August 31, 2016

MINGEI EDO kushi comb Kamm

http://darumamuseum.blogspot.jp/2007/07/comb-kushi.html

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. Edo shokunin 江戸の職人 Edo craftsmen .

kushishi, kushi shi 櫛師 comb maker

They made decorative combs for the ladies to beautify their coiffure.
Since the ladies did not wash their hair as often as it is done now, they had to make use of comps regularly.



The fashionable ladies of Edo had three favorite items
first the Kushi
second the Obi (sash)
third the Kosode (Kimono with short sleeves)

The wood for a comb was mostly tsuge 楊 boxwood, but shitan 紫檀 red sandalwood, kokutan 黒檀 Ebony Diospyros and other light wood was also used.
The wood was cut into a rough form and then let sit to dry for three or more years.
Ivory, bekkoo 鼈甲 Bekko tortoiseshell, horn of deer and even bamboo were also used.


喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 - 1806) kushi 櫛

- quote -
The Art of Japanese Hair Comb Patterns
(Kushi Hinagata)

by Stephen J. Gertz
Sometime post-1905, an anonymous gentleman in Japan, wishing to preserve his collection of rice-paper rubbings of setsu kushi hinagata (patterns of miniature combs), took three issues of Japan Art Society Reports from the 37th Year of the Meiji (1905), mounted the rubbings on each page, had the issues bound together, crossed out the original titles and provided one in black ink.


CLICK for more illustrations !

. . . . . The resulting unique scrapbook features over 500 charcoal rubbings of miniature Japanese combs and hairpins (koagi). . . . . .
Katsushika Hokusai's classic three-volume Imayo Kushi Hinagata (1823)
. . . . . Traditional comb shapes are half moon, horseshoe, and square. The combs were often worn in concert with koagi (hair pins) in classical Japanese hairdressing. . . . . .
- read more here
- source : booktryst.com . Stephen J. Gertz -

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. bihatsu kigan 美髪祈願 praying for beautiful hair .
櫛型のお守り amulet in form of a comb
櫛型の絵馬 ema votive tablet in form of a comb

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Combs have a long history in Japan.
wakare no kushi 別れの櫛 comb as a good-bye present
comb of separation

goes back to the Heian period.

- quote -
When the Saigu, or royal vestal virgin of Ise, was about to be sent away on her prolonged period of service at the Great Shrine, she was called to the palace and the emperor thrust a comb into her hair with his own hands.
This was the wakare no kushi, or " comb of separation."
Thus the sojourn of the virgin princess at Ise was brought under the taboo of comb and hair.
- source : archive.org/stream/politicalphiloso -


. Legends and Tales from Japan 伝説 - Introduction .

- reference : nichibun yokai database 妖怪データベース -
48 櫛 to explore


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