The Indianapolis journal., 1890-12-14
THELITTLEWOMEN OFJAPAN
Appearance and Peculiarities of the Gen.
tier Sex in the MikadO's Domain.
Their Neat and Handsomely Fashioned Houses
Their Religious Views-The Holy EN-
press Till Recently Invisible.

Pierre Lott, in December Harper's.
: Very ugly. those poor little Japanese
women! prefer To make this brutal state
ment at once, to attenuate it later with
mincing prettiness. graceful drollery. ador-
able little hands, and then rice powder,
rose and gold on the lips. all manner Of
artifces.
Hardly any eyes at all, so little as to be
almost nothing; two narrow Sits, oblioue
and dIverging. where roll willy or cajoiing
eyeballs, as between the barely opened lids
of those cats whom the glare of daylight
makes weary.
Above those little updrawn eyes-but
very far above. very highly perched-are
outlined the eyebrows, as fine as pencil
marks and not at all oblique. not at ali
parallel with the eyes that they accompany
90 badly, but straight on the Same line,
contrary to what it has been the custom to
represent in our European pictures when
ever the artist has had to portray Jap
anese woman.
believe that the particular strangepess
of those little faces of women is entirely
due to that disposition of the eye, which is
general, and also to the development OF the
cheek, which Is always swollen to round
ness like dolls; moreover. in their pict-
ures. the artists OF the country never fail
to reprodnce, exaggerating them even to
imprObability, those characteristic signs of
their race.
The other features are much more change
able. varying with individuals first, and
especially with social conditions. Among
the common people the lips remain thick.
the nose fiat and short; among the nobility
the mouth becomes thinner. the nose longer
and finer, sometimes even curves in the
shape of a slender eagles beak
There is no country where the feminine
types are so clearly defined between differ
ent castles. Brown peasant women, bronzed
like Indians, well balanced on their slim
waists plump and muscled beneath their
everlasting dresses of blue cottonade; etlo-
lated women OF the cities, real diminutives
OF women. white and wan like sickly Euro
peans, with know not what of followed
of undermined beneath the flesh which is
the sign of races that are too old-all these
working women Of the great cities seem to
have been worn out, hereditarily worn ont
before birth. by too long q continuity of
labor and of tension of mind over minute
trifes; it seems as though upon their frail
forms weighed all the weariness of having
constantly produced since centuries those
millions of baubles. those irnnmerable
little works Of exhausting patience, of
which Japan Is full. And among the
pripcesses the refining influence of aris-
tocracy, SO far back does il date, has finished
by fashioning extraordinary little artificial
persons. with childish hands and busts,
whose painted faces, winter and pinker
than fresh bon bon, Indicate no aye. their
smile is far away. like that of ancient idols;
their updrawn eyes have an expression of
both youth and death.
CAN'T BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
The women of the middle classes In Japan
women of the shop and factory-are seen
everywhere 90 freely. and taeir intimacy is
won so soon, that. without understanding
them to their very souls, one can attempt
to say little more about them. OF these
thousands Of little persons met with every