Why did ancient Japanese women paint their faces white, their teeth black, and their eyebrows shaved? The reason is incredible

The aesthetics of ancient people are very different from those of modern people. Take ancient China as an example. The Tang Dynasty in China regarded fat as its beauty, which many people cannot understand now. But even so, everyone will not think that the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty is strange, because this aesthetic has its specific economic and social reasons.

is not like that in other countries, such as China’s neighbor Japan. In Japan, the aesthetics in ancient times make modern people feel very scared. For example, in ancient Japan, women would paint their faces white, shave their eyebrows, and blacken their teeth. They would think this was a symbol of beauty, but this method of makeup is like ghosts to modern people. The same is very scary.

In fact, this kind of makeup method of blackening teeth is called black teeth, and it has been popular not only in Japan, but also in southern China and Southeast Asia. It's just that this makeup method has been lost or eliminated in other regions, but it has always existed in Japan now.

In ancient times, Japanese women did not use makeup materials to blacken their teeth, but soaked iron in wine or tea to oxidize it into black water, and then use the water to blacken the teeth. At that time, not only women, but Japanese men also had this habit. At the time, this was a way of distinguishing unmarried women from married women. Only married women would blacken their teeth.

But with the gradual popularity of this kind of makeup, with the gradual development of Japanese society, Japanese society has reached the Edo period, and men have rarely retained the habit of blackening their teeth, only some married women and geishas Prostitutes will keep this habit. In this way, the black tooth has become a symbol of women and even beauty.

In modern times, the Japanese government promulgated a law prohibiting women from blackening their teeth. The folks began to abolish this custom. Since then, the black tooth culture in Japan has disappeared. It's just that in the modern era, influenced by retro thoughts, you will see such custom performances in some traditional cultural streets in Japan. If you ask the young people in Japan now, do they still think that black teeth are a symbol of beauty? I believe that most Japanese people will hold a negative view, but it does not rule out that some Japanese people still have this kind of makeup. Appreciative attitude.

painted his face white, which is actually what Japan learned from China. We all know that the Japanese admire the Tang Dynasty. Not only do they like to learn Tang Dynasty poems and etiquette, they also like to learn Tang Dynasty makeup methods. Japanese aristocratic women did the same when they saw that the aristocratic women of the Tang Dynasty liked to paint their faces with white powder.

But they also made localized innovations in the technology of Tang Dynasty makeup. In Japan, women think that the whiter the better, they gradually like to paint their entire face in white, just like oil painting. Seeing noble women doing this, folk women all imitated them one by one. Gradually, painting their faces white became the most popular makeup in Japanese society at that time.

Shaving eyebrows is actually more common, not only in Japan, but in China, and in Europe, it has been popular. In the famous "Mona Lisa" portrait, Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. During a period of time in ancient China, many people regarded eyebrows as an ominous symbol, so many women liked to shave their eyebrows when putting on makeup. Speaking of the reason, it’s unbelievable. They studied in the Tang Dynasty, but in the Tang Dynasty, they did not shave all their eyebrows, but trimmed the eyebrows into a little bit or slender willow eyebrows, so that people would look noble and elegant. dignified.

However, because the Japanese could not learn the noble makeup methods of the noble women of the Tang Dynasty, they simply shaved off their eyebrows and repainted them with an eyebrow pencil. But the strange thing is that Japanese women usually draw their eyebrows and raise the position of the eyebrows instead of where the eyebrows are. This makes the whole face look very strange or even scary, which makes many Chinese unacceptable. But the Japanese liked this makeup very much at the time.

In fact, whether it is to dye the teeth black, shave the eyebrows, or paint the face white, it is the tradition of ancient Japanese society. Although many people cannot accept it, we still have to respect this tradition.