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Instructions for making Japanese washable menstrual
pads (early 20th century?), successors of the uma
(pony or horse)
In 1998 a Japanese college student, Tomoko Maeno, kindly sent a copy
of her study of the history of Japanese menstrual devices to this museum.
Below I reproduce two pictures from "Reader on
Hygiene for Daughters, Wives, and Mothers" about making homemade
pads, from her thesis; they're from the early 20th century. Mrs.
Akiko Roller translated part of the text for this museum.
Japanese women made their own menstraul pads before they were available
commercially, probably just like women almost everywhere.
Ms. Maeno points out in her own handwriting on
the document at the bottom of this page that she writes about uma,
the pony (or horse), in the grayed-out columns.
See ads for Japanese commercial
belts from the early 20th century, also from Tomoko
Maeno.
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Below: A part of Tomoko Maeno's
thesis about the history of Japanese menstrual protection, part of which
she sent to MUM.
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Mrs. Akiko Roller translates the grayed area of the thesis,
below left, as follows:
"The actual examples of a T-shaped sanitary belt appear in the book
called 'Reader on Hygiene for Daughters, Wives, and
Mothers' [see the two illustrations, above]. Three examples of menstrual
belts are shown. They emphasize not only "physiological hygiene"
but also user friendliness and low cost, saying that they are easy to use
and wash, airy and hygienic, and besides they are economical because they
only cost 0.78 Yen apiece to make.
"These types of menstrual belts are not anything special
that the magazine 'Friend of Housewives' invented, but were used by ordinary
people. They are probably improved versions of a sanitary belt called uma (horse). The uma is thought
to be named after a waistcoat or a belly band for horses that prevented
urine and feces from soiling the environment, and they have been in use
since the Edo Period (1603-1867)."
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© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission
of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
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