December 16, 2010
Yaeba
In another installment in my occasional "eye of the beholder" series, I tackle teeth. When I was first in Japan thirty years ago, there was a whole class of models willing to unabashedly put their yaeba (八重歯), or overlapping canines, on public display.
Quoting Wikipedia-Japan, "the retarded growth of the upper palate or delayed loss of the baby teeth" causes the upper canines to overlap the incisors.
Modern othordontics is slowly eating away at the phenomenon, though yaega (yaeba + "girl") continue to be quite popular in some quarters. They're clearly discernible in this photograph of Princess Masako.
And (of course) there's a whole website devoted just to yaega.
Quoting Wikipedia-Japan, "the retarded growth of the upper palate or delayed loss of the baby teeth" causes the upper canines to overlap the incisors.
Modern othordontics is slowly eating away at the phenomenon, though yaega (yaeba + "girl") continue to be quite popular in some quarters. They're clearly discernible in this photograph of Princess Masako.
And (of course) there's a whole website devoted just to yaega.
Related posts
The ears have it
Japan's got talent
Three good reasons to watch NHK
Timeless fashion
Labels: eye-of-beholder, japan, pop culture
April 15, 2010
A matter of height
An Asadora protagonist is always a woman. The lead of Ge-Ge-Ge no Nyoubou is played by Nao Matsushita, who is 175 cm (5'9") tall. The average Japanese female is 158 cm (5'2"), the average Japanese male is 172 cm (5'8") tall, so she towers over almost everyone.Watching enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa's variety show, I was sure he was at least six feet, but it turns out he's 177 cm (5'10"). It's just that he was that much taller than his guests.
I'm 176 cm tall, the exact average for the American male. I used to have a pretty unobstructed view standing in a subway car in Japan. But over the last quarter century, adult male height in Japan has gained 3 cm, so not for long.
The average Japanese eleven-year-old has gained an amazing six inches since the end of the war.
Thirty years ago, Japan's most famous tall actress was Youko Shimada. To prevent a comical mismatch of height in the Shogun miniseries, the 171 cm (5'7") Shimada was cast against the 185 cm (6'1") Richard Chamberlain.
Nao Matsushita's character really was a couple standard deviations taller than the average (Nunoe Mura was repeatedly turned down for marriage proposals because of her height), and she is playing opposite the six foot Osamu Mukai.
So in historical and relative terms, the role does call for someone with height on her side. (Incidentally, theirs was an arranged marriage, and Nunoe Mura and Shigeru Mizuki were married a week after their omiai.)
Labels: asadora, eye-of-beholder, japan, japanese tv, pop culture, science, social studies, television
March 19, 2010
Japan's got talent
No discussion of attractive women with slightly unusual physical characteristics can be deemed complete without mentioning the owner of the world's cutest overbite. When Disney anthropomorphizes a pretty girl chipmunk, what they must surely have in mind as the ideal is Shouko Nakagawa (中川翔子).
Nakagawa came up through the traditional "idol" ranks, which presupposes a nominal (often very nominal) amount of singing and acting skills. But these days she is mainly known as a "talent" (tarento).
A "talent" (an actual title and job description in Japan's entertainment industry) is a person whose fundamental "talent" is being famous for being famous. Talents are the backbone of the game, chat, and variety show circuits in Japan. Their job is to have charisma, a fan base, and always something interesting to say.
Shouko Nakagawa has greatly extended her audience not just by being very cute, but by demonstrating a genuine interest in, and knowledge of, all things otaku. She can share the stage with either comedians or professorial types and acquit herself nicely. And she's respectable enough to appear regularly on NHK.
She is the incarnation of the geek daydream, a flesh and blood moe character come magically to life: big eyes, big ears, a dainty overbite, beauty and brains.
In Japan, it a respectable sideline for people with real talent to do stints as "talents," such as actor/director Takeshi Kitano, who hosts a weekly chat show. Marty Friedman, lead guitarist for the metal band Megadeth, now lives in Japan and makes regular appearances as a "gaijin talent" (another actual category).
By way of comparison, Ryan Seacrest on American Idol is an "announcer" (anaunsaa), a specialized kind of "talent." Ellen is an "announcer" on Ellen but a "talent" on American Idol. David Hasselhoff on America's Got Talent is a "talent," because nobody can remember what he's famous for anymore.
Nakagawa came up through the traditional "idol" ranks, which presupposes a nominal (often very nominal) amount of singing and acting skills. But these days she is mainly known as a "talent" (tarento).
A "talent" (an actual title and job description in Japan's entertainment industry) is a person whose fundamental "talent" is being famous for being famous. Talents are the backbone of the game, chat, and variety show circuits in Japan. Their job is to have charisma, a fan base, and always something interesting to say.
Shouko Nakagawa has greatly extended her audience not just by being very cute, but by demonstrating a genuine interest in, and knowledge of, all things otaku. She can share the stage with either comedians or professorial types and acquit herself nicely. And she's respectable enough to appear regularly on NHK.
