Year: 1860

japanese Ladies.


| have not been among the South Sea
Islanders yet, or the New Zealanders, nor
even made acquaintance with the Chippewa
! Indians, but | can conceive nothing more
! elaborate in the way of tattooiug than the
specimens supplied by the male population
OF Japan and really to see them in their
/ habitual costume lgjdc{icct, a girdIc of the
narrowest possible kind), the greater part
Of the body and limbs scrollcd over with
/ bright blue dragons and lions and tigers
and figures Of men and women, some not
very decent, tattooed into their skins with
/ the most artistic and elaborate ornamental
ton, it is impossible to deny that they
look remarkably like a race of savages in
! their war paint. The women seem content
with the skin that nature gave them in all
its varying shades Of olive, and sometimes
no shade at all. | have seen many as fair
| as my own countrywomcn, and with healthy
| blood manteling in their chceks-that is
when fresh washed and before they have
painted cheek and lips, and powdered all
the face and neck with rice -four until they
look like painted popinjays done in pastry
and white lead. When they have renewed
the black varnsh to their teeth, pucked
out the last hair from their eyebrows, the
japanese matrons may certainly claim un-
rlvelad pre-eminence in artificial uginess
over all their sex. Their mouths thus dis
figured are like open sepulchers, and wheth2
er given to fatter with their tongues |
cannot undertake in this nv novitiate to
say, but they must have sirens tongues or d
50-horse power of fattery to make those
red vanished lips utter any thing which
much artificial ugliness. Were it not for
such pcryerse ingenuity in marrlng natures
faircst work, some among them might make
some pretensionS to beauty. But one
might certainly search the world through
without being able to match the woman,
kind Of Japan for such total abnegation
Of personal vanity If this be sacrifice
offered on the shrine of conjugal fidelity,
the motive is no doubt very laudable but
it leads to the further inference, not alto
gether so complimentary, that either the
men are more dangerous or the women weak
er than elsewhere, since such extreme
measures have been found necessary to Sc
cure the same results. Surely something
less than the whole womanhood of Japan
deliberately making itself hideous might
have sufhced to prove the absence Of all
wish or design to captivate admirers.


For my part, | cannot help thinking the
husbands pay rather dear for any protection
or security it is supposed to bring, since
II no other man can find anything pleasing
in face SO marred and dishgured, the hus-
band must be just as badly off if he has
any sense of beauty in him. Perhaps Gus
tom, and that def0rmed thief fashion,
may have brought him to like it, so may
others; perverted tastes are infectious. Of
course it shall be told-nay, think hear
my excellent and exemplary English ma
irons saying, with a certain monitory voice,
That when the affections are engaged (of-
ten with the aid Of pretty mouth, white
teeth, aud well-arched eyebrows) loving
husband sees only the mind and heart in
the face, and loses the individual features,
and those are worthy Of love and admira-
ton, SO in his Indifference to the skin-deep
beauty Of the face-his love being some
thing quite irrespective Of such graces;
and more than this, that, as a matter of
experience, six months married life serves
to tamiliarize the ugliest faces or take away
the impression of the fairest.' [ have
heard some such discourse in time past in
support of theory which, despite all my
efforts, [ never could cordially accept.
But less than ever could l do so now after
few weeks residence in Japan, where l
see the principle carried out to its last
trighttul consequences with inexorable log
ic; and whatever mans sensuous perception
OF the beautiful may be-and some, at
least, are very unfortunately endowed that
way-hc must of necessity for the whole
term ofhis Cor herr existence be condemned
to take up his abode with wanton and I'M
mitlgated ugliness in the face of his cher
isbed mariner