We often see some female costumes in ancient Japan. At first glance, it just looks strange, but if they laugh, it is simply frightening, because their teeth are blackened, their original eyebrows are basically shaved, and their faces are painted white, which makes them look even more terrible. Why did ancient Japan have such makeup? Is there any historical background for this makeup?

This unique makeup of ancient Japanese women, scientifically called "black pool" and "eyebrows", was actually the standard of Japanese aristocrats at that time.

Dyeing black teeth is an ancient custom in Japan. In Japan, this custom is called "ぉ🈏黒" (ぉはぐろ). Before the Meiji era in Japan, this custom was very common. Especially some married women, will dye their teeth black. Not only that, since Heian period, some male aristocrats have dyed their teeth black during the adult ceremony.

In addition, the Japanese also have the custom of attracting eyebrows, which is called "ひきまゆ" in Japanese. The so-called thrush is to shave off the eyebrows and then draw the shape of the eyebrows with ink.

The above customs still exist in some parts of Japan. Why do people dye their teeth and eyebrows? This is actually a status symbol.

For example, the Japanese classic novel Tale of Genji mentioned that the heroine Sharla Cheung was adopted by Genji after she was ten years old. From then on, she began to dye her teeth black to make herself more beautiful. At the same time, I began to draw eyebrows to make them look fresh.

It can be seen that Blackpool and Yinmei were the aesthetics at that time, or a symbol of identity. You will make yourself "look beautiful" if you do what you deserve.

For ancient Japanese women, we can often see their white faces without eyebrows, and their teeth are actually black after their mouths are opened. In our central plains people's aesthetics, such a special dress is a bit scary.

In fact, in ancient Japan, not all women were dressed like this. In the eyes of Europeans and Americans, all Japanese women are beautiful. There is a book written by Europeans called Stop at the End of Rivers and Lakes, which describes that Japanese women and ugly men have different rights to play. They have thick hair, melancholy eyes, elegant manners and petite figures, and they keep bowing to everyone.

Europeans and Americans are full of curiosity about Japan, which happened after the arrival of the black ship. Japan, which was closed to the outside world at that time, really gave Europeans and Americans a lot of freshness. But Japanese women's makeup really doesn't conform to the aesthetics of ordinary people. The British consul in Japan once said that Japanese women who wear makeup are the devil in the middle of the night.

Germans have had opinions on Japanese women's make-up. He said that Japanese women made their faces white and ugly. Their whole faces and even their shoulders are white, which makes people look a little shocked. For Japanese women's black teeth, Europeans say it is an open grave, which shows how broken Europeans are by Japanese women's dress.

So why do Japanese women make such special dresses? There are actually two reasons. On the one hand, it is related to Japanese tradition. When I was in peacetime, Japan had the habit of shaving eyebrows and dyeing black teeth. Japanese women's black teeth are recorded in various ancient books such as pillow grass.

On the other hand, Japanese women dye their teeth with black water from tea, wine, vinegar and iron paste. In their words, these black teeth not only make people beautiful, but also keep their teeth clean. According to Genji's story, some women will find it difficult to get married if they don't cut their eyebrows and don't dye their black teeth.

In fact, Japanese women are not the only ones who dye their teeth black. In Japan, many men are born with mixed teeth, especially officials and samurai. This custom in Japan was not abolished until Meiji 6.

With regard to ancient Japanese women shaving their eyebrows, this is what Japan did after China's women in the Tang Dynasty. In China, eyebrow shaping is very popular for beauty. Some women shave off their eyebrows for the sake of beauty, and then apply cosmetics on them. Fine eyebrows, thick eyebrows and arch eyebrows can do whatever they want. Japanese geisha still have the custom of shaving their eyebrows.

Because Japan has the habit of smearing its teeth, we often see that Japan was called a black pool in ancient times. In fact, Blackpool is not Japan, because according to Shan Hai Jing and Liang Shu's records, Japan is a Japanese country and southern Japan is a Blackpool country, so Blackpool has little to do with Japan.