Teeth Blackening Utensil Box with Scattered Three-Striped Circle and Bellflower Crests in Makie 丸に三引両と桔梗紋散蒔絵鉄漿箱マルニミツビキリョウトキキョウモンチラシマキエカネバコ
Description
Up through the 1100s, the custom of blackening one’s teeth with an iron solution was a feminine trend. Later, it spread among men of the imperial court and elite warrior class. In the Edo period (1615¬–1868), the practice was discontinued by men, but it became popular among commoners and soon came to symbolize married women.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
June 29, 2026