BRIDES' SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 19, 24 January 1939, Page 12

BRIDES' SCHOOL.

JAPANESE WIVES. DOMESTIC COMFORT. Swift changes within the last twenty years in Japan have wrested most form® of education from the home in one (feneration. Until recently marriageable girls received their preparation* for i matrimony from their mother*. Now, a matter of course, tliey learn household arts, sewing, cooking and ministration to the head of the house, at the Brides' School, says an exchange. Theme schools have a laudable aim. To instruct young women "in the difficult science of attaining the greatest possible amount of domestic comfort on the smallest budget; in the care of newborn children, cookery, dressmaking, flower arrangements and other concomitants of Japanese married life."

Ministration to a husband's needs is •a , important part of the training. Lessons' are given in shaving, aijd sndther essential qualification for making a satisfactory home is deftness in massage, which is taught with meticulous ear®. The students consider this a path straight to the hearts of their mothers-in-law, and, indeed, it is-no 'mean recommendation, for in Japan a bride moves into.tha hauaa of the bridegroom's family, where her mother-in-law is head of the house. Winning her favour is an imperative necessity. Once it is won. the bride has no stauncher ally. Far a Farmer'* Wife. The girl destined to l>e a farmer's wife trains in a farm-bride school. With no illnsion that she is studying to escape drudgery, she applies herself to effectively practising drudgery. Outdoor farm labour, care Of live stock, "ploughing" of the rice fields with choppy strokes of the heavy hoe; planting, transplanting, cultivating and reap ing the rice, are taiight to her as though •he were a man, for she expects to work In the field* with her husband. Sturdy-legged, in wide straw hat« and black bloomers, the farm-bride students inarch to the fields like soldiers. They work in platoons, each commanded by • woman instructor. In smaller classes they practise washing the pigs with ■ernbhing brushes, for it is part of the Japanese tradition that a pig must be kept clean. But the more delicate arts are not neglected, and she must learn all those aa well, especially the traditional technique of the arrangement of flowers. This Is considered a most important pert of the household duties. The new schools, which are becoming Increasingly popular, the Government, of Japan considers most important, and it is the Government which has sponsored them. Their interest is iustified. Japan is not faced with a falling population, and her youth continues to marry at the rate of 500,000 couples a year.