Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ous elaborate styles, and was fixed into place by a thick sort of grease. It was usual to keep
the hair in position for ten days or so, without washing it or doing a major reconfection,
and so it was important not to soil the mattress with the grease, or disarrange the hair by
sleeping on it. Hence the pillow, to keep the head up. Whether or not people changed into
nightclothesdependedupontheirmeans.Menandwomenwoulddonsimplecotton
kimono
and tie them with a narrow girdle, but sometimes they would sleep in the clothes they had
worn during the day, although a woman would remove the girdle
(obi)
with its heavy and
bulky knot worn at the back by merchant's womenfolk. Those with no bedroom, poorer
townspeople, and employees, spread their mattresses in their place of work, or stretched
out on the rush mats or even the plank floors.
(74)Roominterior,withbeddingandotherequipmentstowedawayincupboards,normally
closed with sliding doors. The equipment is typical of the end of the period, about 1850.
