Period: Japan

Period makeups: Japan

In the West we tend to see a limited range of Japanese period characters: an unnatural proportion of samurai and geishas.

Some of the Japanese period looks in movies appear quite striking, if not strange, especially ohaguro (お歯黒) and hikimayu (引眉). Ohaguro, or tooth blackening was a very old custom but during the Edo period it became restricted to married women and geishas. Hikimayu, or removing the natural eyebrows, first appeared in the eighth century, when the Japanese court adopted Chinese customs and styles but again during the Edo period it became restricted to married women. The fate of both was sealed in 1873 when the Empress dropped the practices.