Out for a Walk
Photograph
Out for a Walk
From the album Photographic Views and Costumes of Japan
ca. 1868
Albumen silver print with applied color
25.4 x 19.4 cm.
Purchase
1979.0059.0031
Inscriptions (applied label, printed, opposite page):
OUT FOR A WALK.
IN all countries the most interesting objects in the eyes of a stranger are the female population. In the East especially, this is so; the status accorded to them, and their treatment by the 'lords of creation' differing so widely from what is seen in western lands. In some eastern countries hardly any females are to be seen out of doors ; and of those who are visible the majority are only of the poorer class. In few of them is the freedom allowed equal to that enjoyed by the sterner sex.
But in Japan, although the wives and daughters of the aristocracy are rarely seen, all other classes enjoy perfect liberty. Women and girls are met with--shopping, walking, or visiting--in numbers hardly inferior to the men ; and their nice, tidy, modest demeanor is remarkable.
When first seen, their dress strikes one as stiff and unbecoming; and the peculiar gait--produced not only by the wooden pattens on which they are raised out of the dirt of the streets, but by the 'fashion of the country'--is anything but graceful. But as the eye becomes accustomed to them, there is no country in the world where the female convey a more pleasing impression, both in appearance and manners.
The two girls portrayed in the picture are of the respectable middle class, such as are most commonly seen. The umbrella, large or small, is their almost constant companion, and, as with ladies at home, used as a sunshade fully as much as a protection against rain.
OUT FOR A WALK.
IN all countries the most interesting objects in the eyes of a stranger are the female population. In the East especially, this is so; the status accorded to them, and their treatment by the 'lords of creation' differing so widely from what is seen in western lands. In some eastern countries hardly any females are to be seen out of doors ; and of those who are visible the majority are only of the poorer class. In few of them is the freedom allowed equal to that enjoyed by the sterner sex.
But in Japan, although the wives and daughters of the aristocracy are rarely seen, all other classes enjoy perfect liberty. Women and girls are met with--shopping, walking, or visiting--in numbers hardly inferior to the men ; and their nice, tidy, modest demeanor is remarkable.
When first seen, their dress strikes one as stiff and unbecoming; and the peculiar gait--produced not only by the wooden pattens on which they are raised out of the dirt of the streets, but by the 'fashion of the country'--is anything but graceful. But as the eye becomes accustomed to them, there is no country in the world where the female convey a more pleasing impression, both in appearance and manners.
The two girls portrayed in the picture are of the respectable middle class, such as are most commonly seen. The umbrella, large or small, is their almost constant companion, and, as with ladies at home, used as a sunshade fully as much as a protection against rain.
