Japanese Girls Shop for Husbands at City Marriage Bureau
Aire. Tanaka, Graduate
of U. S. Universities,
Re-Writes Old Ritual
By Rose McKee
A MUNICIPAL marriage bureau where Japanese
girls leave orders for husbands as simply as
American girls order groceries is flourishing here
in Tokyo, Japan. And, going the old time mail
order marriage bureau a few better. Its patrons are
so well pleased that there hasn't been a divorce
among them yet!
The Tokyo municipal marriage bureau Is three
years old. It has had only one storm to weather.
Faced by a budget deficit, the city fathers closed
it a year after it was opened, but such a protest
was set up by the public that in six months' time,
Cupid was rehired.
He is now safely enthroned in a municipal build
ing, doing a flourishing business. The only fly in his
ointment is that there are not always enough men
to go around. There are about twice as many girls
applying for husbands as there are men seeking
wives.
Cupid's spokesman in this matter is the bureau's
manager, a wise, shrewd woman, Mrs. Taka Tan
aka, graduate of two American universities Stan
ford, where she got her B.A., and the University of
Chicago, where sho won a master's degree in
sociology. To her have come 2300 love-starved
girls and 1200 lonely men.
PATRONIZED by some of the "best people," the
bureau-serves one and all free of charge. It
used to ask the equivalent of $1 in American
money, but the city decreed that the service must
be free. Among the men whom it married off were
a popular movie actor, several college professors,
wealthy bankers, ambitious government officials,
busy lawyers, doctors, dentists, merchants, and
one newspaper man.
This is the way the bureau operates:
A girl registers her desire for a husband by
filling out two large blanks. On one she tells all
about herself. She is very business-like as she de
scribes her looks. She is honest, too. If she wears
glasses, she admits it, although she knows this
will lessen her chances. Japanese men do not like
girls who wear glasses. The prejudice has gone so
far that the biggest department stores in Tokyo
refuse to hire be-spectacled girls. On the other
blank, she lists what she hopes for in the way of a
husband.
Mrs. Tanaka, after studying her application,
runs through tho standing orders for wives. When
she finds a man whoso description leads her to be
lieve he may fill the bill, sho sends for him. He is
given the card on which the girl described herself.
If he is intrigued, Mrs. Tannka tells him to wait a
few days. In the meantime, she gives his descrip
tion to the girl. If she, too, is satisfied, Mrs. Tanaka
arranges a meeting.
Superb finesse characterizes this meeting. Con
versation usually begins with the weather. After a
polite and leisurely discussion on some such re
mote topic, talk creeps around to personal Interests
and Mrs. Tanaka tactfully withdraws.
When sho returns perhaps an hour later, three
things may happen. The couple may tell her the
happy news and, with a motherly Interest, she will
help them set the date and plan the wedding. Or
tho two may bow deeply and politely to one another
and to Mrs. Tanaka and express the desire that
they will all see each other soon. This means that
the meeting has flopped. However, defeat rarely
occurs. Having made up their minds to marry, the
two who have been brought together are usually
quite willing to compromise.
The cautious arrange additional meetings, fre
quently without the presence of Mrs. Tanaka.
AMERICAN women will Understand the first re-'
quirement listed by a Japanese girl. She does
not ask for a handsome man ; does not demand love
(although at tho end of the blank sho may add
PAGE TWO B
that she hopes the marriage will lead to love ) ; nor
does she request wealth. Instead, the Japanese girl
asks first, of all for a man with "few relatives!"
Relatives worry her the most, and well they may.
When a Japanese girl marries, she becomes "dead"
to her own family; she marries not only the man,
but all his relatives, also. It is just too Bad if they
do not like her. Until recently, bride and groom
invariably lived with his parents. Even today, if a
girl marries an eldest son, she goes to live with her
mother-in-law. In his description, an applicant for
a wife always must state the number of his rela
tives and If his bride will have to live with his
mother or if she will enjoy a home of her own.
ANALYSIS of more than 2000 applications re
veals that Japanese girls seek a man who has:
Good health.
A job.
An income of at least 80 yen a month. (Roughly
$28 in American money. )
A university or college education.
Attained the age of 30 or thereabouts.
