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A JAPANESE HOVE. 29
or laid on gridirons. A thick cutting-board and flatsided
knife to cut vegetables, another dirk-like one
to slice raw fish, and an edgeless sheet of brass for
bean-curd are among the necessary implements. A
rasp, or unperforated piece of iron, is kept for grating
purposes. Tubs, pails of all sizes, and dippers are
numerous and made wholly of bamboo or of wood.
Tinware is unheard of, except as a curiosity imported
by the Dutch and called by the foreign word
briki (instead of the New Jersey word " blickie," for
the Japanese have no I in their alphabet). Mortars
of wood and stone and sieves and baskets are set in
their places. The domestic hand-mill is used es-
pecially to grind miso, or bean preparation.
No such
thing as fork (niku-sashi, " meat-sticker ") or spoon
is known to the Japanese cook. She digs out the
boiled rice with a flat paddle or a scoop, only slightly
countersunk. Pieces of flat bamboo, with the end
slightly indented like a spoon and lacquered in the
cavity are called saji, and look like something between
a gravy-ladle and a spoon proper. As the
native of Japan neither defiles his tea with milk nor
spoils its flavor with sugar, his nation even in this
land of tea has lived without the knowledge of a tea-
spoon or even the need of it.
Of furniture, as has been said, there is in a Japanese
house almost none. The casual visitor sees
no sofa, chairs, tables, stoves, curtains, or hat-rack.
In the parlor, or room for receiving guests, are
seen in the tokonoma, or raised space, a handsome
sword-rack, flower vases, bronzes, or lacquered ware.