Gilded Age Customs and Conscience

In the 1980 historical miniseries, Shogun, John Blackthorn, self-conciously bathing with Mariko, is the first English person to arrive in Japan and must find a way to survive in a culture which considers him to be a barbarian due to his European habits (eating the meat of birds he has killed, eating with one’s hands and rarely bathing.)– photo source Pinterest

Etiquette… Custom… Conscience

A Second Debut Article from 2018

It is said that “it is conscience that makes cowards of us all,” and there is much talk of the “whisperings of conscience,” the “wee small voice” and all that; but whence comes that voice? Is there an immutable principal of right and wrong placed somewhere in the mind that tells one of right and wrong? Or is it not custom - that to which we have been accustomed? We have mentioned before the people told of by Herodotus, who killed and ate a man when he arrived at a certain age, and he tells us that it was a great honor to be eaten by ones relatives and friends. 

Now if one of this race stayed away from such a feast, through pique, did not his conscience hurt him? Did he not feel like he had not done his whole duty? We kill the lamb that licks, in confidence, the salt from our hand and conscience does not rebel. The millionaire swears to false returns to the Assessor, because it is the custom for millionaires to commit perjury on such occasions, and his conscience does not trouble him in the least. He is satisfied that St. Peter will call it a “mere form” and pass him through the Pearly Gates.

In the same line comes customs of demeanor wherein modesty is concerned. That which is all right in one country is not in another. A writer in the New York Sun says that travelers in Japan tell of the unconcern with which a Japanese will take a bath in full publicity, and the custom has impressed foreigners as immodest. An Englishman who has been long in the country says there is really nothing in modest in the promiscuous bathing of men, women and children from a Japanese point of view. With them cleanliness is the object sought for, and the etiquette of the bathroom differs from the etiquette of the parlor.

With Europeans, he says, the attitude of waltzers is only permitted when the music is played. It is something like this with the Japanese bathers. When the necessary operation of washing or doing other work requires it, to strip becomes a duty. On the other hand, a Japanese woman would scorn to appear décolleté. To her eye our ballrooms are an astonishment, and the exposure of the person for display is incomprehensible. This writer thinks that the Japanese are not excelled by their Western Brethren in modesty. – Weekly Colusa Sun, 1892

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia