The standard of female beauty during the Heian period involved the practice of 引き眉 (literally "plucked eyebrows", but usually translated as "painted eyebrows"). This consisted of completely plucking away the eyebrows, and "painting" (or rather, smudging) replacement "eyebrows" higher up on the forehead.

Does anyone know what these smudges are called in Japanese?

Thanks!

PS: The smudges, as I understand it, were made with 掃墨, but I have not been able to find a definition for this term. (I'm sure it's related to "soot" or "lampblack", but maybe a more specific translation is possible.)

PS2: Here are some examples of this look:


【京マチ子: 溝口健二の雨月物語】



PS3: I try hard to imagine the reaction of a Japanese guy from that era looking at images of what I consider paragons of female beauty, but I can't. Neither can I see, even remotely, the appeal of what he found attractive. For me this is truly unbridgeable divide. I know that beauty standards differ across cultures and periods, but usually I can dimly envision the appeal of a different standard (e.g. a "Rubenesque" woman). But the Heian ideal is way too far out for me. Besides the eyebrow-smudges it features blackened teeth, extremely long hair (at least floor-length), a thick neck, sloping shoulders, a round "moon face" with a vapid (aka "calm") expression... Yikes.

I'm (almost, haven't read in years) positive Tanizaki mentions this in In Praise of Shadows... there's some Japanese text for it linked here if you want to search through that vs. English translation or something: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid91882

Oh I guess you could just use Google... 殿上眉? It's mentioned briefly at Wikipedia entry for 引眉.

Also see romanized terms 'tenjomayu' and 'takamayu' (高眉?). There's also this form of the てんじょう/殿上眉: 天上眉. Those turn up quite a few dictionary results.

nest0r Wrote:I'm (almost, haven't read in years) positive Tanizaki mentions this in In Praise of Shadows... there's some Japanese text for it linked here if you want to search through that vs. English translation or something: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid91882

Long overdue thanks for this pointer. I found searchable versions of this text, both in English and Japanese (the latter posted by pm215 in the thread you cited). I was not able to find the word I was looking for there, but this could easily be due to my very limited literacy in Japanese. (Tanizaki does allude to the practice of 引き眉.)

In any case, this is a good reference to be aware of. I really look forward to being able to read it in the original!

Thanks also for the suggestions you gave me in your second reply. I'm still working through those (as I said, I'm still way too illiterate to be messing with this sort of text).

BTW, I find the first character in 殿上眉 a bit odd... 天上眉 is a little less odd, but still 点上眉 makes more sense to me than either of them for this meaning/reading. (It's 点-on, in fact ). But searching for 点上眉 produces zilch. Oh, well. I'll chalk this one to the mysteries of 漢字-logic. Maybe the prosaic directness of 点上眉 would come across as disrespectful or derogatory somehow. (Anyway, 高眉 is not bad.)

gfb345 Wrote:BTW, I find the first character in 殿上眉 a bit odd... 天上眉 is a little less odd, but still 点上眉 makes more sense to me than either of them for this meaning/reading. (It's 点-on, in fact ). But searching for 点上眉 produces zilch. Oh, well. I'll chalk this one to the mysteries of 漢字-logic. Maybe the prosaic directness of 点上眉 would come across as disrespectful or derogatory somehow. (Anyway, 高眉 is not bad.)

I think that 殿上眉 are the most appropriate characters for such eyebrows, since this was not popular fashion, but only of aristocrat women of imperial court. While 天上眉 seems like a simplification, since it bears no logical connection to the meaning.

gfb345 Wrote:PS3: I try hard to imagine the reaction of a Japanese guy from that era looking at images of what I consider paragons of female beauty, but I can't. Neither can I see, even remotely, the appeal of what he found attractive. For me this is truly unbridgeable divide. I know that beauty standards differ across cultures and periods, but usually I can dimly envision the appeal of a different standard (e.g. a "Rubenesque" woman). But the Heian ideal is way too far out for me. Besides the eyebrow-smudges it features blackened teeth, extremely long hair (at least floor-length), a thick neck, sloping shoulders, a round "moon face" with a vapid (aka "calm") expression... Yikes.

Don't forget the nose that looks like a clump of garlic cloves, small almond-shaped eyes, and jet black hair!

Anyways, today's beautiful skinny Japanese women would probably be considered to be wretched peasants in the Heian period. Being fat(tish) was a sign of wealth and culture since it meant you could afford a lot of food. Most stylish women also dye their hair and use various techniques to make their eyes seem huge.

One thing (most) JP girls still have going for them from a Heian perspective is their whiteness (having a tan meant that you laboured in the fields). They also still mostly eliminate their eyebrows, though they draw them back on in the right place.