CHAPTER IX.

TOILET.

Queues—Hair-cutting—Moustaches and beards—Shaving—Women’s coiffure—Children’s hair—“Inverted maidenhair”—_Shimada_—“Rounded chignon”—Other forms—The lightest coiffure—Bars—Combs—Ornaments round the chignon—Hair-pins—The hair-dresser—The kind of hair esteemed—Lots of complexion—Girls painted—Women’s paint—Blackening of teeth—Shaving of eyebrows—Washing the face—Looking-glasses.

Among the earliest innovations after the Restoration to which the Japanese people took kindly was the clipping of their queues. In the old days men had little queues on the top of their heads. For this purpose they shaved the crown and gathering the hair around, tied it at the top with a piece of paper string; then, they bent the queue and bringing it down forward over the forehead, fastened it with the ends of the same string so that the queue was tied tightly to the first knot. The end of the queue was cut straight. Fashion often changed in the making of the queue, though its general form remained unaltered. The bend, for instance, between the two knots might vary in size and shape, and the queue itself in length and thickness, its girth being regulated by the extent of the tonsure at the crown. Or the hair might be full or tight at the sides and the back. The front was usually shaved. In short, there was a wide scope for taste in the dressing of the queue.

These queues were untied and remade every second or third day, and the head was shaved at the same time. Hair-dressing was therefore a troublesome business, especially as one had generally to get assistance for it. Consequently, when the cropping of the hair came into vogue, people eagerly adopted it as it saved them time and expense. At first they cut the hair long, letting it half hide the ears and come down to the neck behind; but it became shorter by degrees until now the fashion is to crop it to about a quarter of an inch, presenting a head which is appropriately known as “chestnut-bur.”

Although pictures of old Japanese warriors represent them with moustaches, the custom seems to have been under the Tokugawa rule to be clean shaven about the mouth; only aged men indulged in beards, while whiskers grown by themselves were almost unknown. After the Restoration government officials began to grow moustaches, and for a long time the favourite way of mimicking an official was to twirl an imaginary moustache. But professional men of all sorts now let them grow, so that they have ceased to be characteristic of officials. Tradesmen, artisans, and coolies, however, are still clean shaven, or at most have bristles of a few days’ growth.

Japanese barbers shave not only the lips, cheeks, and chin, and the borders of the hair, but they also pass their razors over the whole face, not sparing the forehead, the eyelids between the eyelashes and the eyebrows, the cheek-bones, the nose, and the ear-lobes, and unless their victim objects, they will insert a small narrow razor into his nostrils and ears and twirl it rapidly round with great dexterity. The shaving of the nostrils is easier in a Japanese than it would be in a European on account of their greater width, and another advantage arising from the shortness of the nose is that the Japanese barber does not offer an indignity to his client by tweaking his nose when he shaves his upper lip.

Troublesome as was the man’s queue in the old days, it was a trifle compared with the woman’s coiffure. In the early days of the present regime when men began to cut their hair, many women followed suit and cropped theirs as short. The government, however, interfered and prohibited the cutting of the hair by women other than widows and grandames with whom it was a time-honoured custom. In 1887 when the pro-European craze was at its height, many women tied their hair in European style; but it was subsequently abandoned by those who found that by tying the hair in this manner, they spoilt it for the Japanese coiffure; for having been accustomed to oil it well for their native style, they discovered that the hair, when bound without any pomade, became very brittle and snapped short. Still, the European style is now largely adopted because it does not require expert assistance and the services of the professional hair-dresser can be dispensed with. Various styles are in vogue. Soon after the fall of Port Arthur in 1905, a high knot came into fashion under the formidable title of “203-metre hill knot,” in celebration of the capture of that famous hill which was practically the key to the great fortress. The favourite at present with our women is a low pompadour known as the “penthouse style.” But though the European way of dressing the hair has become very popular, it is not likely so long as the _kimono_ remains unchanged that the Japanese coiffure, awkward as it is compared with the European, will be entirely superseded by the other.

