Question Cover your mouth!

[Ukigumo]

Why do some young Japanese women cover their mouths with their hands or keitai when they speak? Is it a throw back to when teeth were deemed vulgar and blackened by the upper classes?

 

[nice gaijin]

I just asked a friend I was with and he said he doesn't think it has such deep roots, just that they think it's cute or demure, and has become a habit

 

[Ukigumo]

I've notice many younger women walking 'pigeon-toed' in Japan. That is an affectation harking back to kimono-wearing, isn't it?

 

[nice gaijin]

I've notice many younger women walking 'pigeon-toed' in Japan. That is an affectation harking back to kimono-wearing, isn't it?

I doubt it, they don't wear kimono enough nowadays for it to be an acquired habit, I'd think

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I've notice many younger women walking 'pigeon-toed' in Japan. That is an affectation harking back to kimono-wearing, isn't it?

It's been around a long time. I swear back in the early 70's half the young girls were pigeon-toed in Fukuoka.

 

[Ukigumo]

I doubt it, they don't wear kimono enough nowadays for it to be an acquired habit, I'd think

You're right, but the pigeon-toed affectation is seen as cute (originally used to prevent the wearer stepping on the the kimono hem). It's adoption was so common when I visited Japan I assumed it was either an affectation or a disastrous musculoskeletal defect!

 

[Ukigumo]

Why are so many Japanese women pigeon toed?

It is an obvious, perennial question, one that must pop into the head of every visitor within 24 hours of touching down at Narita, and yet a conclusive answer remains as elusive as the yeti. Having Googled the question, and read myriad conjectures, suppositions and wild guesses, I was still…

japantoday.com

 

[Ukigumo]

 

[Ukigumo]

It must be an affectation rather than a genetic difference.

When I practised Kendo, the Japanese teachers would often insist that we Westerners held the tip of shinai too high because the instruction to 'keep the proximal end of the staves at the level of the belly button' was not applicable to us since our umbilicus was lower than Japanese people's. I didn't believe this and by sheer coincidence, at work, I had a Japanese demonstrator (Rin) helping me teach in the dissection hall. She had a Japanese anatomy textbook and a quick look through it showed no categorical difference in the position of the belly button between Japanese and Western people. I consigned the idea to the same bin in which resided 'only Japan has four distinct seasons'.

Rin used to freak- the students (and me) out by routinely using hashi to manipulate and point out structures in the cadavers. A whole cohort of university student must've abandoned cup noodles as a food staple! I used a knife and fork

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

In Japan, the custom of covering one's mouth has existed for over a thousand years, dating back to the Heian period . Court ladies of the Heian era would hide their mouths behind folding fans. It is also said that aristocratic men of the time would conceal their mouths with a shaku (a flat ceremonial baton). In Japan, covering the mouth can serve to conceal one's identity. Ninja attire and samurai hoods, for example, also hide the mouth.

In contrast, in the West, it is more common to hide the eyes. At masquerade balls, the mouth is visible while the eyes are covered by a mask. Similarly, American comic book heroes often hide their eyes but leave their mouths uncovered—Batman and Captain America, for instance. This reflects a cultural difference.

 

[nice gaijin]

In Japan, the custom of covering one's mouth has existed for over a thousand years, dating back to the Heian period. Court ladies of the Heian era would hide their mouths behind folding fans. It is also said that aristocratic men of the time would conceal their mouths with a shaku (a flat ceremonial baton). In Japan, covering the mouth can serve to conceal one's identity. Ninja attire and samurai hoods, for example, also hide the mouth.

In contrast, in the West, it is more common to hide the eyes. At masquerade balls, the mouth is visible while the eyes are covered by a mask. Similarly, American comic book heroes often hide their eyes but leave their mouths uncovered—Batman and Captain America, for instance. This reflects a cultural difference.

Not to mention your profile picture, I never understood why thieves thought it was the height of stealth to tie a kerchief under their nose