in Japan that the most glorious thing that can happen to him is to die for
his Emperor and his native land.




CHAPTER V

THE JAPANESE GIRL


The word "obedience" has a large part in the life of a Japanese boy; it
is the whole life of a Japanese girl. From her babyhood she is taught the
duty of obeying some one or other among her relations. There is an old book
studied in every Japanese household and learned by heart by every Japanese
girl, called "Onra-Dai-Gaku"--that is, the "Greater Learning for Women." It
is a code of morals for girls and women, and it starts by saying that every
woman owes three obediences: first, while unmarried, to her father; second,
when married, to her husband and the elders of his family; third, when a
widow, to her son.

Up to the age of three the Japanese girl baby has her head shaved in
various fancy patterns, but after three years old the hair is allowed to
grow to its natural length. Up to the age of seven she wears a narrow obi
of soft silk, the sash of infancy; but at seven years old she puts on the
stiff wide obi, tied with a huge bow, and her dress from that moment is
womanly in every detail. She is now a musume, or moosme, the Japanese girl,
one of the merriest, brightest little creatures in the world. She is never
big, for when at her full height she will be about four feet eight inches
tall, and a Japanese woman of five feet high is a giantess.