Of these gowns, the universal and almost only article of Japanese dress[62], Thunberg, in another place, gives the following account: “They are long and wide, and worn, one or more of them, by people of every age and condition in life. The rich have them of the finest silk, and the poor of cotton. The women wear them reaching down to their feet, and the women of quality frequently with a train. Those of the men come down to their heels; but travellers, together with soldiers and laboring people, either tuck them up or wear them so short that they only reach to their knees. The men generally have them made of plain silk of one color; but the silken stuffs worn by the women are flowered, sometimes in gold. In the summer they are either without any lining at all, or else with a thin lining only. In winter, by way of defence against the cold weather, they are quilted with cotton or silk wad. The men seldom wear many of them, but the women often from thirty to fifty or more, and all so thin that together they hardly weigh more than four or five pounds. The undermost serves for a shirt, and is therefore either white or bluish, and for the most part thin and transparent. All these gowns are fastened about the waist by a belt, which for the men is about the breadth of a hand, and for the women of twelve inches, and of such length as to go twice round the body, with a large knot and rose. The knot worn by the fair sex, which is larger than that worn by the men, shows immediately whether the woman is married or not; as the married women wear the knot before, and the single behind. The men fasten to this belt their sabres,[63] fan, tobacco pipe and pouch. The gowns are rounded off about the neck, without a cape, open before, and show the bare bosom, which is never covered, either with a handkerchief or anything else. The sleeves are ill-shaped, wide and long, the openings partly sewed up, so as to form a bag, into which they put their hands in cold weather, or use it as a pocket to hold their papers and other things.[64] Young girls, in particular, have the sleeves of their gowns so long as frequently to reach quite down to the ground. On account of the width of their garments, they are soon dressed and undressed, as they have nothing more to do than to untie their girdle and draw in their arms when the whole of their dress instantly falls off of itself. The gowns serve also for bedclothes. The common people, when at work, are frequently seen naked, with only a girdle about them, or with their gowns taken off the upper part of their bodies, and hanging down loose from their girdles. Men of a higher rank wear over the long gowns a shorter one, made of some thin stuff, such as gauze. As to the neck and sleeves of it, they are like those of the other, but it reaches only to the waist, and is not fastened with a girdle, but tied before and at the top with a string. This half-gown is sometimes of a yellow, but most frequently