Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/130

 to say, a robe having a thick layer of silk wadding between the stuff and the lining; spring (April 1st to May 5th), when the Awase, a lined garment without wadding, went into wear; and summer (May 5th to August 31st), when the Katabira, an unlined robe, was orthodox. This rule never varied in subsequent ages.

Women in the Military epoch wore absolutely no hair ornaments. The fashion in this respect bore no resemblance whatever to that of subsequent eras. In the matter of shaving the eyebrows and substituting two little black dots high upon the forehead, as also in that of staining the teeth black, the rule of former times continued to be faithfully observed by girls out of their teens.

Braziers are now found in common use, and towards the middle of the fifteenth century they were supplemented by a contrivance which, though very simple in conception, added greatly to the comfort of the people. A brazier is evidently useless for warming the feet, especially in the case of persons who habitually sit upon the ground. Better suited for that purpose is even the sunken hearth of aristocratic houses in previous eras and of the lower middle classes in all eras. But the brazier, when once introduced, quickly became an ornament as well as an article of furniture. Manufactured of brass or bronze, handsomely repoussé and chiselled, or taking the form of a metal receptacle inserted in a case of