Do Japanese women look cute because they are good at wearing make-up?

Tuesday 17/09/2024 | 12:11 PM

You may ask this question if you are a foreigner who has been to Japan.

I think that the majority of Japanese women have good make-up wearing techniques, and most are quite pretty.

So, what about the Japanese in older times? See the impartial opinions of foreigners who visited Japan before wearing make-up was common.

‘Narrative of The Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, Washington’

This book was written in 1856. Within it, the differences between the common people and the nobility are described, starting with the common people.

The working class have tanned, brown skin, eyes that are not round but horizontal and deeply sunken. They have large heads and short necks, and their black hair is oiled and shiny. Their noses are short and round. The writer is insulting them, isn’t he?

On the other hand, the noble people are described as beautiful, with white skin and cheeks the color of carnation flowers.

Japan is a single ethnic group, so this difference described is probably due to differences in living environment, diet, and so on, considering that the common people and noble people have the same bloodline.

The basic idea is that the nobility were beautiful.

‘Nitto Sou Yuuka’

This was an article written by the messenger Kim In-gyeom, from Korea, who visited Japan for 11 months between 1763 and 1764.

In it he wrote:

“Japanese women are beautiful and the military officers from Korea discovered beautiful women among the onlookers at the parade… their heads going from left to right as they gazed upon them.”

They were parade spectators, so probably common people. Doesn’t this therefore mean that there were many beautiful women among the common people?

Tooth blackening (O-haguro)

A culture that surprises men from other countries is the practice of “haguro”, meaning tooth blackening. Originally, it was the custom of the nobility to dye their teeth black, but it spread to the common people as well. It was especially popular among married women.

Haguro was evidence that a woman was spoken for. The teeth made them stand out less, making their faces appear softer, and women with shiny black teeth were thought to be beautiful.

However, I don’t think this worked as a way to prevent cheating.

But when people from countries who didn’t have this culture saw those black teeth, it would have looked like a horror film, as it would for modern people too!

Wouldn’t they have been more popular with foreigners if they didn’t have the scary black teeth? Then again, perhaps it is not just a question of make-up that makes Japanese women beautiful, but something that underlies their looks.

It’s hard to know really, because you can’t tell a woman walking down the street to remove her make-up and show her real face.

All over the world, make-up techniques are improving, and cosmetic surgery is very popular these days.

There is no longer any way to measure whether Japanese people are inherently beautiful, but if you are curious, I hope you will be able to get close enough to Japanese women so that you can see their true face

ABE KENGO