Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/207

 new styles of girdle knot from the "male prostitute," who then played a prominent part in society, or novel fashions of head-gear from actors. There is on record a story of two rival belles at the close of the seventeenth century whose husbands, rich merchants of Kyōtō and Yedo, did not limit the funds their wives devoted to a competition of finery. Mrs. Rokubei arriving in Kyvtō from Yedo, Mrs. Juyemon donned a robe of crimson satin having all the celebrated scenes of Kyōtō embroidered on it, and Mrs. Rokubei's reply was to walk about in a gown of black silk ornamented with a design of naruten (nandina domestica) every berry a bead of the finest coral. The fate of the Rokubei family illustrates the ways of the era. Standing, a gorgeously apparelled group, as the Shōgun Tsunayoshi visited a Kyōtō temple, their parade of luxury provoked official displeasure, and Rokubei's property was confiscated, he himself being sent into exile. This sharp lesson had no permanently deterrent effect. Ladies continued to have the finest stuffs dyed in one of the fifty-nine fashionable colours of the time; wore richly lacquered pattens; multiplied the fifteen styles of front hair and the twelve of back hair already recognised by society; spent scores of gold pieces on hairpins; had combs manufactured out of the choicest parts of several tortoise-shells so as to show the most delicate shade of pale yellow;