Illustration: Women who are blacking their teeth painted by Utamaro Kitagawa
Did all women have their teeth blackening in the Edo period?
In the Edo period, teeth blackening among those except court aristocracy died out. Common women, however, shaved their eyebrows and blackened their teeth after getting married. For teeth blackening, when liquid was warmed, it smelled. Therefore, married women blackened their teeth before their husbands got up. When travelling, they took instant teeth blackening powder with them.
Foreigners who visited Japan from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji period criticized the Meiji government as they identified teeth blackening as discrimination against women. In 1868 and 1870 a ban on teeth blackening was enacted targeting the nobility but the custom did not alter. As Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken took the lead in stopping eyebrow shaving and teeth blackening in March 1873, teeth blackening among common people began fading out.