パペットホームズ、大河ドラマなどの好きなテレビ番組やラグビーについて書いています。アフィリエイトはやっていません。／Welcome to my blog. I write about some Japanese TV programmes including NHK puppetry and Taiga Drama, Sherlock Holmes and rugby. I don't do affiliate marketing.
In the episode 39, SAIGO Kikujirō, son of Takamori rides in a carriage. Carriage was not common in Japan until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate except foreign settlements. There are some reasons why it was not popular. The first of them is that the country is mountainous and there are few plains. And the Japanese made oxen pull carriages for noble people instead of horses. So a carriage in the latter half of the 19th century was regarded as a symbol of westernisation of Japan. The one that Kikujirō rides in may be a Brougham (coupē). At present, the new ambassadors to Japan usually rides in the carriage of the Imperial Household when they make a first visit the Imperial Palace.
Brougham in the 19th century
ŌKUBO Toshimichi liked drinking coffee, green tea and black tea. In this series, he drinks black tea with tsukemono, Japanse pickled vegetables. It’s a strange combination but it's true that he liked tsukemono also.
ŌKUBO Toshimichi (left) and SAIGŌ takamori drink blace tea at the residence of Toshimichi
And some high officials of the government wear frock coats in the episodes set in Meiji period. Most of them cut their topknots and slick down their hair. But SANJŌ Sanetomi and IWAKURA Tomomi wear traditional clothes because they are aristocrats. And only ETŌ Shinpei wears kimono though he cuts his topknot also.
KIDO Takayoshi, former KATSURA Kogorō wears a frock coat and slicks down his hair
The images are from Wikimedia Commons and the official website of "Segodon".
