bijin

In practice the term {{transl|ja|"bijin"}} means "beautiful woman" because the first kanji character, {{nihongo||美|bi}}, has a feminine connotation. The character expressed the concept of beauty by first using the element for "sheep", which must have been viewed as beautiful, and was combined with the element for "big", ultimately forming a new kanji.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcrXBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT127|title=Read Japanese Today: The Easy Way to Learn 400 Practical Kanji|last=Walsh|first=Len|date=2008-11-15|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=9781462915927|language=en}} {{transl|ja|Bijin}} can also be translated as "a beauty". Its modern meaning was also said to have undergone an internationalization, with the term for the moon and then a lord or ruler on high.{{clarify|date=April 2021}}{{Cite book|title=Kyoka, Japan's Comic Verse: A Mad in Translation Reader|url=https://archive.org/details/kykajapanscomicv00gill|url-access=limited|last=Gill|first=Robin D.|date=2009|publisher=Paraverse Press|isbn=9780984092307|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kykajapanscomicv00gill/page/n187 187]}} People who are called a {{transl|ja|bijin}} are usually considered beautiful, charming and harmonious women who wear pretty clothes.

In Mandarin Chinese, {{lang|zh|美人}} (Pinyin: {{transl|zh|`měirén}}) also means "a beautiful woman".{{Cite web|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%BE%8E%E4%BA%BA|title=美人|website=en.wiktionary.org}} Like Mandarin Chinese, in Korean, {{lang|ko|美人}} ({{ko-hhrm|미인||Miin}}) means "a beautiful woman", and in Vietnamese, {{lang|vi|美人}} ({{lang|vi|mĩ nhân}}) also means "beautiful woman". The Min Nan pronunciation, {{transl|nan|bí-jîn}}, meaning the same as its Mandarin equivalent, is especially similar to the Japanese.

File:NDL-DC 1312886-Tsukioka Yoshitoshi-美人七陽華 従四位四辻清子-明治11-crd.jpg]]

During the Heian period in Japan, fine-textured fair skin, plump cheeks, and long, supple black hair were revered as typical beauty conditions. However, since it was decided that a woman with a certain status or higher would not show her face to a man other than her close relatives, the man would sneak into the sleeping place of the woman he was looking for and see it for the first time under a dim light. Makeup involved applying white powder to the face, removing the eyebrows, drawing with ink ({{lang|ja|引き眉}} {{transl|ja|hikimayu}}), and dyeing the teeth black ({{lang|ja|お歯黒}} {{transl|ja|ohaguro}}), emphasizing bewitching rather than healthy beauty. The adult age of women at that time was 12 to 14 years old, which was the beginning of the tide, and the 30s were considered to have already passed the peak age. {{transl|ja|"Hikime kagibana"}} is the name of the expression technique used when drawing a noble person in Heian paintings, such as scenes taken from The Tale of Genji.

Westerner Luís Fróis, who stayed in Japan for more than 30 years during the Warring States period, said, "Europeans say big eyes are beautiful. The Japanese consider it horrifying and make it beautiful to have the eyes closed." This describes how the Japanese at that time idealized the smaller eyes as depicted in picture scrolls and {{transl|ja|bijin-ga}} rather than big eyes.

From the Edo period onwards, beauty standards in Japan came to idealise light skin, delicate features, a small mouth, a high forehead, small eyes and rich black hair, as depicted in many {{transl|ja|ukiyo-e}} pictures. In the best-selling makeup instruction book "Miyako Customs Makeup Den" at that time, there was a section called "Den to see the greatness of the eyes", which shows that the eyes had a different aesthetic sense from the present. Saikaku Ihara's "Five Women Who Loved Love" has a description that he makes an unreasonable wish at a shrine to raise his low nose, suggesting that he preferred the height of his nose at that time. This sense of beauty became the basis of the image of beautiful women from the Meiji era to the Taisho era.

{{Main article|Bijin-ga}}

Pictures of {{transl|ja|bijin}} in Japanese art are called {{transl|ja|bijin-ga}}. {{transl|ja|Bijin-ga}} is described as a genre of {{transl|ja|ukiyo-e}} paintings. Some of the greatest bijinga artists are Utamaro, Suzuki Harunobu and Torii Kiyonaga.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=izePWrWvE-MC&dq=bijin+ga+OR+bijinga+OR+Akita&pg=PA92|title=Utamaro: Portraits from the Floating World|date=Mar 5, 2000|publisher=Kodansha International|isbn=9784770027306 |via=Google Books}} Until the beginning of the 20th century, {{transl|ja|bijin-ga}} were very popular.