Newly-born infants are shaven; but as they grow up, a little circle at the crown is left untouched. At first the circle is small, but it grows larger with years; and at six or seven, boys let all their hair grow and crop them when too long, just like their elders. Girls, before they leave this “poppy-head” stage as it is called, have little queues on the crown, tied less closely than men’s in the old days. Next, at ten or more, they have their hair done in a more complicated manner; sometimes the tresses are tied together at the crown and made into bows, and sometimes the hair is gathered at the top and parted into two tresses, right and left, which are made into vertical loops, joined together at the side, the joint being covered with a piece of ornamental paper. It has of late become an almost universal custom with school-girls to tie their hair with a ribbon and let it down loose or plaited on their backs.

From fifteen to well over forty, the favourite style is that known as “inverted maidenhair.” The hair is in this coiffure first combed into one bundle, except a triangular tuft over the forehead. It is tied at the root and divided into two equal tresses, right and left, which are then looped, the end of either tress being combed into the root of the other; and the two loops are turned down and brought behind the crown, and kept in place by being tied together to the first knot. The hair at the sides and the back is swollen out by a dexterous jerk of a comb or hairpin from underneath when it is first gathered. That at the sides is further combed with a rough comb, while the hair at the back is held in place by a spring hairpin. This is the lightest coiffure as false hair is not generally required; but it is not the formal way of dressing the hair.

For young women the formal coiffure is the _shimada_, so called from the name of the town on the high road between Tokyo and Kyoto, where it first came into fashion. In this the hair is gathered and tied tightly at or near the crown together with a large tuft of false hair. The tip is folded in forward; the hair is then folded twice in the same direction as the tip so that the edge of the fold is half an inch or less behind the knot; and the whole is turned over the knot in such a way that the edge of the second fold is forward of the crown. Then, by a string passing over the knot the fold is tied down. The chignon is formed by spreading out the hair; sometimes a piece of paper, of the size of the chignon, is well pomaded and put under the surface of the chignon to help it to keep in place. The size of the chignon varies with the wearer’s taste; but, generally speaking, a young woman’s is larger than her elder sister’s. Its position too varies, as it depends upon that of the first knot, whether over or behind the crown. In the formal coiffure of a young lady of social standing it is close to the crown; but girls in a lower station of life or anxious to be thought _chic_ prefer the chignon to be more to the back of the head.

The _marumage_, or “rounded chignon,” of married women is formed by tying the hair at the crown as in the _shimada_, and then making a loop at the end. This is wrapped round with a piece of ornamental cloth, usually of silk and dyed, and then folded forward; a small bar is passed through the two sides of the loop and the main tuft; and the latter is folded forward twice and the bar is brought down near the crown. The hair behind is spread out into a chignon. Unlike the _shimada_, this chignon is mostly back of the knot; it is held down by a string tied to the knot and the loop. False hair is used, but to a less extent than in the _shimada_; and a little paper pillow wadded with cotton is put under the chignon to hold it in place. A small part of the loop appears on each side of the chignon around the bar and displays the piece of ornamental cloth. The size of the chignon varies with the age of its wearer, the largest being adopted by young women and the smallest by old matrons.

There are said to be more than a hundred different ways, new and old, of dressing the hair; and even at the present time there are a score of them in vogue. But as most of them are combinations or modifications of the three coiffures above mentioned, we need not describe them. In all three the forelock is taken in a triangular tuft and tied with a piece of string, and held down with a comb just in front of the knot on the crown.

Both the _shimada_ and the _marumage_ are heavy as they require false hair. The hair needs also to be well oiled. The hair is done once in three or four days, but is seldom washed, not more than once a month. The head is consequently heated and a headache is often the result. Lighter than either of these is the “inverted maidenhair,” which needs no false hair unless the natural hair is too thin. It is preferred when one is at home, and especially when a long spell of either of the other forms of coiffure has ended in a headache. It is also in favour sometimes for the reason that it does not, like the others, require hair ornaments. A Japanese woman has no need of jewelry as it is not the custom to wear brooches, ear-rings, necklaces, or bracelets; and the only articles of gold or silver are, if we except the watch and chain and the finger-rings, which are all of recent introduction, her pipe, the clasp of the _obi_-fastener, ornamental hair-pins, and sometimes other articles for the hair.

