The Fair Face of Japanese Beauty

Sōshi arai (Book-washing Ono no Komachi), from the Seven Komachi series by Utagawa Kunisada II (1857). This woodblock print depicts courtesans performing their morning ablutions. The woman on the left holds a rice bran pouch used for cleansing her face. (© Pola Research Institute of Beauty and Culture)

Even today, rice is used as an ingredient in the production of cosmetics. (© Im Co. and Kosé Provision)

Tomizawa’s work on modern cosmetics requires her to study the classics as well.

Left: Dōtei shūgetsu (Autumn Moon over Lake Dōtei) from the Shūjohakkei (Eight Views of Women) series by Utagawa Kunisada, late Edo period. A woman strips to her waist to keep the white powder she is applying to her face from staining her kimono. Traditionally, women not only put makeup on their face but on their ears, the nape of their neck, and chest. Right: Bien Senjokō, shikibu hake (Bien Senjokō with a Shikibu Brush), Keisai Eisen, ca. 1818–30. Bien Senjokō was a brand of oshiroi popular at the end of the Edo period. This print depicts a courtesan applying the whitener with a brush. (© Pola Research Institute of Beauty and Culture)

Yanagihashi Okon beni o sashi (Okon of the Yanagihashi Applies Lipstick) in the Tōsei mitate jūroku musashi (Sixteen Modern Customs in the Style of “Sixteen Musashis”) series. This 1871 woodblock print by Toyohara Kunichika depicts a geisha named Okon from the Yanagihashi area coloring her lips. The board at top was used to play a game called “sixteen Musashis”; the prints in this series involve some play on the word sashi (here the homophonous verb “to apply”). (© Pola Research Institute of Beauty and Culture)

Left: A postcard from the Meiji era features a woman with beautifully made-up but natural looking eyebrows. Right: A makeup set from the 1920s with lipstick, face powder, perfume, and rouge. The containers feature images of women. (© Pola Research Institute of Beauty and Culture)

Yamaguchi Sayoko’s striking Asian features made her one of the more popular models of the 1970s and 1980s. (© Yokosuka Noriaki. Courtesy of Shiseido Co.)

Pola The Beauty, Ginza shop. (© Pola Orbis Holdings)