Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/192

 were never tattooed. The tattooer took for model a sleeveless tunic that covered the back, the bosom, the shoulders, the thighs, and perhaps the arms above the elbow, and the person tattooed was invited to select the pattern. It follows that tattooing has always been considered a mark of extreme vulgarity in Japan. Yet the Japanese are probably the most skilled tattooers in the world.

To keep one's own carriage is counted a presumptive proof of opulence in the West, but in Japan during the seventeenth century there was no presumption about the circumstances of a man seen riding in a norimono; the law required that he should be possessed of an income of at least ten thousand pounds annually. At first even the least ostentatious form of kago might not be employed except by persons of rank, physicians, old folks, or invalids. But of course such a distinction could not be permanently enforced, and from the middle of the eighteenth century a norimono or kago ceased to indicate its rider's social status, and became, like the carriage of the West, an index of his wealth. Rich lovers of ostentation spent great sums to have their sedan-chairs decorated with gold lacquer, and men of sthetic tastes employed renowned artists to paint the interior panels of the vehicle, which thus became an object of great beauty.

The hand-cart for transporting goods is generally regarded as an ancient institution in Japan,