Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/168

 cicada, was poised on the top of the head much as an insect might have perched there. At the time when this fortunate simplicity was attained as to one article of costume, there were no less than eighteen ranks of princes, thirty principal ranks of officials, twenty supernumerary ranks, and twelve orders of merit. All these had to be differentiated by points of apparel, and as there were three costumes for each rank—the ceremonial costume, the Court costume, and the ordinary uniform—the task to be discharged by the bureau of etiquette was to devise two hundred and sixteen varieties of dress. Necessarily the pettiest details had to be enlisted in this phalanx of diversities. White trousers were always de rigueur, but a pure white girdle might be used by the Prince Imperial only: other princes were obliged to have embroidered or figured girdles, and the girdles of lower dignitaries had to be of designated colours. Jewels and jade necessarily adorned the belts of the upper ranks of princes. But that essentially Chinese fashion did not long survive in Japan. It has always been against the instinct of the Japanese male to use jewels of any kind for purposes of personal adornment. Socks were made of silk brocade—another extravagance ultimately abandoned in favour of white cotton-cloth—and the feet were thrust into black lacquered shoes with up-tilted toes. As for the colour of the upper garments, the general rule was that the deeper the colour, the higher