Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/141

 attributed. Something very like the modern journal had made its appearance,—a written sheet sold from house to house and embodying sensational reports and strange items of news. It created so much mischief and scandal that regulations were framed providing that every publication must bear the name of its writer as well as of its author; that matters of family history, especially those relating to the Tokugawa, must be carefully excluded, and that no manuscript containing rumours about current events might be offered for sale. Of course the infant enterprise could not survive such vetoes.

It is noteworthy, also, that promiscuous bathing of the sexes was forbidden at an early date (1791). Bath-houses had long assisted to promote immorality. The mere fact that the women's bathing-room was not separated from the men's did not work so much mischief as it would have done in a nation where every display of the nude is counted immodest. The Japanese conception of modesty is not at once comprehensible. In no country has the educated lady been more particular at all epochs to avoid exposure of any part of her person except the face and hands. In the highest classes, as the reader has already learned, even the face used not to be shown to strangers. But the restraining impulse in these cases seems to have been respect for etiquette rather than dread of outraging modesty. Politeness required perfect adjustment of the costume, and any de-