their teens had a pretty fashion of wearing
their hair in three clearly distinguished lengths--a short fringe
over the forehead, two cascades falling below the shoulders, and a
long lock behind. Women's hairdressing was simple in one respect:
they wore no ornaments in the hair. Aristocratic ladies continued to
wear loose trousers, but robes with skirts began to form a part of
the costume of the lower classes and of unmarried girls. The girdle,
so characteristic of Japanese habiliments in later days, had not yet
come into use. Its predecessor was a narrow belt of silk encircling
the waist and knotted in front, the outer garment being a long
flowing robe, reaching from the neck to the heels and having
voluminous sleeves. Female headgear was various. A woman walking
abroad wore a large hat like an inverted bowl, and when she rode on
horseback, she suspended from the rim of this hat a curtain from
three to four feet long.

There were other fashions, but only one of them need be mentioned,
namely, a hood to envelop the face so that the eyes alone remained
visible. In the city streets women of the town wore a distinctive
costume as courtesans did in certain parts of Europe in the Middle
Ages. The badge in Japan was a spirally twisted pyramidal cap of
linen, about a foot and a half high. The materials of which clothing
were made varied from rich Chinese brocade to coarse homespun, but,
in general, the use of brocade was forbidden except to persons who
had received it as a gift from the Court in Kyoto or Kamakura.
Historical mention is first made of badges during the war of the
Minamoto and the Taira. Their use was originally confined to purposes
of distinction, and ultimately they came to be employed as a family
crest by military men. A chrysanthemum flower with sixteen petals and
a bunch of Paulownia leaves and buds constituted the Imperial badges,
the use of which was interdicted to all subjects. It is not to be
supposed, however, that badges were necessarily a mark of
aristocracy: they might be woven or dyed on the garments of
tradespeople or manufacturers. Footgear, also, offered opportunities
for embellishment. Common people wore brown-leather socks, but those
of position used blue leather having decorative designs embroidered
in white thread.

BRAZIERS, ETC.

Braziers now came into general use, and quickly became objects of
ornament as well as of utility. Manufactured of brass or bronze, and
sometimes even of silve