Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-23
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES in Philadelphia
JAPAN OF TODAY.
Shows Many Changes From 30 Years
AGO to Observant Traveller.


Dr. Thomas G. MendenhalI last sum
mer revisited Japan after an absence
of 30 years. He says that it was no.
the tall chimneSs Of new factories or
the big steamships flying the Japanese
flag that most impressed him. but
thousand minor details which never
theless made the contrast with the
picture of life there as he had remem-
bered ii.
What. for instance, had become of
the topknot, or small tuft of tied-up
hair. that partially covered the shayen
top of every Japanese head?" he says.
Gone. absolutely Not one was TO be
seen in Nagasaki, Osaka, Kioto. Toxic
or other city, except on the head of an
actor and then it was soon discovered
to be part of wig. In the country
one or two We're found, the insignia of
ultra conservatism.
The absence of the queue was made
up for by the presence of the hat on
the head of nearly every man and
boy; although formerly the habit OF
hat wearing was so rarer that hats
We're constantly found where last de-
posted by the owners. who had gone
off without ever missing them.
sSIiotS Or the WESTERN nOuef nave
become nearly as necessary a part of
mans dress as the western hat. and
the number of men who clothe them
selves completely after the western
fashion is now so great that they have
long since ceased to attract special at
tention.
Few things in Japan have been so
fixed and unalterable as the fashion in
Woman's dress. While the material
of which it is composed may range
from the poor and cheap 10 the rich.
costly and exquisitely beautiful, the
model has been practically the same
for centuries
But even i'm this very considerable
change has somehow been brought about,
and it is especially noticeable in the style
of hairdressing now all but universal
among japanese ladies'. The new style is
vastly Tess complicated and difficult, and
hence less costly than the old. 1t is not
very unlike some of the fashions recent
ly In vogue among the western people,
and to the general European taste is
more artistic and beautiful than the
elaborate couture which so long pre-
vailed
There are many indications of ten
dency to change other long-establshed
features of the costume of Japanese wo-
men and it does not seem rash to predict
the abolition OF the obi. the tremendous
ly large, heavy and often very expensive
girdle. with its enormous bow in the
back with which a Japanese lady en-
circles her waist and which in the eyes
of most foreigners detracts so much
from the grace of her movements.
ITO abandon this classic feature of
woman's dress at once would be little
short of a revolution, but already it has
disappeared from the authorized and
generally prescribed outfit of young Wo-
men and girls at school, who now dress
| in very attractive style. uniform in
model with charming variations in color
according TO the taste of the wearer.
Twenty-Five or 80 years ago there was
pronounced leaning toward European
models of dress among Japanese ladies'.
| which now happily seems to have quite
| disappeared. AT present this fashion is
so rare among them that while a man
| may travel about the country in Euro
pean dress without causing the slightest
remark a woman clothed as she would
| be in Europe or America is Immediately
surrounded by a horde of the curious OF
both sexes. and all ages, TO whom hei
dress is a great novelty.
"ln contrast with the condition of 81
years ago the quantity and variety OF
foreign goods of all kinds offered fol
sale in the shops have enormously in
creased. Made in Germany is to b,
read ON countless articles in every Japan
ese city and town. and the market fo
even some of the widely known special
ties of Japan has been invaded at hom
by foreign competitors, and this in spit
of the very high import duty that pre-
walls.