The married woman’s coiffure requires a bar through the chignon. This bar varies in length with the width of the chignon, beyond which it appears from a quarter to half an inch. The regulation bar is square or oblong in section with flat or slightly rounded ends. It should be made of transparent, light-yellow tortoise-shell; but dark tortoise-shell or lacquered wood with gold figures is also worn. There are artists of high repute who make a speciality of the designing and lacquering of these bars. Inferior kinds are made of black lacquered wood or celluloid. Sometimes floral or other designs in gold or silver are attached to the ends of bars intended for young women.

The comb, on formal occasions, should be of the same material as the bar. Such combs are usually of light-yellow tortoise-shell; they are worn in front of the chignon and hold down the tip of the hair over the forehead. They have curved backs and straight ends, and are thicker than those used in hair-dressing, which are of boxwood. Other ornamental combs are of various shapes; they may be curved toward the tips, or may be longer and narrower or more rounded and wider than the tortoise-shells. They are made, like the bars, of lacquered wood, common tortoise-shell, or celluloid. The commonest kinds are of boxwood. The combs used for combing the side-hair are wider at one end than at the other, while those for gathering in stray locks are only about an inch wide, close-toothed, and with a long, pointed handle, and for removing scurf fine-toothed double combs are used.

In the case of the _marumage_ and sometimes of the _shimada_, the knot of the root is hidden from sight by tying around it a thin strip of metal, or a string of paste or coral beads. In the _shimada_ a narrow strip of white paper is also sometimes worn. The piece of cloth wound round the loop of the _marumage_ is usually of plain common silk crimpled or netted, and often mottled. That worn by young girls in coiffure that requires such pieces is plain red; but their elders prefer quieter tints.

The greatest variety is, however, to be seen in ornamental hair-pins. These hair-pins have mostly two legs, though very simple ones are one-legged. They are made of horn, ivory, wood, metal, or celluloid, and have above the fork, if two-legged, some ornament, a bead, or a design in metal, horn, ivory, bone, or other material. These designs, if of the better quality, consist of figures in gold on lacquer background or on ivory, or chasings of gold or silver. The hair-pins worn on formal occasions by young girls are surmounted with a large flower in metal, from which hangs a red silk tassel. Grown-up women set most value on silver or gold pins with a coral bead, about half an inch in diameter. The coral most esteemed is pink or flesh-coloured, though one of a darker hue is preferred by some people. In the commoner kinds the legs are of German silver as wood or horn is liable to snap. There is no rule as to the length of these hair-pins. They are stuck in under the chignon, or a little in front or behind, but never in the chignon itself.

Hair-dressing is no light task; and though a woman may be able to do her own hair, she almost invariably gets it done by somebody else as a great deal has to be done at the back of the head. The professional female hair-dresser is therefore an established institution; she visits most houses at regular intervals. She has usually an assistant, or rather an apprentice, who loosens and combs the hair and prepares it for her to dress. A successful hair-dresser probably makes more money than any other professional of her sex. The geisha’s receipts may be larger, but her expenses are correspondingly great so that her net profit is comparatively small, whereas the hair-dresser needs neither capital nor stock, beyond a few combs, and even these are often unnecessary as she uses those of her client. Besides her regular charges, which are not heavy, she receives many presents from those who are anxious for her to come at regular intervals or out of turn, as when they are going out to a party, a theatre, or some other place of public resort. She is also a great gossip, a disseminator of scandals, and in this respect she has the advantage over the barber who has himself no mean reputation in that direction in Japan as everywhere else; for whereas the barber has to retail his discourse more or less in public before the other clients who are awaiting their turn, the woman purveys her news in the privacy of the lady’s toilet-room. And as the discussion of her neighbour’s private affairs and the tearing of her character is no less a favourite occupation with the Japanese woman than with her European sister, it is not always for the sole purpose of having her hair done that she eagerly waits for the hair-dresser’s visit.

