Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎501v] (127/238)

340
Japanese Monographs.
company withdrew, and the robes of white were discarded
for those of richer make. Costly and beautiful lacquer
drinking vessels replaced those of porcelain. Upon these
lacquer cups a representation of the double-headed pine-
tree of Takasago was always found, and a model of the
tree, with all its symbolic and traditional accessories, graced
the room.
The marriage feast was considered incomplete without
this significant representation ; everyone present had learnt
the beautiful traditional story of faithful wedded love and
filial obedience, embodied in the graceful growth of this
particular specimen of coniferae—
“ . . . the emblem of unchangeableness ;
Exalted is their fame,
As a symbol to the end of time—
The fame of the fir-trees that have grown old together.”
To the bottles from whence the mixed wine was poured
out during the second ceremony, instead of white, gold and
silver paper butterflies were attached, and in point of fact
all the preparations were on a more luxurious scale. The
ladies who presided as wine-servers dressed their hair after
the manner adopted at Court—that is to say, the tresses were
allowed to fall down the back between the shoulders, show-
ing the entire length of the hair, and the ends were secured
by butterfly bows. The wine was served out with spouted
ladles having long handles. Sake was generally taken hot,
or at least warm.
The tedium of the day did not end here; the bride had to
be formally introduced to the mother- and father-in-law and
near relations as the bride and newly-adopted daughter,
each in turn drinking again tiny cups of wine, as she pledged
her obedience to all in authority in her husband’s house
hold. Her position was fully realised by the time the ordeal
was over. She became conscious she had parted with her
last day of liberty, and that henceforth meek submission to
her husband and his parents must ever mark her future
actions.