Ancient Japanese women dyed their teeth black. Why are they dressed so special?

The aesthetics of ancient people is very different from that of modern people. Take ancient China as an example. In the Tang Dynasty in China, fat was a beauty, but now many people can't understand it. But even so, people will not think that the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty is wonderful, because this aesthetics has its specific economic and social reasons.

This is not the case in other countries, such as China's close neighbor. In Japan, the ancient aesthetics make modern people feel very frightened. For example, in ancient Japan, women painted their faces white, shaved their eyebrows and blackened their teeth. They think it is a symbol of beauty, but this makeup method is as terrible as a ghost in the eyes of modern people.

In fact, this makeup method of black teeth is called Blackpool, which 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 paint their teeth black with cosmetic materials, but soaked iron in wine or tea to oxidize it into black water, and then dyed their teeth black with this water. At that time, not only women but also men in Japan had this habit. At that time, it was a way to distinguish unmarried women from married women. Only married women would paint their teeth black.

However, with the gradual popularity of this makeup and the gradual development of Japanese society, in the Edo era, men rarely kept the habit of blackening their teeth, and only some married women and geisha prostitutes kept this habit. In this way, the dark pool has become a symbol of women, even a symbol of beauty.

After modern times, the Japanese government issued a law prohibiting women from blackening their teeth, and the people began to abolish this custom. Since then, this dark pool culture in Japan has disappeared. Only in modern times, influenced by the retro trend of thought, such customs performances will be seen in some traditional cultural streets in Japan. If we ask young people in Japan now, do they still think Heizhi is a symbol of beauty? I believe that most Japanese people will hold a negative view, but it does not rule out that some Japanese still appreciate this kind of makeup.

Painting the face white is actually from Chinese studies in Japan. We all know that the Japanese especially worship the Tang Dynasty. They not only like to learn the poetry and calligraphy etiquette of the Tang Dynasty, but also like to learn the makeup methods of the Tang Dynasty. Japanese aristocratic women saw that aristocratic women in the Tang Dynasty liked to paint their faces with white powder and did the same.

However, they also made localized innovations in makeup technology in the Tang Dynasty. In Japan, women think that the whiter they are, the better they look, so they gradually like to paint their whole faces as white as snow, just like oil painting. Seeing aristocratic women do this, folk women have followed suit. Gradually, painting the face white became the most popular makeup in Japanese society at that time.

In fact, shaving eyebrows is a common way of makeup, which has been popular not only in Japan, China, but also in Europe. In that famous portrait of Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. In ancient China, many people regarded eyebrows as an ominous symbol, so many women liked to shave off their eyebrows when making up. It is hard to believe that they studied in the Tang Dynasty, but in the Tang Dynasty, they did not shave off all their eyebrows, but trimmed them into a little or slender arch eyebrows, so that people would look noble, elegant and dignified.

However, because Japanese people can't learn the noble makeup methods of aristocratic women in the Tang Dynasty, they simply shave off their eyebrows and draw a new one through them. But strangely, Japanese women usually raise their eyebrows when drawing them, instead of drawing them in the original position. This will make the whole face look strange, even horrible, which is unacceptable to many people in China, but the Japanese liked this makeup very much at that time.

In fact, whether we dye our teeth black, shave our eyebrows or paint our faces white, it is a tradition in ancient Japanese society. Although many people can't accept it now, we should still respect this tradition.