and the specialization of garments the early
Japanese had reached a high level. We read in the ancient legends of
upper garments, skirts, trousers, anklets, and head-ornaments of
stones considered precious.* The principal material of wearing
apparel was cloth woven from threads of hemp and mulberry bark.
According to the annals, the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing
were known and practised from the earliest age. The Sun goddess
herself is depicted as seated in the hall of the sacred loom, reeling
silk from cocoons held in her mouth, and at the ceremony of enticing
her from her retirement, the weaving of blue-and-white stuffs
constituted an important adjunct. Terms are used (akarurtae and
teru-tae) which show that colour and lustre were esteemed as much as
quality. Ara-tae and nigi-tae were the names used to designate coarse
and fine cloth respectively; striped stuff was called shidori, and
the name of a princess, Taku-hata-chiji, goes to show that corrugated
cloth was woven from the bark of the taku. Silken fabrics were
manufactured, but the device of boiling the cocoons had not yet been
invented. They were held in the mouth for spinning purposes, and the
threads thus obtained being coarse and uneven, the loom could not
produce good results. Silk stuffs therefore did not find much favour:
they were employed chiefly for making cushions, cloth woven from
cotton, hemp, or mulberry bark being preferred for raiment. Pure
white was the favourite colour; red, blue, and black being placed in
a lower rank in that order. It has been conjectured that furs and
skins were worn, but there is no explicit mention of anything of the
kind. It would seem that their use was limited to making rugs and
covering utensils.** Sewing is not explicitly referred to, but the
needle is; and in spite of an assertion to the contrary made by the
Chinese author of the Shan-hai-ching (written in the fourth century
A.D.) there is no valid reason to doubt that the process of sewing
was familiar.

*B. H. Chamberlain.

**In China the case was different. There, garments made of skins or
covered with feathers were worn in remote antiquity before the art of
weaving had become known. The Records recount that in the age of the
Kami "there came" (to Japan) "riding on the crest of the waves, a
kami dressed in skins of geese," and this passage has been quoted as
showing that skins were used for garments in Japan. But it is pointed
out by Japanese commentator