Japan and the Japanese

ing.
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE. 401
" The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of build-
Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks,
looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the
greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft
floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver,
about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person
in company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The
food (rice, soup and fish being the principal articles) is served in
lackered wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with
their legs laid across before them the Chinese and Japanese lay
their feet under their bodies, and make a chair of their heels.
When the hour of rest approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cot-
three hours, the exterior black skin and the green part beneath it is scraped
off with a knife, and the bark is then sorted into qualities ; that which is a
full year's growth makes the best paper, and the less mature an inferior
quality. Thus prepared and sorted, it is again boiled in a clear lye, being
perpetually stirred, and fresh lye supplied to make up for the evaporation ;
and this process is continued till the bark is dissolved, as it were, separating
into flocks and fibres. It must then be washed a process requiring care and
judgment, as, if not carried far enough, the paper will be coarse, and if too
far, thin and slazy. This is done in a running stream, by means of a sieve
containing the material, which is perpetually stirred till it is diluted into a
delicate, soft pap. For the finer kinds this washing is repeated, a piece of
linen being substituted for the sieve, to prevent the finer parts from being
carried away. After being washed, it is beaten with sticks of hard wood, on
a wooden table, till it is brought to a pulp, which if put into water will dissolve
and disperse like meal.
"It is then mixed in a tub with a clammy infusion, obtained by soaking
rice in cold water, and with another mucilaginous infusion, obtained in the
like manner from the root of Oreni (Hibiscus manihot). This mixture,
upon which much depends, and the proporiions of which vary with the season
of the year, succeeds best in a narrow tub, and requires perpetual stir-
ring. The whole is then put into a larger tub, from which the sheets are
taken out and put between mats made of delicate grass straw, and laid one
upon another in heaps, being pressed at first lightly, but gradually harder
and harder, till the water is squeezed out. They are then laid upon a board
to dry in the sun ; after which they are packed in bundles for sale and
use.
"For the coarser kinds of paper other sorts of bark are sometimes used.
" The Japanese paper is very close and strong. It will bear being twisted
into ropes, and is occasionally used even for dresses."
34*