A Discourse of Beauty Standards in Japanese Beauty Product Advertise-ment
Jomon Period (c. 14,000 – 300 BCE)
Considered the indigenous population, the Jomon people had conversely westernised facial features including high cheekbones, wide noses, and large eyes
Facial and body decoration was a prominent aspect of beauty practices to symbolise power, and was believed to ward off evil spirits and disasters. This involved the use of clay and patterns to paint their faces and bodies, often in red.Clay figurines (dogū) from this period often depict women with exaggerated features such as wide eyes, small waists, and protruding hips, (another achetype of modern western practices seen in the surge of social media polarisation). These figures also often have markings on their bodies and faces to emulate the population; hinting at the practice of tattooing and/ or body modification as a form of beautification.Yayoi Period (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE)The Yayoi people, who migrated to Japan from the Korean Peninsula and China, had different physical characteristics compared to the Jomon. They typically had flatter noses, thinner lips, and longer faces.As the Yayoi gained power and established themselves as the ruling class, their features came to be considered elegant and beautiful, while the Jomon features were seen as barbaric.Drifting from phenotypes and a rather evolutionary view/ practices in altering appearances, the use of different materials for clothing depending on social status shows adoption of colonialism in wider contexts - wittling down into perceptions as a form of currency in social spaces.The Yayoi period favoured more subtle features associated with the newly dominant population from the mainland. This marked a significant turning point in the history of Japanese beauty standards, with the Yayoi aesthetic eventually influencing subsequent periods, and informing cultural practices that persist despite homogenisation.
