Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1894-07-14
AMERICAN JAPANESE EFFECTS.
they Would Surprise the Untraveled Ma
tive of the Island Empire.

your DeSt friend in her pretty Japanese
boudoir, the pride of her home and
heart, where she has accumulated un-
told treasures. But when you are hav-
ing private chat over her genuine
Chinese teacups in her ''cozy corner"
did it never strike you that the heap
ing up of Japanese, Chinese and Indian
objects in one apartment is in sharp,
Almost comical, contrast with their use
in the country that is being aped
There is perhaps no country that is so
pillaged and ransacted for it's treasures,
and 50 much and iniudiciously imi-
tated as the island Empire of Japan.
The low chair on which you are
seated is made of twisted bamboo. 1t is
square and dainty gilt railing runs
along two of its sides, very pretty and
very uncomfortable; for the railing is
just high enough to reach half way up
your back. so that if you want to lean,
yonr back feels as if it would break.
Your friend is rocking gently to and
fro in a so-called Japanese rocker,
though you may be sure that it has
never been further away than the
Sixth avenue store where it was
bought. In fact, the genuine Japan
ese would be very much surprised
If you wanted to introduce such an
article into his home. The table,
where stand the dainty porcelain cups
and saucers, very gems of Chinese
workmanship, consists of three thick
gilt bamboo sticks crossed like the legs
of a camp STOOL and on the top large
gilt blade, painted with tender white
Il l. I, I I
with red-and-white checkered mating,
or twisted rushes. the doorways are pro-
vided with movable hangings of multi
| colored beads, which, when in rest,
form a lively pattern of flowers and
birds. So does the light paper hanging
on the walls. OF the latter. however,
not much is to be seen. Fans of all
forms and hues, round fans and square
fans, diamond-shaped fans, oval fans,
and folding fans, in red, yellow, blue,
| green, hide it from view.
The loolSing-glass is half covered by
large bunch of peacock feathers and
palm leaves, while in two of the cor
| ners gigantic paper parasols shade
| bushes of chrysanthemums. Little
| tables with innumerable bric-a-brao
objects are scattered carelessly all over
the room, and if you manage to sail
through without upsetting a table or
two, or sweeping to the floor one of the
| pots of flowers when you make your
bow to newcomer. or running your
head against the Chinese lanterns hang
ing from the low ceiling, you may be
called a lucky mortal.
| Fancy room in a Japanese house
crowded like that! Except the cool
mattings on the floor, such a room has
nothing in common with it's American
or European imitation. There is hardly
any furniture in it. the Japanese mostly
sitting on the floor or on couches
These and the low tables constitute the
chief fitting out of their rooms.
They'never put pots of flowers in the
house, which they would certainly
think very much out of place there
They have flowers in the rooms, Ger
tainly, but in this, as in all Other
things, they exhibit more taste thar
almost any other people in the world
A single branch of leaves or flowers
carefully stripped of it's superfuou
twigs, is placed in a vase, eXquisit,
both in form and color, before pictur,
roll. OF these rolls, too, there is gen
orally only a limited number in eacl
room, never collection of all kind
imaginable. Their good taste tells tn
japanese that one or two good pictures
hung in the right place, please the ey
much more than an accumulation o
snowy prints. Neither would they eve
dream of hanging their fans and para
soils on the walls, just as little as w
would ours. Think of coming into
room and seeing your last years para
sol hanging in stats in one corner, O
the fan that was your pride two year
ago adorning the mantelpiece. Itwoul
certainly look ridiculous in your eyes
yet that is how our use of these article
from Japan would appear to a man @
woman of that country. They use thei
parasols as sunshades, and their fan
to cool themselves with, just as we dt
! Bouquets are not placed anywhere i
the house, as they are with us. o
festive occasions the ladies carry theI
in their hands, and the gardens an
: verandas are adorned with them. The
also form a conspicuous part of the r,
> ligious professions. They are made b
the young Japanese girls, who max
,, thorough study of this art at TIL
schools. There are hundreds of variou
ways to compose these bouquets, and
young woman who knows them all
considered a paragon of clevernes
Even dwarf trees are put into tn
gigantic lunches that are made for tn
greatest of all feasts, the Feast of tn
4 Flowers Sometimes high stalks {
Z bamboo rise from the flowers; in thes
l stalks incisions are made at equal di
tances, in which fresh earth is put fc
the ivy, the trails of which hang dow
c over the bouquet and reach the groun
as far as two yards from its foot.
The Japanese devote as much care
. . their gardens as to their houses; a
abundance of the choicest flowers d,
I lights the visitor who enters the gate
: Every house is surrounded by its pate