Capacity for affection.
At least one outside interest, either in sports,
music, drama or hobby.
In the description of herself, the girl states her
physical appearance and condition, her character,
the income of her father and of herself if she has
a job, her age, the occupation of her father, the
names and addresses of all her relatives, her re
ligion, education, likes, dislikes, and she lists what
she will bring to her new home her fortune, if
she has one, number of kimonos or dresses she will
have and the furniture she can supply.
Men applying for wives ask first of all for a
pretty girl. After that their requirements are
short. They seek a girl :
Healthy.
Taller than 5 feet.
Economical.
A high school graduate.
Describing himself, an applicant for a wife must
reveal his health, physical appearance, including
height and weight, schooling, character, income,
It may lack romance to tho western way of thinking, but the Tokyo municipal marriage bureau Is proving a boon
to young Japanese. Here are some scenes from modern Japan's marriage bureau. Left, a bride dressed for the wed
ding. Her coiffure, most important part of the toilet. Is arranged In a style that has not changed for 100 years.
Next, the bride completing her toilet the last In her old home, for when she Is married she belongs to her hus
band's family. The next panel, top, shows a typical meeting In the bureau between prospective bride and groom,
with Mrs. Taka Tanaka, manager, In the center. Below, the modernized ceremony in the bureau with bride and
groom facing-a municipal official while Mrs. Tanaka, back of the bride, acts as a witness. The bride's family sits
on one side of the room, the groom's on the other. Right, a bride ready for the ceremony, wearing the traditional
pale pink silk oloth over the forepart of the head, oeiievea, in me old days, to hiae her '-hours of Jealousy."
occupation, social status, and personal habits if
he drinks, smokes, or frequents a tea house where
smiling girls shower him with attentions. He must
tell, too, if he has been married before, if he has
children by that marriage, his reason for marry
ing again, and if his second wife will be expected
to care for his children.
MRS. TANAKA believes that the reason all the
bureau marriages have turned out so success
fully is that they are1 arranged on a scientific basis
rather than on a temporary physical attraction.
She contends that the statements made in the ap
plications are more revealing than are the giddy
things boys and girls say to each other during their
"dates."
Through the municipal marriage bureau, Mrs.
Tanaka has brought a great innovation into the
Japanese marriage ceremony itself. She has revolu
tionized it by modelling it after the Christian mar
riage ceremony.
For centuries, a Japanese marriage has been
solemnized by the drinking of sake, a wine made
from rice, which is the national drink. In 99 per
cent of the marriages, this custom still prevails.
Those whose marriages are . arranged by the
bureau are not required or asked to be married
according to the new way, but the majority of
them prefer it.
Instead of being married at a shrine, or the
home, which is the traditional place for the drink
ing of the nuptial sake, they are united in the
marriage hall of the municipal building which
houses the bureau. Sake is left out of the new
ceremony. Instead of sipping liquor, the bride and
groom exchange vows and they are given a mar
riage certificate by the city which in itself is an
innovation .
Facing an official of the marriage bureau, much
as bride and groom face a pastor or judge in
America, the man and woman repeat a vow; then
husband and wife and their witnesses, who sit be
hind them during the brief ceremony, sign the
certificate. The ceremony takes less than five
minutes. It. is unaccompanied by music, just as
the bride and groom are unaccompanied by at
tendants. Relatives and intimate friends of the
couple sit in chairs along the sides of the small
hall. Mrs. Tanaka is invariably one of the wit
nesses. THE marriage bureau has reduced the cost of
weddings, which undoubtedly are more expen
sive in Japan than in any other country. It costs
from 2000 to 3000 yen for a daughter of a man of
ordinary means to marry. To the Japanese the yen
means even more than a dollar, for salaries are
much lower than in America. A man whose income
is 100 yen has a much higher social position than
the American earning $100 a month. The daughter
of a university professor recently had what seemed
to be an ordinary wedding, yet it cost her father
18,000 yen!
Through the municipal marriage bureau a wed
ding costs only from 300 to 500 yen. The ceremony
in the marriage hall costs 10 yen, and this includes
tea and cakes for the small reception which follows
and a wedding picture. The bride, whose financial
responsibility the wedding is, can spend the
balance of the 300 or 500 yen on her trousseau. It
is the trousseau that makes a Japanese wedding
so expensive.