Our hair is always black until it begins to turn gray; and women esteem glossy-black, straight hair. Curly hair is held in such horror that it is said to spoil any face however comely in other respects. And the hair-dresser’s apprentice, when she comes to undo her client’s hair for re-dressing, first loosens it and combs it to free it of tangles, and then with a cloth dipped in boiling water, straightens it until all traces of former bends and twists have disappeared, and applies to it a pomade to keep it from curling or getting out of shape. Next to the glossy appearance of the hair, its borders receive careful attention. There should be no clusters of short hairs about the borders, which should show a clear demarcation between the hair and the skin. Hairy borders are regarded to be as great blemishes as clumsy hands and feet. The short hair over the forehead is, however, tolerated as hardly any one is free from it; but at the same time the border over the forehead should rise from either temple in a slight curve until it is right over the forehead when it should meet the other in a faint downward curve. From a fanciful resemblance of such a border to the outline of Mount Fuji, the forehead is then known as the “Fuji forehead,” and highly admired as an important feature of personal beauty.

The Japanese woman does not allow any hair or even down to grow on her face, and from time to time shaves the whole face like the other sex. We are not a hairy race, and our women have on the whole very smooth faces. We hardly ever see them with moustaches or stumps of hairs on their faces. It is not improbable that this shaving of the face contributes to the early loss of complexion among the Japanese women; but the arch-enemy of the clear complexion is certainly the paint, for painting is an almost universal custom in Japan.

Young girls are painted quite white and present a somewhat ghastly appearance, for the paint is a thick paste of white powder, coarser than _poudre de riz_, and is daubed over the face with the hands. The neck and the upper part of the breast are also painted; but the paint, it must be admitted, is too conspicuous to be mistaken for the natural colour of the skin, and the Japanese girl knows it. If the hair hung over her neck and face in fringes or ringlets, we might suspect her of attempting to pass the paint for her own skin; but the hair is combed up into a knot at the crown and the borders of the hair are strongly marked on the forehead and the neck. As, however, the hair is usually thick over the forehead, the contrast there between the paint and the natural skin may not be striking; but at the back it is impossible to conceal the difference, and as if to make a virtue of necessity, the paint is daubed at the borders in a very angular zigzag, which emphasises the difference between it and the brown skin.

The paint is laid on less thickly as the girl grows up; and though many women, especially those from the country, make a liberal use of it, the custom in Tokyo is to apply a dilute solution lightly so that one can hardly tell at a distance whether the face is painted or not. The neck, however, is more thickly painted. Vermilion is applied to the lips in degrees varying with the age.

The blackening of the teeth is fast going out of fashion; nowadays in Tokyo, only middle-aged women and their seniors take to it, though young married women among the lower classes are sometimes to be seen with blackened teeth. In ancient times men of rank and position blackened their teeth; it was a sign of good birth, and the expression “white teeth” was synonymous with plebeianism. This custom was subsequently confined to court nobles, and was later still adopted by married women. The idea seems to be that as black is the only colour that remains unchanged, the teeth were blackened in token of their owner’s constancy and fidelity.

The eyebrows are shaven in infants and little children, especially girls, with the object of making them grow thick. Women touch them up with Indian ink or burnt-cork powder. They used to shave them off upon marriage at the same time as the first blackening of the teeth; but this custom is, like the other, dying out. Many women, however, shave off their eyebrows when they reach the age of forty or thereabouts, as they prefer to have none at all to having them thin and irregular.

Before they commence their toilet, women take a bath or wash their faces, necks, and shoulders over a tub unless it is early morning in cold weather. Soap is a foreign innovation; and the same purpose was served by the use of fine bran powder obtained by sifting rice after its final cleaning in a mortar. A handful of this powder is put into a little cloth bag, which is then wetted and rubbed against the skin; and the turbid water which exudes through the texture of the bag is very efficacious in cleaning the skin. It is now used together with soap. Young women sometimes put other substances with the bran into the bag, such as pulverised egg-shells which are said to remove stains from the skin and the powered bark of a species of magnolia.

Our women, squatting as they do at their toilet, do not need a dressing-table, instead of which they set before them a small wooden box with three or four drawers and surmounted with a square looking-glass hinged on two supports which stand on the box. In the old days when glass was unknown or at least very rare, a metal disk highly polished on one face and with a handle was set on a stand. Now, however, sheet-glass mirrors are very common, though those of plate-glass are less used owing to their higher prices as they have, unlike the sheet-glass, to be imported from abroad.