「足の拘束とは」…若い女性の足を痛みを伴うほどきつく縛り、それ以上成長しないようにする習慣です。…明らかなのは、足の拘束は最初はエリート層の間で、しかも中国の最も裕福な地域でのみ行われていたということです。これは、裕福な生まれの女性の足を縛ることは肉体労働からの解放を意味していたことを示唆しています。これは、そのような女性の将来の夫は、働く必要がなく、自分自身は労働をせずに夫に仕えるだけの妻を持つことができることを意味していました。…足の縛りは美の象徴であり、夫を見つけるための必須条件であると同時に、貧しい女性が裕福な男性と結婚するための手段でもありました。「女性、その家族、そして【夫】は、理想的な長さ約7㎝（2.75㏌）の「黄金の蓮」と呼ばれる小さな足をとても誇りに思っていました。
「…この処置は、足のアーチが完全に発達する前、通常は2歳から5歳の間に開始されます。足が麻痺し、痛みがそれほどひどくならない可能性が高いため、通常は冬の間に包帯を巻き始めます。…足のサイズを小さくするために、各足のつま先を内側に曲げ、大きな力で下向きに押し、つま先が折れるまで足の裏に押し込みます。骨折したつま先を足の裏にしっかりと押し付け、足を脚でまっすぐに引き下げて土踏まずを無理やり折りました。包帯は足の甲の内側から始めて、つま先の上、足の下、かかとの周りに8の字を描くように繰り返し巻かれ、骨折したばかりのつま先は足の裏にしっかりと押し付けられました。足の周りを一周するごとに、包帯が締められ、足の指の付け根とかかとが引き寄せられ、骨折した足が土踏まずで折れ、足指が下に押し付けられる。…最初に包帯を折ってから継続的に包帯を巻く作業は、通常、少女の家族の年長の女性か、プロの包帯職人が担当した。母親が行うよりも、娘の痛みに同情し、包帯をきつく締め続けることを望まない母親が行う方が望ましいと考えられた。」
「…縛りがきつかったため、足の血行が悪く、つま先への血行がほぼ遮断されていたため、つま先の傷は治りにく く、徐ーに悪化して、つま先の感染症や肉の腐敗につながる可能性が高かった。足とつま先の感染症が骨にまで達すると、骨が軟らかくなり、つま先が落ちてしまう可能性もあった。しかし、足をよりきつく縛れるので、これは利点とみなされていた。足指に肉質が多い少女の場合、足の横や足指の間にガラスの破片や割れたタイルの破片を挟み込み、故意に怪我をさせたり感染症を引き起こしたりすることがありました。感染症に続いて病気が起こるのは避けられず、つまり、纏足が原因で敗血症性ショックで死亡する可能性があり、生き残った少女も成長するにつれて健康上の問題を抱えるリスクが高まりました。」
「足の骨を縛り始めた当初は、多くの足の骨が折れたままになり、何年もそのままになることも珍しくありませんでした。しかし、少女が成長するにつれて、骨は治癒し始めました。足の骨が治癒した後でも、特に少女が10代で足がまだ柔らかい場合は、繰り返し再び骨折する傾向がありました。…かつて中国文化では、縛られた足は非常に性的指向のものと考えられており、完璧な蓮華足を持つ女性は、より名誉ある結婚ができる可能性が高かったのです。清朝時代の性マニュアルには、女性の縛られた足を使った遊び方が48種類も記載されている。」
　【　https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/foot_binding　2012-12-17、強調は当社による】

FOOT dis-integratING was「…[T]he custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. …What is clear is that foot binding was first practiced among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China, which suggests that binding the feet of well-born girls represented their freedom from manual labor. This implied that the future husbands of such girls could afford wives who did not need to work, who existed solely to serve their men…while performing no labor themselves. …Bound feet were a mark of beauty that became a prerequisite for finding a husband, as well as an avenue for poorer women to marry into money. Women, their families, and [a husband] took great pride in tiny feet, with the ideal length, called the 'Golden Lotus,' being about 7 cm (2.75 inches) long.」
　「…The process was started before the arch of the foot had a chance to develop fully, usually between the ages of 2 and 5. Binding usually started during the winter months since the feet were more likely to be numb, and therefore the pain would not be as extreme. …To enable the size of the feet to be reduced, the toes on each foot were curled under, then pressed with great force downwards and squeezed into the sole of the foot until the toes broke. The broken toes were held tightly against the sole of the foot while the foot was then drawn down straight with the leg and the arch forcibly broken. The bandages were repeatedly wound in a figure-eight movement, starting at the inside of the foot at the instep, then carried over the toes, under the foot, and around the heel, the freshly broken toes being pressed tightly into the sole of the foot. At each pass around the foot, the binding cloth was tightened, pulling the ball of the foot and the heel together, causing the broken foot to fold at the arch, and pressing the toes underneath. …It was generally an elder female member of the girl's family or a professional foot binder who carried out the initial breaking and ongoing binding of the feet. This was considered preferable to having the mother do it, as she might have been sympathetic to her daughter's pain and less willing to keep the bindings tight.」
　「…The tightness of the binding meant that the circulation in the feet was faulty, and the circulation to the toes was almost cut off, so any injuries to the toes were unlikely to heal and were likely to gradually worsen and lead to infected toes and rotting flesh. If the infection in the feet and toes entered the bones, it could cause them to soften, which could result in toes dropping off. Although, this was seen as a benefit because the feet could then be bound even more tightly. Girls whose toes were more fleshy would sometimes have shards of glass or pieces of broken tiles inserted within the binding next to her feet and between her toes to cause injury and introduce infection deliberately. Disease inevitably followed infection, meaning that death from septic shock could result from foot-binding, and a surviving girl was more at risk for medical problems as she grew older.」
　「At the beginning of the binding, many of the foot bones would remain broken, often for years. However, as the girl grew older, the bones would begin to heal. Even after the foot bones had healed, they were prone to re-breaking repeatedly, especially when the girl was in her teenage years and her feet were still soft. …Bound feet were once considered intensely erotic in Chinese culture, and a woman with perfect lotus feet was likely to make a more prestigious marriage. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet.」
　　[　https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding 2012-12-17, emphasis ours　]　

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