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Smith The Inside Story of China’s High-Tech Industry: Making Silicon Valley in Beijing by Yu Zhou The Search for the Beautiful Woman A Cultural History of Japanese and Chinese Beauty Cho Kyo Translated by Kyoko Selden ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2012 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cho, Kyo, 1953– author. [Bijo to wa nani ka. English] The search for the beautiful woman : a cultural history of Japanese and Chinese beauty / Cho Kyo ; translated by Kyoko Selden. p. cm. — (Asia/Pacific/perspectives) Translation of: Bijo to wa nani ka : nitchu bijin no bunkashi / Cho Kyo. — Tokyo : Shobunsha, 2001. — 464, x, p. : ill. ; 20 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4422-1893-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-1895-6 (electronic) (print) 1. Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)—Japan—History. 2. Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)— China—History. I. Selden, Kyoko Iriye, 1936– translator. II. Title. HQ1220.J3C5313 2012 305.40952—dc23 2012032384 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Translator’s Note ix Preface to the English Edition xi Prologue: The Search for the Beautiful Woman 1 Chapter 1 Favored Appearances 15 1. Lucent Irises, Lustrous Teeth; Moth-Feeler Eyebrows, Willow Waist 15 2. Adoration of White Skin 24 3. Charms of Subcutaneous Fat 28 Chapter 2 Feared Beauties 41 1. Beauty Is Ill-Omened 42 2. Beautiful Women Are Cruel 48 3. Beautiful Women Are Hapless 55 4. Enchantresses in the East and the West 61 Chapter 3 The Rhetoric of Representation 71 1. Japanese Beauties, Chinese Beauties 71 2. Who Is Beautiful? 76 3. Allegory of Beautiful Women 85 4. Beautiful Women in Art 93 Chapter 4 Beauty as a Construct 107 1. Fluctuating Meanings of the Beautiful Face 107 2. Transmission of Safflower 111 3. Whiter Skin, Darker Eyebrows 116 4. Makeup Methods from Ethnic Groups 122 vii viii Contents Chapter 5 Beauties in Chinese Verse and Prose, Beauties in Japanese Literature 131 1. Images of Beautiful Women in Sugawara no Michizane’s Chinese Verse 131 2. Reception and Rejection of Continental Aesthetic Sense 137 3. Descriptions of Beautiful Women in Japanese Prose 141 4. Beautiful Women in Japanese Narrative Literature 149 Chapter 6 Resonance of Aesthetic Views 159 1. Heian Aristocratic Women 159 2. Beauty of an Emaciated Look 165 3. Beautiful Women in Tales of War 171 4. Yang Guifei and the Image of Beauty 176 Chapter 7 Edo Culture as a Filter 185 1. “Adaptations” of the Image of Beauty 185 2. From Japanese Courtesans to Sino-Japanese Fragile Women 190 3. Portrayal from Outlaws of the Marsh 195 4. Allegory of Flowers 202 Chapter 8 Until Naomi Was Born 215 1. Encounter with Western Beauty 215 2. Creation of the Image of the Modern Beautiful Woman 224 3. Physical Appearance as Information on Customs and Manners of the Day 230 4. Westernization of Heroines 234 Epilogue: Where Beauty Will Go 247 Afterword 255 Glossary of Selected Chinese and Japanese Names, Titles, and Terms 257 Selected Bibliography 277 Index 281 Translator’s Note In the text and glossary, Chinese and Japanese names are given surnames first. In certain cases, well-known Japanese figures are referred to in ab- breviated fashion following Japanese practice: Michizane for Sugawara no Michizane (a premodern name), and Sōseki (an independent pen name) for Natsume Sōseki. This translation benefited from the generous editing assistance of Marc Peter Keane. ix