File:Utamaro (1793) Three Beauties of the Present Time, MFAB 21.6382.jpg (1793) by Utamaro ]]

Nihon Sandai Bijin (The Three Beauties of Japan) is a term referring to several three women that were considered the most beautiful in Japan.

• Three Beauties of Taishō period:{{Cite book|last1=Ikuta|first1=Makoto|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/902610691|title=Joryū sakka no modan Tōkyō : Hanako to Byakuren ga aruita machi|last2=生田誠|date=2015|isbn=978-4-309-75014-9|location=Tōkyō|pages=64–65|oclc=902610691}}
• Takeko Kujō
• Byakuren Yanagiwara
• Egi Kinkin
• Hayashi Kimuko
• Three Beauties of the Present Day:{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34013452|title=Edogaku jiten|date=1994|publisher=Kōbundō|others=Matsunosuke Nishiyama, 西山松之助|isbn=4-335-25053-3|edition=Shohan|location=Tōkyō|oclc=34013452}}
• Tomimoto Toyohina
• Naniwaya Okita
• Takashima Ohisa
• Three Beauties of Japan:{{Cite book|last=人物往来社|title=歴史読本 第 13 巻、 第 1～3 号|publisher=人物往来社|pages=114|oclc=43609743}}
• Fujiwara no Michitsuna's mother
• Soto-ori-hime
• Ono no Komachi

Akita, in northern Japan, is famous for the "{{transl|ja|bijin}} of Akita"{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBgzo4UZgO8C&dq=bijin+ga+OR+bijinga+OR+Akita&pg=PA379|title=Petit Futé Japon|first1=Dominique|last1=Auzias|first2=Jean-Marc|last2=Weise|first3=Olivier|last3=Hembise|first4=Violaine|last4=Brissard|date=Mar 29, 2007|publisher=Nouvelles Editions de l'Université|isbn=9782746918597 |via=Google Books}} who are characterized by their round face, clear skin{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gthp7ZCcYPwC&dq=Akita+bijin&pg=PA543|title=Japan|isbn=9781741046670 |last1=Rowthorn |first1=Chris |last2=Bartlett |first2=Ray |last3=Bender |first3=Andrew |last4=Clark |first4=Michael |year=2007 |publisher=Lonely Planet }} and high-pitched voice. Ono no Komachi, one of the Thirty-six Immortals of Poetry, was a bijin from Akita.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hI6Ity0NPh4C&dq=bijin+Akita+%22ono+no+komachi+%22&pg=PA173|title=The Woman Without a Hole - & Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems|first=Robin D.|last=Gill|date=Mar 5, 2007|publisher=Paraverse Press|isbn=9780974261881 |via=Google Books}}

Some of Utamaro's favourite models have remained famous as {{transl|ja|bijin}}; for example Naniwaya Okita (fr), a courtesan Hanaōgi (fr), Tomimoto Toyohina (fr) and Takashima Ohisa.Images du Monde Flottant - Peintures et estampes japonaises XVIIe - XVIIIe siècles, pages 300-305 (in French)

File:Hayashi Kimuko.jpg|Hayashi Kimuko, one of the Three Beauties of Taishō period

File:Yanagiwara Byakuren.jpg|Byakuren Yanagiwara, one of the Three Beauties of Taishō period

File:NDL-DC 1301654-Kobayashi Kiyochika-（美人図）-crd.jpg|Bijin-zu by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915)

File:Maple Leaves Koyo and Shamisen by Kitagawa Utamaro c1803.png|{{transl|ja|Bijin-ga}} by Kitagawa Utamaro ("Flowers of Edo: Young Woman's Narrative Chanting to the Samisen", {{circa|1803}})

• {{transl|ja|Bijin-ga}}
• {{transl|ja|Bihaku}}
• {{transl|ja|Bishōjo}}

{{reflist}}

• Images du Monde Flottant - Peintures et estampes japonaises XVIIe - XVIIIe siècles. (Septembre 2004) ({{ISBN|2-7118-4821-3}})

Category:Beauty

Category:Japanese words and phrases

Category:Culture articles needing translation from Japanese Wikipedia