The teeth are not black and elegant, how did the ancient Japanese nobles "dye black teeth" come from?
There are some differences between the aesthetics of modern people and the ancients, which can also be understood, but even so, some special aesthetics of the ancients are still very puzzling to modern people, taking Japan as an example, Japan because of its relatively developed economy, so it is also considered to be a country on the front line of East Asian fashion, more fashionable, but the ancient Japanese have such a very strange aesthetic, this aesthetic East Asia China and North Korea can definitely not dare to compliment, that is: women to dye black teeth for beauty.
What does it mean? That is, the woman dyeing her teeth black is the embodiment of beauty.
If this custom is seen by modern people, it can no longer be said to be unbelievable, it is simply terrifying. You can look at the picture below, will you think this image is beautiful? I guess it definitely won't.
Did the Japanese really have this strange custom in ancient times? Yes, this custom in ancient Japan was called "お歯黒", "歯黒め", and the human bones and chakras found in the tombs of the Kofun period in Japan showed signs of black teeth, and the Kojiki also recorded that the beauties of the emperor Takezun and Emperor Inishmun were stained with black teeth. Originally, the teeth were stained with fruit. By the 7th century, after Japan absorbed the Sui and Tang civilizations, this strange custom was still not abandoned, and the Kanzen monks introduced iron-making technology from China to the Izumo area of Japan, so that the local development of a black tooth dyeing technology called "Xiangdeng Black Tooth Fang", "Ancient Chronicles" is a legend and myth, but even in literary works, such as in "The Tale of Genji" and "Tale of the Nayan In the Di Zhong", there are descriptions of the Japanese nobles dyeing black teeth.
What exactly is this custom all about?
In fact, this custom is not unique to Japan, Vietnam also has, and to this day there is still a custom of dyeing black teeth in some parts of Vietnam, and the Joseon Dynasty document "HokujinLu" records that Korean envoys saw Vietnamese officials dye black teeth. Another North Korean document, the Biography of Cho Wanbi, also describes the lacquer teeth of Vietnamese elders, as well as the indigenous people of Taiwan, the Austronesian region, and parts of India.
In addition to the Jomon people, a small number of northeast Asian peoples also have the habit of dyeing black teeth, such as the Baekje people on the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and there are even tribes with the surname of "black teeth", and the famous Chinese Tang Dynasty planning general Black Teeth Changzhi is from this tribe, so some people speculate that the habit of Black Teeth in Japanese high society may have flowed from the Korean Peninsula
There are similar records in ancient Chinese literature, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in the Warring States period records that there is a "country of black teeth", and Guo Pu quotes the "Biography of Dongyi" to refer to the black tooth country in the southeast of the naked country, and the naked country is more than forty miles east of the Wu country, which is speculated by later generations to be Japan. The Book of Yizhou, Chu Ci, Warring States Policy, and The Chronicle of Foreign Objects all have records of black teeth and lacquer teeth. After the Tang Dynasty, such as the "Yunnan Zhi", "Nanzhao Dehua Monument", "Five Miscellaneous Tricks", "Guangdong Western Wenzai", there are also descriptions of people dyeing black teeth in Lingnan and southwest China, the Ming Dynasty and before the black teeth are not limited to ethnic minorities, some Lingnan Han people also have black teeth, until the Qing Dynasty, this custom was regarded as "barbaric" and degraded by scholars.
An old Vietnamese woman with black teeth
From these records, we can find some clues, first of all, we can determine the country with the custom of "dyeing black teeth", in South Asia - Southeast Asia - Taiwan - Japan, and the custom of dyeing black teeth recorded in ancient Chinese literature is also in the western and southern peoples of Middle-earth, and the nomadic peoples of northern Middle-earth, as well as the central plains peoples, have not experienced this habit.
The indigenous peoples of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan have certain kinship in the ethnic lineage, but what about the Japanese? The earliest indigenous people of the main island of Japan were the Jomon people, who were probably from South and Southeast Asia, even if they later came from North Korea and China. The more powerful Yayoi conquered the Jomons and built a basic Japanese civilization, but some of the habits of the Jomons were still perpetuated, such as dyeing black teeth.
Japan's custom of dyeing black teeth began in the fourth and fifth centuries, the original history era centered on the Kofun period, the material of black teeth is five times and iron, the early black teeth are mostly married women, from the Heian period, the Japanese nobles will dye their teeth black before wearing a yuan dress or wearing a coming-of-age ceremony, this custom exists in the nobility, the Heijia samurai, a large number of monasteries, royal members or high-ranking noble boys and girls will also lead eyebrows (shave the eyebrows, and use ink to draw slender arched eyebrows on the eyebrows), Muromachi period, Japanese aristocrats began to dye their teeth at the age of 13-14, and produced the "thirteen iron pulp". In the Warring States period, due to the war, the custom of dyeing men's teeth gradually declined, and samurai women began to dye their teeth at the age of 8 or 9 in order to marry early. During the Edo period, tooth dyeing spread to the common people, and the Genroku period reached its peak, and every November 15 became the "Imperial Black Tooth Day", and girls under the age of 13 would dye black teeth on this day, this strange custom was not considered by the new Meiji government to be a symbol of barbarism until after the Meiji Restoration, and was banned by official decrees.
The Japanese nobles with black teeth, but the Japanese samurai class was not used to dyeing black teeth
So, for these ancient Austronesian peoples, how did the habit of "dyeing black teeth" come into being? According to the study, this may be a decorative custom originating from human beings in primitive times, and over time, this custom has a cultural connotation; as to whether there is a deeper reason for this formation, there are still many opinions. According to archaeological research, 16,000 years ago, in the Jomon Period, the custom of pulling teeth during coming-of-age ceremonies, wedding and funeral ceremonies was prevalent in Japan, and the location of the tooth extraction varies from tribe to tribe, according to which it is possible to distinguish foreign marry-ins. The later practice of black teeth may be a legacy of the above ritual, with black teeth covering to alleviate the pain of tooth extraction; some speculate that the root cause of this situation should be that tropical peoples had the habit of chewing betel nut in the first place, so that the teeth would turn black. Some even speculate that this may be the primitive era, when humans hunted to hide themselves, and deliberately blackened; some people think that it is to prevent tooth decay; and some even think that this is a habit handed down from primitive religions (witchcraft).
In any case, the strange custom of dyeing black teeth has indeed spread for a long time and in a very wide place, and Japan is the last stop in this cultural circle.
Author: Yun Fan