Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/209

 next. Yet when it is claimed that age does not simulate youth in the matter of apparel, it must also be admitted that many women and some men dye their hair. Thousands of boxes of a peculiarly convenient powder, an import from the West, are now sold in the cities and provinces, having, for the most part, taken the place of herb decoctions that used to simmer, once a month, on the braziers of old Japan. Still there is not one user of the cheap foreign powder or the home-made native paste that will profess an age below the truth or dress so as to suggest it. The concealment of time's touches is a purely objective act of politeness, a concession to appearances. Sanemori blackened his hair nine centuries ago lest youths should hesitate to cross swords with him in battle, and if Japanese women and men sometimes hide premature streaks of silver, it is chiefly because such things, in the one case, obtrude unpleasantly upon the observation of friends and acquaintances, and, in the other, suggest incapacity for active employment.