Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/185

 must not use damask or brocade. In 1685, the law interdicted the making of any costly utensil gilded, embroidered, or lacquered, even though the order were given by a samurai, and merchants must not have saddles ornamented with gold lacquer or embroidery. Even in such matters as the puppets for the boys' and girls' festivals, toy bows and arrows set up at New Year for driving off evil spirits, and the battledore and shuttlecock of spring, gold foil might not enter into the decoration. By and by legislators went a step farther; they enacted (1663) that to be in financial difficulties should thenceforth be regarded as a crime. Then the growing opulence of the farmer evoked (1668) an injunction that he must be more frugal, must eat grain inferior to rice, must inhabit a house only just large enough for his needs, must wear the cheapest clothes, and must avoid all sorts of amusement and comfort. When it proved impossible to command the full compliance of rich men themselves, the authorities sought to effect their purpose through the working classes, and contractors, carpenters, and masons were forbidden to undertake any building exceeding a certain scale of dimensions. In 1683, costly inrō (medicine boxes) and other trinkets were declared unlawful; sign-boards were not to be ornamented with gold, silver, or lacquer, nor might tradesmen possess screens decorated with gold or silver. At the close of the eighteenth century the administration went so far as to in-