Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, ... Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines

Appendix A

Descriptions of Feminine Beauty in

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (ca. 1000–1010)

Citations by Shonagon of the opinions of others have been omitted unless she expresses approval of them.

BEAUTY

longhaired young woman lying abed in an orange robe and crimson skirt, covered in a mauve and violet robe (p. 60)

many-layered clothes visible through bright curtains of state beneath green bamboo blinds (p. 85)

young, with long hair over her shoulders (p. 94)

contrast between Empress Sadako’s white forehead and glossy black lute (p. 113)

Empress Sadako’s complexion, which harmonizes with her three-layered scarlet silk dress and two plum-red robes (p. 129)

an Imperial concubine’s robes of plum-red, deep red, dark red and an over-robe of light green embroidered silk which makes her look young even though she conceals her face behind a fan (p. 130)

the concubine’s young attendants in loose, cherry-colored coats, underskirts of light green and plum red, and long trains (p. 131)

Court ladies dressed “with their robes, skirts and Chinese jackets perfectly matching the season,” the colors being tawny yellow, light violet, purple, deep red (p. 163)

pretty hair (p. 167)

beautiful shoulder-length tresses (p. 172)

Court ladies in light grey skirts, Chinese jackets, matching dresses of unlined silk, scarlet petticoats (p. 174)

the light pink hue of the Empress’s hands (p. 186)

“a natural beauty” in a tawny unlined robe and a light robe over a dress of dull purple. “With her long hair being blown about and gently puffed up by the wind, she was a truly splendid sight.” (p. 194)

neat short hair in a woman of the lower classes (p. 201)

the Empress’s red Chinese robe above a willow-green damask robe, five unlined grape-hued silk robes, a robe of blue and white gauze, a ceremonial silk skirt (p. 231)

her hair’s front parting, “which was combed at a slight angle pointing towards the ornament that held up her hair over her forehead” (p. 231)

“an attractive woman, whose hair tumbles loosely over her forehead” (p. 240)

“Once I saw a girl of about eighteen with magnificent hair that hung in thick tresses all the way to her feet; she was nicely plump and had splendid white skin,” had a toothache; her hair was disordered and her face wet with tears; she pressed her flushed cheek to her hand; a charming impression (p. 171)

a lady in an unlined white silk gown, a crimson trouser-skirt, a faded dark robe (p. 258)

UGLINESS

dark skin showing patchily through under face powder (p. 22)

disorderly hair (p. 26)

ugly-haired in white robe lower class, in scarlet trouser-skirt (p. 71)

a mottled complexion (p. 189)

“I cannot stand a woman who wears sleeves of unequal width” (p. 170)

“women in travelling costumes who walk in a great hurry” (p. 262)

a thin ugly woman with dark skin and a wig (p. 262)

a darkskinned person in an unlined robe of stiff silk (p. 262)