Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/256

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JAPANESE LITERATURE

undue ornament, and have a proper regard to taste and refinement.

"4th. Womanly arts. These include sewing, reeling silk, making clothes, and cooking.

"Everything impure should be kept from a girl's ears. Popular songs and the popular drama are not for them. The Ise Monogatari and Genji Monogatari are objectionable on account of their immoral tendency."

Yekken recommends parents to write out the following thirteen counsels and give them to their daughters on their marriage. I have abbreviated them a good deal.

"1. Be respectful and obedient to your parents-in-law.

"2. A woman has no [feudal] lord. She should reverence and obey her husband instead.

"3. Cultivate friendly relations with your husband's relatives.

"4. Avoid jealousy. If your husband offends, remonstrate with him gently, without hate or anger.

"5. Generally, when your husband does wrong, it is your duty to remonstrate with him gently and affectionately.

"6. Be of few words. Avoid abusive language and falsehood.

"7. Be always circumspect in your behaviour. Get up early. Go to bed at midnight. Do not indulge in a siesta. Attend diligently to the work of the house. Do not become addicted to saké or tea. Avoid listening to lewd songs or music. Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples being public resorts for pleasure, should be sparingly visited before the age of forty.

"8. Have nothing to do with fortune-tellers or