JUST now Mrs. Tanaka is looking for a bride for
a millionaire from Formosa. -The millionaire
wants to marry soon and to leave immediately for
a trip around the world. He is asking for a girl who
speaks English, who. is good looking and who
comes from a respectable family.
Since the overnight success of the municipal
marriage bureau, individual fortune seekers have
opened private marriage bureaus. These imitations
are regarded as out-and-out rackets. Girls must
pay and pay handsomely when they file applica
tions, most of which the bureau knows will not be
filled.
Reno Preacher Says, 'Recovery Will Come Out of Earth!
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By BREWSTER ADAMS
For 25 Years Reno's Baptist Minister
THE old miner asl:ed me to come out and sample
his "prospect." His claim crossed an old wash
from the hills, where an ancient wagon road had
followed up the gulch.
Values lay there, as
they often do, where
the unobserving had
passed them by. We
miss a lot of good
things that are buried
in the dust of the road.
He took a shovel of
dirt out of an old
wagon rut, tossed it
into his pan and
splashed water over it.
He panned out the dust
with a peculiar and deft
little swish of the wa
ter. Gradually a little
line of glistening yellow began to show against the
black sand in the bottom, following the water like
a slimy snake.
"There's the old color. Doc! Right out of the
dust of the road. Washed down, maybe, from up
there. Kind of queer, ain't it? All the values come
out of thf dirt. There ain't no wealth except out of
the ground."
1 listened, rather than answered. Believe me,
these old men of the hills do a lot of thinking. And
Brewster Adams
we folks who do much talking and less thinking
can well listen.
"Yes, sir! And what's more, there's where re
covery's coming from. Out of the dirt, it'll come,
I puts my trust in God and the ground. They ain't
never failed yet.
"I hed a pardner I used to kind of believe in.
But a woman got him and he's ruined. I puts my
hopes in the hard rock since then." Old-timers
wander off in their thoughts as they do in their
prospecting.
II WES, sir! What happened after the civil war?"
I He argued, for these gophers would rather
debate than dig. "The country was filled with pa
per promisin' to pay and it wuzn't worth no more
than your sermons. Excuse me, Reverend!
"Wal, along came old Virginny City and out of
those dumps they paid off in good money. Just fer
good measure they laid a cable across the Atlan
tic; old Mackay did with the stuff out of the
ground. And Fair made a pretty good camp out
of San Francisco.
"After the panic of '93, what happened? They
lamed to cyanide ore, didn't they? Paid off the old
bills with real money. Where did it come from?
Out of the ground, eh ?
"Doc. There's more chance fer getting things
back where they belong out of a shovel of dirt than
with all these smart idees folks have.
"What fcaved the country in the early days? It
was the West, wuzn't it? And those feilows were
living off the land what ain't been used up yet.
They cut the timber, ran their cattle on the grass,
panned ore out of the hills and turned over the
soil fer their crops. Nature beat the old Wolf by
stuffing him.
"Jumpin' tarantula! It jest looks as though we
couldn't keep good times from comin' back, no
matter what we did," he concluded. "Guess I'd bet
ter warm up the beans."
LIE THINKS a great deal this old timer. His
i views are worth a lot for the thinking. He
lives close to the ground and his ideas are as sound
and as solid as the rock in which he works.
Since he talked with me I have been up in th
great forests of northern California and Oregon.
There are thousands of acres ofSrees that arc
growing too old. They should be cut. And yet they
say our resources are being used up exhausted.
I've been down to Boulder where a day of crea
tion is just beginning. Tomorrow her electric fur
naces will roast the mountains of non-metalllcs
which lie by. A splash of water from the great
dam and the sleeping desert will awaken and put
on its glory.
I have been over the hills where the earth drops
fatness and the ground yields its increase. Flocks
and herds move among the valleys. Snow now lios
a dozen feet deep in the mountains stored for the
summer harvest.
Why watch the stock market or read a tape for
the assurance of recovery? Turn over a shovel of
dirt, and there is the promise of all we need to
bring prosperity.
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