, and Peculiarities of the People ...: Together with a Graphic Account of the War Between China and Japan ... (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...a set of uniform buttons bearing the Swiss federal cross, according to the military rule of my country. I had to give them some of these buttons, though I could not imagine to what use they could possibly apply them, since all Japanese garments, for the use of both sexes are simply fastened by silken strings. The gift of a few articles of Parisian perfumery was highly appreciated, but I praised Eau de Cologne quite unsuccessfully. Cambric handkerchiefs are unknown in Japan. I showed them some specimens, very prettily embroidered by the gentlewomen of Appenzell; but they explained to me that, though the gentility of Tokio might perhaps use. them as cuffs for their wide and flowing night-robes, not the lowest woman of the people would hold in her hand or carry in her pocket a piece of stuff in which she had blown her nose. There is, therefore, no chance at present that the little squares of paper, made from vegetable substances, which they carry in a fold of the dress, in the breast, or in a pocket in the sleeve, and which are thrown away as each is successively used, will be supplanted by our barbarous method. Eau de Cologne, however, might be used with advantage to counteract the briny flavor of the well-water which is drunk at Benten. Mode of Writing. Another point on which my visitors seemed to regard the superiority of Japanese civilization as incontestable, is their method of writing. The Japanese uses a brush, a stick of Chinese ink, and a roll of paper made from mulberry leaves. He carries those things about with him everywhere: the roll of paper is placed in his breast; the brush and the inkstand hang in a case from his girdle, together with his pipe and his tobacco-bag. In order to regain my advantage, I exhibited a case containing an assortment of ...