Japan has often been called the paradise of children--everywhere chubby smiling infants on backs of mothers, sisters, or brothers, everywhere free-limbed merry boys of school age in peaked caps, long blue-white speckled blouses, and schoolgirls in light-toned kimonos with gay-colored obi along the streets.
Japan furnishes about 40% of the world's silk. It is almost as important for the farmer as rice culture. Until recent years China stood first in the world in silk production, but Japan now holds that honor. Japanese farmers of middle and lower grade would hardly be able to maintain themselves without it. By rearing the worms, the farmers can at least double the amount attained from ordinary farming alone. Silk raising is such a dainty business! Long experience proclaims that it is most successful when conducted on a small scale. However well modern machinery and organization may deal with the cocoons, reeling the silk, twisting the yars, weaving the fabric, the production of the cocoons must remain the task of widely scattered households. In effect, silk culture is generally the important by-work of the farmers engaged in it. In former times they spun the silk themselves; now they generally sell the cocoons and leave the after-process to larger, concentrated concerns. So the farmer, his little wistful wife, his dainty daughters and his sons become the admiring slaves of his royal highness the silk-worm.
Cotton is not a native plant in Japan either. It is said that by chance some seeds were brought from India in the year 799 A.D. and being planted they grew well. Then the people learned, from the Chinese, again, how to clean, spin, and weave and thus another useful fabric was added to their wardrobes. The cotton spinning and weaving industries are now very important occupations in Japan. However, the native supply of the raw material is nothing like sufficient; therefore great quantities are brought from abroad, China, India, Egypt, and even the United States. But the quantity of yarn and cloth produced is greater than is needed at home; consequently exporting these goods to the continent of Asia is one of Japan's most profitable trades. Japan's cotton mills increased nearly 300 per cent during the world war. The earthquake of 1923 gave the industry a set back but is has practically recovered from that and is today using nearly two million bales of cotton annually, three-tenths of which was shipped from America. In 1924 Japan exported manufactured cotton goods to the amount of 150 million dollars.
The costume of women in winter is mostly of silk, coarse or fine according to the means of the wearer. The shoes are raised on pieces of wood, like stilts, about three inches above the ground.
This is somewhat different from moving day of an American family, with a van piled high with household goods. In this instance change of homes is not so inconvenient.