Historic Material: Make-up

In the Edo period, make-up became fashionable through the Kabuki theater, ukiyo-e prints, books and other established media. Make-up in the culture of Kyoto, for example, was a long-running bestseller avidly read by women for over 100 years. The term "make-up" referred to anything to do with personal appearance, from methods of making cosmetics to ways of creating sloping shoulders, and also included caring for the face, arms, legs and hair, using make-up suited to one’s features, knots for obi sashes, and styles of walking.

This exhibition introduces the forms of make-up of people in the Edo period, through 31 materials related to this theme. These include Young Lady, a representative bijinga painting of a beautiful woman by Kitagawa Tsukimaro; On the beauty of women's faces with make-up, a book that provides helpful information on topics such as make-up to match skin color, face-cleansing techniques, and specific amounts of face powder; and Collection of Hairstyles of Kyoto Women, which records the various hairstyles of women and children.