Japanese Kabuki Makeup

The pattern of the makeup and the color stand for certain characters.

Japanese kabuki makeup. How to maikogeisha make up duration. Fun facts about kabuki theater and kabuki makeup. Kabuki is made up of three kanji chinese characters. If you happen to be interested in the history of makeup and cosmetics learning about kabuki makeup and what it signifies is a very interesting place to start.

The use of transformational makeup in japan can be traced back to ancient. Kabuki theater began when female attendants at religious shrines began performing a mixture of folk dance and religious dance. Literally kabuki means the art of song and dance but performances extend well beyond these two elements. All told japanese kabuki is an outlandish visual spectacle which focuses more on looks.

Artelino kumadori is the japanese word for the makeup worn by the kabuki actors. The actors become living special effects to present the story and extravagant masking and makeup is integral to this complete transformation of the actor so asian theatre generally includes the most sophisticated facepainting designs in the world such as the kumadori makeup tradition in japanese kabuki theater. Kabuki makeup is applied heavily to create a brightly painted mask that uses colors to indicate age gender and the moods of each character. Ka meaning sing bu representing dance and ki indicating skill.

Many things make kabuki special but arguably the most recognizable trait of the kabuki actor are the elegant costumes and elaborate distinctive kabuki makeup. Kabuki theater started during the edo period so its a part of ancient japanese culture. Kabuki is a traditional japanese form of theater with roots tracing back to the edo periodit is recognized as one of japans three major classical theaters along with noh and bunraku and has been named as a unesco intangible cultural heritage. Kabuki play is a bit like a soap opera its all about love betrayal and revenge.

Most japanese women arent geisha and you wont see kabuki makeup outside of the theater but knowing a bit about the cosmetic traditions of this asian nation is sure to enlighten. Thus the kabuki audience could easily recognize what kind of role an actor represented a hero a villain a ghost.