Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1895 — Japan’s First Queue Cutter. [ARTICLE]

Japan’s First Queue Cutter.

At “tiffin” here a few days ago I met a remarkable Chinese gentleman, a Mr. Yano Jiro. In his early life Mr. Yano was attached as a samurai to the house of the tycoon. As a youth he conceived a strong desire to see something of the western world. He had seen the marvels which Commodore Perry presented to Japan in 1854, and he wished to see more. He went traveling. He visited France, and returned home by way of the United States. At that time he wore a complete Japanese dress, the old queue and two swords. He was an object of great interest wherever he went. On his return home he was so stocked with western ideas that he invented a sort of European-Japanese dress which gave him great fame. He was the first male dress reformer in Japan, and the style which he introduced was subsequently followed by the full European costume in some quarters. Not only this, but one of the first things that Mr. Yano did on reaching home was to cut off his queue. He thinks that fie was the pioneer in this direction, for the government caused him to be at once punished by confinement in his own house for quite a period. To-day the queue has no place in Japan. have only seen about a half-dozen in use in all my travels here.—Col. Cockerill’s Japan letter to New York Herald.