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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
An oblique tooth is viewed in the States as requiring straightening, but in Japan it may be thought of as emblematic of a young woman's charm. While a slim body is a prerequisite for beauty today, plump women were considered beautiful in Tang Dynasty China and Heian period Japan. Starting from around the twelfth century in China, bound feet symbolized the attractiveness of women. But Japan, which received sundry influences from China, never adopted foot-binding. Instead, shaving eyebrows and blackening teeth became markers of feminine beauty. Before modern times, neither Japanese nor Chinese paid much attention to double eyelids, but in the course of the long twentieth century they became a standard for distinguishing beautiful from plain women. Thus, criteria of beauty greatly differ by era and culture, and therein lie many riddles.
1 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (John Murray, 1871), vol. 2, p. 383.
2 John and Doreen Weightman (trs.), Tristes Tropiques (first published by Atheneum Publishers, 1974; Penguin Books, 1992), p. 188.
3 Gaspar da Cruz, South China in the Sixteenth Century. Translated into Japanese by Hino Hiroshi as Jūrokuseiki kanan jibutsushi (Akashi Shoten, 1987), p. 293.
4 Louis J. Gallagher, S. J. (tr.), The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1671 (Random House, 1953), p. 77.
5 Philipp Franz von Siebold, Reise nach dem Hofe des Sjogun im Jahre 1826. Translated by Saitō Makoto as Edo sanpu kikō (Heibonsha, 1967), p. 77.
6 Timon Screech (editor and annotator), Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and the Shogun's Realm, 1775-1796 (Routledge, 2005), p. 88. Cf.: Takahashi Fumi (tr.), Edo sanpu zuikōki (Heibonsha, 1994), pp. 218-219. 1
7 Also called Book of Former Han, it was composed by Ban Biao, Ban Gu, and Ban Zhao and completed in 111 CE. It covers the history of China under the Western Han from 206 BCE to 25 CE.
8 Bin Chun, Occasional Jottings Aboard a Raft. In Zhong Shuhe (editor in chief), Toward the World Library (Zouxiang Shijie Congshu) (Yuelu Publications, 1985), p. 101.
9 Tsuruta Kin'ya, Modern Japanese Literature that Boundary-Crossers Read (Ekkyōsha ga yonda Nihon bungaku) (Shin'yōsha, 1999), pp. 10-22.
10 Suzuki Hisashi, The Bones Tell Their Stories: People of the Tokugawa Shogunate and Daimyō Families (Hone wa kataru: Tokugawa Shōgun, daimyōke no hitobito) (The University of Tokyo Press, 1985), p. 113.
11 Da Capo, vol. 19, issue 12, no. 423 (Magazine House, 1999), p. 6.
12 Francette Pacteau. The Symptom of Beauty (Essays in Art and Culture). Translated into Japanese by Hamana Emi as Bijin (Kenkyūsha, 1996), p. 99.
13 Karl Grammer, Signale der Liebe: Die biologischen Gesetze der Partnerschaft. Translated into Japanese by Koizumi Mineko under the supervision of Hidaka Toshitaka as Ai no Kaibōgaku (Kinokuniya Shoten, 1997), pp.168-169.
14 Shioya Nobuyuki, The Truth of Cosmetic Surgery: Can the Surgical Knife Heal the Heart? (Biyō geka no shinjitsu: mesu de kokoro wa naoseru ka) (Kōdansha, 2000), pp. 50-51.
15 Karl Grammer, op. cit., p. 159.
16 Ibid., p. 51.
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