History of makeup in Japan

Cosmetics can make people well-groomed. They include some make-up products and hair-styling products; foundation, face powder, rouge, eye shadow, lipstick, hair wax, and hair gel. Furthermore, those products also refer to something that can be used for toning the skin by cleansing and moisturizing such as facial foam, toning lotion, milky lotion, and serum.

When it comes to male cosmetics, the sorts are limited compared to female cosmetics. Mostly, skincare products and hairstyling products are categorized as male cosmetics.

Historically speaking, make-up played some important roles not only in making people well-groomed but also distinguishing status and whether married or not, or whether having children or not. Furthermore, while foregin make-up styles such as Europe and the U.S. emphasize pinpoint make-up for the eyes and mouth, Japanese styles place more emphasis on foundation, base make-up, and skin-care.

History

The Edo era:

Make-up was considered as a part of grooming and etiquette. Therefore, women were not allowed to remain without make-up for even a day. There were mainly four major types of cosmetics in this era; powder, lipstick, eyebrow, and tooth blackening. The powder was called "Oshiroi" in Japanese. Oshiroi was made from mercury or lead. While ordinary citizens used lead as their powder, women of high status used mercury for their powder. In this era, most people believed that whitening was very important. There was even a proverb that  a woman with a white face hid seven problems. That means if a woman had a problem with her body or character, it would not be a problem as long as the woman had a white face. In addition, the trend was influenced by the decision of the shogunate government such as sumptuary laws. Since it prohibited luxury, it was thought that people should avoid heavy make-up and that light make-up was suitable.Lipstick making-up was also believed that it should be used modestly. However, while this trend was spreaded in Edo, Citizens who were  in Kyoto or Osaka prefered heavy make-up to light make-up because they admired the way of make-up that women of the Imperial Household did. On the other hand, when it comes to tooth blackening, which was used for distinguishing status and situation, women were required to take good care of it. Tooth blackeing is called “Ohaguro” in Japanese. People could judge women’s situation by looking at their tooth and eyebrows. For instance, if a woman paints her teeth black, people can say the woman is married. Additionally, if the woman also shaves her eyebrows, she must be someone’s mother.    

 

The Meiji era:

In this era, because the government wanted to promote westernization, tooth blackening and eyebrow shaving were rejected as old-fashioned make-up. Instead, new cosmetics and make-up methods were spread by new media such as daily newspapers and monthly magazines. In the early Meiji period, the government invited engineers from abroad and actively introduced new regions and technologies in the field of chemistry. It began to produce Westernized cosmetics domestically. Along with this trend, the predecessors of Shiseido and Kao, the current leaders in the cosmetics industry, also appeared.

The Taisho era:

From the Taisho era(1912-1926) to the first decade of the Showa era, Westernization progressed and people’s lives were enriched, which Western-style make-up became commonplace not only among the upper class but also among the general public. The movement of women into the workforce also contributed to the development of make-up culture because women were required to groom themselves when they worked. Based on that, some cosmetics which enabled women to make-up quickly were sold well.  Besides, in this era, major domestic companies modernized their production facilities, and the development of domestic cosmetics became more active. As a result, the product lineup increased significantly compared to the Meiji era. Still, Japanese women longed for a white-skin face, so the companies actively produced skincare products.