The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-10-22
Japanese Mating Makers.

ence is seen no. only IN blood, charac.
ter, language and dress, but in history.
social customs and household HABITS
| For instance, though the Chinese wea ve
annually millions Of yards of mating.
this fabric isnot, as rule, used to cover
| floors. These latter. in China. are of
stone, brick, wood or earth. Mating
is used rather for cloaks and beddinc'
except among the higher classes, where
it may serve as rugs or carpets.
In Japan, however, the floors are uni
versally hidden by the tatami, or bed
ded mats. These are of regulation size
throughout the empire, and in building
a house the rooms are divided off SO
as to hold certain number of these
units of floor measure. A tatami is ex-
actly five feet nine inches long, three
feet wide and two and half inches
thick, or in round numbers and Japan
ese measure six by three by two. The
only difference between the mats that
cover the imperial floor and those of
the cottagers is that the former are
larger in size and are covered with a
gayer border. In ordinary houses this
border is black or indigo blue. In the
palace it is white. Even the throne of
that now defunct official, the Tycoon,
as we'll as the place of eminence of the
Mikado, whom he initiated, was only a
square, padded mat, a few inches
higher than common, and edged wth
variegated colors. A Japanese floor
being so substantially covered need be
only of cheap, unplaned wood, laid
without mortices. This floor is two
and half inches below the grooved
stills in which the doors, or rather par
titions, slide. Hinges are used only on
gates. Into this huge pan SO to speak,
which the floor makes, the mats are
laid and fit snugly together, lying with
their surface level with the sills or
grooves. The mats are the household
property of the tenants, as landlords
rent the houses uncarpeted, as we do.
In case of fire people pull up these
expensive ornaments and run. A col
lection OF tatami usually requires the first
outlay OF Japanese couple toward
housekeeping. Often these exquisite
ly clean and soft mats are the chief, if
not the only, articles Of furniture in
certain rooms. The Chinese for centu-
ries have used chairs and lounges, but
the Japanese eschew these Injuries,
using the floor and its covering for GER
emory and the occasionsof eating and
drinking and sleeping. The tatami
serve for tables, bedsteads, chairs and
lounging purposes. In palace and hut,
alike guiltless of sitting machinery, has
grown up that elaborate system of eti-
quette and ceremonial, renowned over
the world. Only by the Generals in
the field were folding camp chairs used.
In the monastery the Abbott sat in
state, or for reflection, in the arm chair.
The Japanese have the word koshi-
kake" (back-rester), but there is no
general word or equivalent for our
simple word g chair Most of the
obsequiousness and exaggerated polite
ness of the Oriental islanders may be
thus mechanically accounted for If
the superior is no higher than the floor
the inferior must bow low indeed. To
salute properly, indoors. one must turn
his head into temporary tack-hammer
and pound vigorously on the aoor.
The various kinds of mats woven by
the Japanese besides tatami are the
mushiro, or coarse rice straw mat used
by farmers to dry grain; komo, with
which wine casks are wrapped; CANA,
made of cat-tail rush, and the various
kinds of rattan mating for covering
tea chests, etc. The mat-weaving in
dustry is carried on in every province,
and the value in 1877 of mating prop
er was 81, 100000, and woven reed and
bamboo, S927,975. OF course, owing
to the cheapness of native labor, these
figures would stand much higher in our
own country.
The basis or substratum CT the
Japanese mat is a welting of rice
straw, two and one-fourth inches
thick, laid together in wisps and
compactly drawn together with five
warps and plated along the edges. In
this no special skill, but only care.
muscle and pressure are required. The
surface must be fiat and the edges hard
and square.
The omote, which forms the beauti-
full front face of the tatami, is made
from fine rush that lines the rivers
and water courses of Japan. This COW
ering is the mating proper, and called
goza. The material of it is finer than
the average Chinese mating. The
weavers are generally women, who
work out Of doors, with machinery of
the most. primitive character. 1t con-
sists Of a portable square frame
OF wood, not more elaborate than
a clothes-horse. 1t is laid on a
piece of rough mating for
floor. Two uprights hold two cross
bars about seven feet apart, which is a
little more than the lengthto be woven.
A light rod run across the top holds the
balls or pay-outs of Irvine which furnish
the wraps. These latter number about
forty, and are strung over the frame,
each little less than an inch apart
from the other, and are fastened and
kept taut on bamboo beneath the
lower cross-piece. One girl does the
weaving, while another selects and in
serts the straws. 10"
When the proper length of seven feet
Is woven, the web is taken out and a
new warp is run over the frame
and threaded into the bar. Rolled into
bundles, the goza awaits the mat sewer.
Ihls workman, having laid his rice
straw mat on a pine table of the regula-
ton dimensions, puts over it the goza.
ana proceeds with steel nails to pin and