Think of a Japanese woman dressed up in an extravagant kimono, a geisha, she has a thick layer of white make up on her face with eyebrows and eyeliners beautifully drawn on her face, her red lips raises a little as she smiles at you. Who is she? The name that was given is just her stage name, but who is the person behind her makeup?
Makeup in Japanese culture is used by actors and performers as disguise of their own identity and as tool to indicate themselves as entertainers. Different makeup means different types of an act produced by artist depend on their gender and their form of act. Different kind of performer of different gender produces different types of act, also different actions and gestures and different way to entertain. The thick layer of makeup they put on literally covers their face to neck and even to the extension of their back in a non-nudity, white-based color. As they seal themselves behind the mask, they can no longer identify themselves as who they really are anymore, they become the character of what the makeup designed them to be, they’re actions are not theirs but their character’s.
Geisha are Japanese female entertainers who performs traditional art such as singing, dancing, playing the samisen, and who also act as hostesses in the geisha house.
The usage of makeup is the most essential part of a geisha’s appearance, she must apply it thoroughly to cover all the areas on her face, her neck, and part of her back in a non-nudity, white-based color. This creates the effect of having literally a barrier between her own face and her appearance from the outside. With her real face sealed under the makeup, she now has a different identification, one that’s given by what she’s wearing on her face – the mask of geisha.
Maikos, the young apprentice of geisha often has more and thicker makeup on during her beginning years, and as she ages, she gradually lessen the amount of makeup she applies to her face. The lessen of makeup suggests maturity and reliance of a geisha’s natural beauty, and perhaps the ability to show her professionalism in front of the guests even without the help of having makeup on.
Another different yet similar case would be the Kabuki actors. They are men who
act in the Kabuki theaters, a traditional Japanese dance drama that features actor with elaborated customs and dramatic facial make up. Kabuki theater is distinctive for its melo-drama and bizarreness. A Kabuki actor applies a large amount of makeup of on his face to enhance his feature and exaggerate his expression on stage in order to reenact his character.
Different than the makeup design that geisha uses, Kabuki actor’s makeup is like the style of what they’re acting, very bold and dramatic. It’s an important indication of their role. Similar to the geisha, it also separates them to what’s public and private. Although both are people acting “on-stage”, different types of mask and the distinction between gender made them each have a very different way of entertaining. Kabuki actors would act out something that’s consider inelegant to the geisha, and this is an example of the different gender structure and how men and women acts differently in the Japanese society.
The Japanese culture has a significant gender-base social structure, men are women are expected and raised to act differently in situations, roles are divided between men and women, each has their own sets of ways of doing things. For example, women often have their own style of writing and speaking, there’s a sense of decorum in their speech that are made to soften opinions and make it sound less decisive. A woman can be honored with the role of a family’s caretaker and mother. They esteem household labor as virtuous, it’s not just chores that one might think in an American feminism way. Doing good job in the household is valued as a good character to women for they are doing their parts in the community. In other cases, women are expected to be deferential to men in a certain social situations, but cases that asks for professional and intellectual opinions, a woman has more rights to share her point of view.
The Japanese culture has a very community-centered mindset, they often identify themselves as part of the group rather than one individual. Gender are divided to play out different roles in situations and each carries out different duty in the society. A lot of actions in both gender are acted out in an amae way, actions depending on the benevolence of the other. The Japanese culture is very sensitive in maintaining relationship and its harmony, many words and actions are done considerable to the other person, there’s different amae and decorum according to different class, gender, seniority and superiority, and the value of this, is in fact, comes from the Five Ethical Codes in Confucianism which its principle has a significant influence to Japan on its fundamental moral and value. It stated that human are bounded by five types of relationships with each other and with different people there must be a different way of interaction. Taken by this principle, people are very sensible by their relationships, and therefore actions carried out are based on one’s identification of him or herself and the identification of the other person.
With the culture background in mind, it can be conclude that being a geisha is a very feminine career, and the actions performed by them are indeed different from actions performed by male actors. Both being entertainers and member of the community they are bound by the inter-dependent relationship with each other and are both playing their roles in the bigger picture.
Makeup for the traditional Japanese performers are really masks they wear on stage to conceal their individual selves. Once on stage, their acts are not out of their own motivation but their character’s. The audience sees the artist performing, but they never see who the person is behind the makeup or what they act like off stage. Make up gives new identity to the performers and make them alive on stage.