JAPAN
"Carriage folk" stood on a special social pedestal then just as they do now. Everybody kept a carriage if he could possibly afford the luxury, and everybody that could not afford it tried to borrow one for public occasions. Now and then economical sovereigns made efforts to check the spendthrift tendency of the aristocrats in these matters, but no permanent success was achieved.
There was an elaborate code of procedure for the guidance of equipages meeting en route. Whether to dismount from horseback, whether to stop one's carriage, whether to get out of it and stand on the road; whether even to unyoke the ox whether to limit the etiquette to an attendant's obeisance,—all these and other points were regulated by accurate canons.
As to costume, comparing the Heian epoch with the Nara, there is found in the former a marked tendency to increased elaboration and fuller dimensions. The head-dress, in the case of princes and principal military officials, became again an imposing structure glittering with jewels; the sleeves grew so large that they hung to the knees when a man's arms were crossed, and the trousers also were made full and baggy, so that they resembled a divided skirt. Unprecedented importance attached to the patterns of the rich silks and brocades used for garments. The sovereign's robe of State was necessarily ornamented with a design of nine objects,—the sun, the moon, the stars, a mountain, a dragon, etc.,—
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