Japanese Notion of Beauty: Geisha Hair

Japanese Notion of Beauty: Geisha Hair

The hairstyles of Japanese geisha women are essential parts of the geisha culture, and have varied through history. Geisha women in the past have wore their hair down in some periods, and wore their hair up in other periods. Hairstyles in the geisha culture stands for femininity, age, and marital status, exemplify various components of the Japanese geisha female notion of beauty. During the seventeenth century, geisha women began putting their hair up, developing the traditional shimada hairstyle, a type of traditional chignon worn by established geisha.

Within the female geisha there are four major types of shimada, the taka shimada, a high chignon or bun, usually worn by young, single women. Then there is the tsubushi shimada, a more flattened chignon generally worn by older women, the uiwata a chignon that is usually bounded up with a piece of colored cotton crepe, and last but not least the momoware which resembles a split peach. The hairstyles are decorated with elaborate hair combs and hairpins, which showcases the class divide that was evident within Japan as hair-combs were large in the seventeenth century and synonymous with higher-class women. This shows that class does shape culture, and culture does shape class, because during the modern era after the Meiji Restoration smaller less conspicuous hair combs became more popular leaving the large combs that screamed wealth in the dust.

Something as simple as hairstyles within a culture is connected to various forms of society and life, varying from age, marriage, class, and femininity. The Japanese female geisha culture is a culture that prides traditional values, but is not afraid to go through changes, and like the Kimonos tradition is shaped by culture and culture is shaped by tradition.

“Geisha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha (Accessed May 7, 2010).

Dalby, Liza. 1998. Geisha. Berkeley: University of California.