Beauty standards across time vary enormously, as does the degree to which they emphasize qualities that never appear in nature. For instance, in recent decades in American culture, having perfectly straight and dazzling white teeth have signified health and high social status. In much of Japan’s history, it was the exact opposite.
Here you see an illustration from 1880 of a woman painting her teeth black – a practice known as _ohaguro_. Archaeological records show that deliberately blackened teeth existed as far back as 500 CE. Using iron shavings dissolved in vinegar, and some base such as tea powder, elite Japanese people would lacquer their teeth completely. The process in fact preserved their teeth even as it turned their color, almost like today’s dental sealants, but people also liked ohaguro’s aesthetic that was considered a beautifying practice.
In fact, it was a sign of wealth — the Japanese imperial family blackened their teeth, and aristocrats did as well. It was thought to give a mature look, and thus married wealthy women or women over 18 were drawn to the habit. In the Medieval Heian period, one source records a wealthy woman’s repugnance at one woman’s refusal to die her teeth black, saying that her white teeth “look just like peeled caterpillars”.
After the Meiji period when Western influences entered Japan, the practice dwindled, becoming illegal in 1870 and receeding in popularity after, until it had all but disappeared in the early 20th century.
Source(s): “Topics in Japanese Cultural History,” Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org. Wikipedia. Illustration by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
