Ohaguro (お歯黒) is a fashion of dying one's teeth black. It was most popular in Japan until the Meiji era, as well as in the southeastern parts of China and southeast Asia. Dying was mainly done by married women, though occasionally men did it as well.
In Japan, it existed from ancient times, and was seen among the civilians up until the end of the Meiji period. Pitch black things such as a glaze like lacquer was seen as beautiful.
The word "ohaguro" was an Japanese aristocratic term. There is an alternate reading for ohaguro, 鉄漿 (lit. 'iron drink'). At the old Imperial palace in Kyoto, it was called fushimizu (五倍子水). Among the civilians, words such as kanetsuke (鉄漿付け), tsukegane (つけがね) and hagurome (歯黒め) were used.
References to ohaguro exist in the Genji Monogatari and Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari. At the end of the Heian period, at the time when aristocratic men and woman reached puberty and celebrated their genpuku or mogi, the Tairas and other samurai, and pages working at large temples dyed their teeth. In particular, the imperial family and other high-ranking aristocrats who had finished their hakamaza (ceremony where a child is fitted with a hakama) blackened their teeth and painted their eyebrows (hikimayu (引眉)). This was done in the imperial household until the end of the Edo era.
In the Muromachi period, ohaguro was generally seen among adults, though when the Sengoku period arrived, so as to prepare for political marriages of convenience, when the daughters of military commanders were around 8 to 10 years old, they would blacken their teeth as a marking of their coming of age. Relatives and guardians of the bride who blackened their teeth were called kaneoya (鉄漿親). It is said that military commanders who were struck in the head on the battlefield and who did not want to be ugly would wear average women's makeup and would blacken their teeth. These faces imitated the Noh masks of women and young boys.
After the Edo period, only men in the imperial family and aristocrats blackened their teeth. Due to the odor and labor required for the process, as well as a feeling among young women that they were aging, ohaguro was done only by married women, unmarried women who were older than 18, prostitutes and geisha. For rural people, ohaguro was done only at times of special celebrations, such as matsuri, wedding ceremonies, and funerals. There were also depictions of ohaguro in fairy tales, such as Gon, the Little Fox.
On Feburary 5, 1870, the government banned the practice of ohaguro, and the process gradually became obsolete. (After the Meiji period, it temporarily spread, but in the Taisho period, it almost entirely died out.)
In contemporary times, the only places where ohaguro can be seen is in plays, hanamachi (geisha quarters), some matsuri, and movies.
鉄漿を「かね」と読むと、染めるのに使う液を表す。
The main ingredient was a smelly dark-brown colored liquid made of an acetic acid called kanemizu (かねみず) with iron dissolved in it. Gallnut powder and tannin powder were blended in, turning it non-water soluble. When the liquid combined with the tannins, it would turn black. Coating the teeth with this liquid helped to prevent tooth decay and enamel decay. The dye had to be applied once a day or once every few days.
As a convenient prescription, a fine powder comrpised of gallnut powder, sulfuric acid and oyster shell could also be applied to the teeth, though this never really caught on.
In theatrical plays, ink mixed with turpentine was used, though these days, ink mixed with tooth wax is used.
In modern times, places where minority people live, ohaguro can be seen. It is mainly restricted to older women, though it is occasionally done by some young married women. For these people, sometimes artificial teeth are made.