Blackened Teeth and Conceptions of Female Beauty

Genji #10 賢木 Sakaki The Sacred Tree

Many years ago, the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur had a really thoughtful cultural anthropology exhibition focused on conceptions of female beauty. It started with local ideals, from necks elongated using brass neck rings, to bodies covered in swirling tattoos and earlobes stretched to shoulders seen in Dayak peoples.

This was followed by an examination of the bound feet in Qing China. How could the sometimes stinky broken feet of women have once been considered appealing? I thought looking at an impossibly tiny “lotus slipper shoe…”

But the exhibition continued with values much closer to home— with very graphic photographs of women suffering from anorexia nervosa. There were images of tiny belt sizes and placards discussing the obsession with thin bodies and bleached white teeth, moving on to plastic surgery in Korea. And what of stiletto shoes? They had x-rays of damaged female feet on display.

Leaving the museum, my head was spinning.

I thought of this reading chapter 10 about Genji’s delight noticing how the prince (who is actually Genji’s illicit son) has teeth darkened from tooth decay. The boy is quite young—and already cavities are darkening his mouth. To us, this is a sign of neglect and poverty… like insects in a child’s mouth. But Genji finds it sweet and lovely “like that of a girl.”

This is a reference to the custom of Ohaguro (お歯黒, lit. 'black teeth')

Women in the Heian period blackened their teeth. This custom began in the 10th century and was a custom all the way down to Edo times in the late 19th century. It was considered beautiful, like lacquer, and maybe also sealed the teeth, thereby protecting them.

Ohaguro was not a custom borrowed from China, though many other cultures have prized lacquered teeth in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

In addition to blackening their teeth, Heian women also shaved their eyebrows and painted them back on higher up by the hairline. And skin color was whitened using rice powder.

This haunting conception of female beauty recalls Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, which celebrates the image of shimmering lacquer seen by candlelight as a supreme example of Japanese beauty. I think the darkened mouth against a pale white face is like that—mysterious like shadows formed in flickering candlelight and the splendor of black lacquer. He also spoke of small and tiny women who are like hangers for the beauty of layers of kimono. My own tea teacher always reminded us that kimono are for thin bodies. In Japan, traditionally being tall was a disadvantage for a woman. Where we lived in Southern Africa, it was the opposite where height in women was greatly prized! If you are thinking that women just can’t win, that is what I think too.

There is one aspect of Heian notions of beauty among the aristocracy that I like. And that is the emphasis and prioritizing of artistic and poetic accomplishments in both women and men. A “trophy” wife back then not only had to come from a good family, but she was prized for being adept at music, art, or poetry. These traits were valued more highly than long glossy black hair, white skin, and butterfly eyebrows hikimayu (引眉)

For more: Looks that Kill at the History Collection

From Wikipedia

古代の祖母君の御なごりにて、歯黒めも まだしかりけるを、ひきつくろはせたまへれば、眉のけざやかになりたるも、うつくしうきよらなり。

Kotai no Oba-Gimi no ohom-nagori ni te, ha-gurome mo madasikari keru wo, hiki-tukuroha se tamahe re ba, mayu no kezayaka ni nari taru mo, utukusiu kiyora nari.^[5]

Because of her grandmother's conservative preferences, her teeth had not yet been blackened or her eyebrows plucked. Genji had put one of the women to blackening her eyebrows, which drew fresh, graceful arcs.

The translation by Royall Tyler is:

In deference to her grandmother's old-fashioned manners her teeth had not yet received any blacking, but he had had her made up, and the sharp line of her eyebrows was very attractive.

In Meredith McKinney's translation of the Pillow Book, section 80 reads:

物のあはれ知らせがほなるもの—鼻たるまもなく、かみてものいふ聲。まゆぬくも。

Things that create the appearance of deep emotion^[a] – The sound of your voice when you're constantly blowing your runny nose as you talk. Plucking your eyebrows.