Title: Re: Lisabelle's Hair Quest
Post by Lisabelle on Aug 5th, 2006 at 3:31pm
Here's a neat articale I found on Japanese combs and kanzashi!
A WOMAN'S HAIR IS HER LIFE:
JAPANESE COMBS AND HAIR ORNAMENTS
By Ed Jacob
A dreary feeling
in a spring night
It's hard to shake off
I comb my long hair
Until my heart’s content
Yosano Akiko
A Japanese comb is about much more than just styling your hair. Some 400 years ago, Japan took the simple comb and transformed it into an elegant beauty accessory that became a work of art. Japanese kushi (combs) and kanzashi (hairpins) became expressions of a woman’s character, social class, religion, and people could even tell what neighborhood someone lived in by looking at their hair ornaments . According to an ancient Japanese proverb, A woman’s hair is her life. (Kami wa onna no inochi) and from the early 1600fs until the beginning of the modern era, decorative combs and hairpins called kanzashi have been an important part of Japanese fashion.
Western style jewelry such as rings, necklaces and bracelets was not worn in Japan until the modern era. Instead, women decorated their hair. The elaborate hairstyles (mage), of the Edo period required a tremendous amount of time and money to maintain, and the value of what a woman wore in her hair often far exceeded even the cost of the beautiful silken, gold brocade kimono she wore on her back. Hair was so important that it came to symbolize nearly every facet of her existence. Looking at a woman’s hairstyle, you could tell what social class she belonged to, whether she was married or not, her age, and whether she had any children. Hair ornaments became important family heirlooms that were handed down from generation to generation, and in Kyoto, when a comb eventually wore out or was broken, it was saved until the Kompira Kushi Matsuri (Kyoto Comb Festival) and taken to a temple where prayers were said for its spirit, after which it was burned in a purifying ritual fire.
As lovely as Japanese combs are, however, they are almost never given as gifts because of a superstition that associates them with suffering and death. The word kushi, is associated with misfortune because it sounds like the words for suffering (ku) and death (shi). One should never give one as a present because it might bring death to the person and, similarly, it is considered unlucky to pick one another person’s comb because you may take on a person’s suffering.
Although decorative combs went out of fashion for the general public more than a hundred years ago, they are still worn with kimono, and if you know where to look, it is still possible to find craftsmen that make and sell them today. One such shop is Nijusan-ya, a tiny store hidden in plain sight in Kyoto’s bustling Shijo shopping district.
Nijyusan-ya means twenty-three, a seemingly strange choice of name for a comb shop, and is puzzling even to Japanese people whom aren’t in on the joke. It comes from a Japanese word for the special bamboo combs that are their specialty, called togushi. The characters used to write togushi have the same pronunciation as the numbers ten (to), nine (ku or gu) and four (shi). Add them up and you get the shop’s name, twenty-three.
Nijusan-ya is very Kyoto. In typical Kyoto style, it does not advertise, has a tiny sign, and is the kind of place you could walk by 500 times without ever noticing. In business for more than 180 years, it has been at its present location in Kyoto’s downtown Shijo district for more than 60. They sell nothing but combs and hair ornaments, but their goods are of such high quality that they are able to compete with the cell-phone shops and trendy designer clothing boutiques nearby.
Kyoto has always been known for the quality of its gold, tortoise shell, mother of pearl, and lacquer work, and Kyogushi (Kyoto-style combs) are the most famous in the country. Kyoto’s combs have traditionally been made from boxwood from the island of Kyushu, which has become extremely rare and expensive. While other comb makers have resorted to importing low-priced boxwood from Thailand, Nijusan-ya insists on using only the domestic variety to ensure the quality of its products.
That is the secret to Nijusan-ya’s success. The owner, Isamu Kakie, like his father and his grandfather before him, is uncompromising in his adherence to tradition. Every last item in the shop is hand-crafted by skilled artisans who shape the wood by hand, and then spend hours or days decorating the products with the beautiful cranes, Mt. Fuji’s, chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms that make them so gorgeous.
Hair ornaments could even be a deadly weapon. Female ninja called kunoishi used them to rake the eyes of their victims while escaping or dipped them in poison to assassinate people. There are also many accounts of women using them to fend off male attackers.
Hope it was okay to put this up! ;)
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