646 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [ciiAr. 



of collecting the hair in a knot over a close shaven spot on thf 

 crown of the head. Instead, they wear their thick raven-black 

 hair cut short in the European style. How distinctive of the 

 new period this change is may be seen from the eageiness with 

 which the Japanese authorities questioned GOLOVIN about the 

 religious and political revolutions which they assumed to have 

 been connected with the change in the European mode of 

 wearino- the hair durino; the commencement of the nineteenth 

 century ; for the Russian ambassador Laxman, who was highly 

 esteemed by the Japanese, had worn a pig-tail and powdered 

 hair, while Golovin and his companions had their hair un- 

 powdered and cut short.^ When it is warm the workmen 

 wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle round the waist 

 and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked. They are 

 thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the greater 

 part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked. 

 They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At 

 least they do not refrain from undressing completely wdiile 

 bathing right in the midst of a crowd of men known and un- 

 known, a state of things which at first, in consequence of the 

 power of prejudice, shocks the European, but to which even the 

 former prude gets accustomed sooner than one would suppose. 

 We even frequently see European ladies drawn in a,jinrll'ishi( by 

 a youth completely naked with the exception of the blue girdle. 

 Many, especially of the younger men, have besides so well- 

 formed a body, that the sculptor who could accuratel}^ reproduce 

 it in marble would at once attain a reputation co-extensive with 

 the globe. 



Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population 

 of about 20,000 ; but, like most of the towns of Japan, it differs 

 little from many of the villages we passed through. We arrived 

 late in the evening, and there had our first and last experience 

 of an inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travel- 

 ling in Japan, and to which they have themselves given occasion 

 by the oilensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. 

 We knocked at the door of one iim after another without being 

 received. At one place " the house was full," at another " the 

 rooms were under repair," at a third " the inn people were out," 

 &c. At last we had to apply to the police. When we had 

 shown them our passport, we succeeded with their helj) in 

 getting a night's lodging with an elderly host, who received us 



^ Voyage de JI. Goloinn, Paris, 1818, i. p. 176. Golovin, who was ca]i- 

 tain in the Russian navy, passed the years 1811-13 in imprisonment in 

 Japan. He and his comrades in misfortune were received with great 

 friendliness- by the people, and very well treated by the authorities, if we 

 except the exceedingly tedious examinations to which they were subjected 

 to extract from them the most minute particulars regarding Europe, ard 

 particularly Russia. 



