Japan and Britain After 1859: Creating Cultural Bridges

6 The price of seclusionFigure 1.6 Coats 1Figure 1.7 Coats 2sometimes wear it. It depends on each person’s taste. The French, wholike dressing up, usually put on a gentleman’s coat. The Americans andthe British, on the other hand, do not care how they look, like aTokyoite. They do not care as long as their underwear is clean, and areunconcerned about their outerwear. Many of the upper classes wearbusiness jackets. Only soldiers and sailors of high rank wear ‘uniform’with badges made of gold or silver according to their class on formaloccasions. There are many kinds of uniform, but it is difficult to showall of them here. These kinds of coat are made of cashmere, that is finewool woven with silk and wool, half each, or flannel, or white hemp.A hat (see fig 1.10) is for upper class and a cap for middle and lowerclasses. Although the cap is for lower-class people, upper-class peoplealso wear it. It is the same as in the case of business jackets. In general,you should remember that you put on a hat when your wear agentleman’s coat, and a cap when wearing a business jacket. Ordinarypeople sometimes wear caps, but mostly they are for army and navalofficers. In front of a cap, each of them put badges made of gold orsilver, or ribbons according to their classes. Therefore, when you see theperson wearing the cap with gold and silver coloured ribbons, youshould take him as an officer in his country.This is a brief sketch (see figs 1.11 and 1.12) of the clothing in theWest. You wear them in order of the number on the figure. First, wearundershirt, second, drawers, third, shirt, and so forth. The last is puttingon the jacket. Their clothes usually have pockets everywhere in which toput your belongings. For example, you can put your handkerchief in