us how the great-grandfather of the first great emperor Jimmu descended
from heaven on to the peak of the mountain Takachiho in Hyûga in Kyûshû.
Accompanied by his brother, he started from this spot on his march of
conquering migration to Yamato, fighting and subduing on his way tribes
who on the continent were once his kith and kin.
[4] _Memoirs of the Literary Department of the University of Tôkyô_,
vol. i.
[5] _Die körperlichen Eigenschaften der Japaner_, vols. xxviii. and
xxxii. of _Mittheilungen der Gesellschaft für die Natur- und Völkerkunde
Ostasiens_.
It might perhaps interest you to know something of our prevailing idea
of personal beauty, especially as, in such a homogeneous nation as the
Japanese, ruled from time immemorial by one and the same line of
dynasty, it may help us to make some vague conjectures as to the
physical appearances of at least one of those continental tribes out of
which our nation has been formed. The standard of beauty naturally
fluctuates a little according to sex and locality. In a lady, for
example, mildness and grace are, generally speaking, preferred to that
strength or manliness of expression which would be thought more becoming
in her brother. Tôkyô again does not put so much stress on the
fleshiness of limbs and face as does Kyôto. But, as a whole, there is
only one ideal throughout the Empire. So let me try to enumerate all the
qualities usually considered necessary to make a beautiful woman. She is
to possess a body not much exceeding five feet in height, with
comparatively fair skin and proportionately well-developed limbs; a head
covered with long, thick, and jet-black hair; an oval face with a
straight nose, high and narrow; rather large eyes, with large deep-brown
pupils and thick eyelashes; a small mouth, hiding behind its red, but
not thin, lips, even rows of small white teeth; ears not altogether
small; and long and thick eyebrows forming two horizontal but slightly
curved lines, with a space left between them and the eyes. Of the four
ways in which hair can grow round the upper edge of the forehead, viz.,
horned, square, round, and Fuji-shaped, one of the last two is
preferred, a very high as well as a very low forehead being considered
not attractive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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