Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/188

 ornaments and household utensils, beautiful works of art which were all thrown into the melting-pot. Incidentally these sumptuary laws convey information as to the remuneration of servants, for a regulation of 1843 fixea the maximum yearly wage of a manservant at £3, and that of a female servant at £2, and directed that these limits must not be passed even by mutual consent.

Many of these singular laws were certainly inspired by a tendency on the people's part to carry special fashions to extravagant excess, though history is not sufficiently accurate to indicate clearly the connection of cause and effect. There seems to be in the character of the Japanese a proneness to run to extremes in matters of sentiment or fancy despite their habit of moderation and compromise in affairs of reason or interest. In 1842 they began to buy plants in pots so eagerly that the authorities put a limit of £2 on the price of such objects. Ten years later, there was such admiration for the Rhodia Japonica that shows were organised and competitive sales arranged, until once more the law stepped in, vetoing all cultivation of the plant except for purposes of amusement. During the Meiji era, too, similar fantasies had vogue: rabbits, pigs, roses, and orchids succeeded one another as objects of popular esteem, each being the rage for a season. It was not uncommon to see a Yorkshire sow, a pair of lop-eared rabbits, or a