She is the incarnation of the geek daydream, a flesh and blood moe character come magically to life: big eyes, big ears, a dainty overbite, beauty and brains.
In Japan, it a respectable sideline for people with real talent to do stints as "talents," such as actor/director Takeshi Kitano, who hosts a weekly chat show. Marty Friedman, lead guitarist for the metal band Megadeth, now lives in Japan and makes regular appearances as a "gaijin talent" (another actual category).
By way of comparison, Ryan Seacrest on American Idol is an "announcer" (anaunsaa), a specialized kind of "talent." Ellen is an "announcer" on Ellen but a "talent" on American Idol. David Hasselhoff on America's Got Talent is a "talent," because nobody can remember what he's famous for anymore.
Related posts
The ears have it
Three good reasons to watch NHK
Timeless fashion
Yaeba
Labels: eye-of-beholder, japan, japanese tv, pop culture, television
March 17, 2010
The ears have it
Google actress/model Mayuko Iwasa (岩佐真悠子) and you'll find plenty of photos displaying her in various states of attractive (un)dress.
But few and far between are those showing off her most impressive pair of assets: her amazing ears. Paint her blue and she could pass for one of those Avatar chicks.
Mayuko Iwasa has a supporting role on the current NHK Asadora Wel-kame ("welcome" + kame [tortoise]). She plays a doctor who's fallen for the fisherman's son (go ahead, roll your eyes). That means she wears a lab coat, her hair back, and a serious expression constantly on her face.
But at least we get to see the ears!
After her starring role in Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey got a nose job that so changed her appearance that on the short-lived series It's Like, You Know, the running joke was that, even playing herself, nobody recognized her. She said, "I went in the operating room a celebrity and came out anonymous."
Seriously, Mayuko, don't mess with the ears.
But few and far between are those showing off her most impressive pair of assets: her amazing ears. Paint her blue and she could pass for one of those Avatar chicks.
Mayuko Iwasa has a supporting role on the current NHK Asadora Wel-kame ("welcome" + kame [tortoise]). She plays a doctor who's fallen for the fisherman's son (go ahead, roll your eyes). That means she wears a lab coat, her hair back, and a serious expression constantly on her face.
But at least we get to see the ears!
After her starring role in Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey got a nose job that so changed her appearance that on the short-lived series It's Like, You Know, the running joke was that, even playing herself, nobody recognized her. She said, "I went in the operating room a celebrity and came out anonymous."
Seriously, Mayuko, don't mess with the ears.
Related posts
Japan's got talent
Three good reasons to watch NHK
Timeless fashion
Yaeba
Labels: asadora, eye-of-beholder, japan, japanese tv, pop culture, television
November 26, 2008
Skinny and cute
Kaori Shoji informs us in the International Herald Tribune that "in Japan, it's the men who want to be skinny and cute."
This strikes me as one of those deeply-researched MSM pieces based on a sample size of "me and my two best friends." The business about the girlfriends weighing more
than their boyfriends is physically improbable. But in general I think she's onto something.
A recent episode of NHK's Cool Japan program polled Japanese women to create a composite of the "ideal man." He turned out to be the twin of popular enka crooner Kiyoshi Hikawa. According to his record label, Hikawa is 177 cm tall and weighs 62 kg (5'9.5" 136 lbs).
Those are my approximate dimensions, and I'm a beanpole. Before looking up the actual numbers, I'd assumed from watching his variety show that Hikawa was around six feet tall. But that's because his guests are usually so much shorter than he is. So we may be talking about tastes governed by situationally-relative dimensions.
To be sure, as an enka artist, Hikawa is most popular with the forty-plus crowd. Though the boy band idols on NHK's Pop Music Club (think American Bandstand) that have thousands of teenage girls screaming their lungs out every week look pretty much like teenage Hikawa clones.
Then consider yaoi and the Takarazuka theater troupe. In Takarazuka productions, all the male roles are played by women. The willowy, porcelain-skinned Takarazuka "leading man" looks exactly like the typical yaoi protagonist, and an awful lot like Kiyoshi Hikawa.
But the most annoying aspect of contemporary male fashion in Japan is long bangs. I can't abide my bangs getting into my line of sight (pragmatics, not aesthetics). Yet you see it even on suit-wearing businessmen and news anchors. It brings out the old geezer in me. I want to throw things at the screen and shout, "Cut yer darned hair!"
Young males between the ages of 18 and 30 make up the slimmest segment of the population and the ideal fashion weight as decreed by the apparel industry is 57 kilograms, or about 125 pounds, for a height of 175 centimeters, or 5 feet 8 inches.
This strikes me as one of those deeply-researched MSM pieces based on a sample size of "me and my two best friends." The business about the girlfriends weighing more
than their boyfriends is physically improbable. But in general I think she's onto something.A recent episode of NHK's Cool Japan program polled Japanese women to create a composite of the "ideal man." He turned out to be the twin of popular enka crooner Kiyoshi Hikawa. According to his record label, Hikawa is 177 cm tall and weighs 62 kg (5'9.5" 136 lbs).
Those are my approximate dimensions, and I'm a beanpole. Before looking up the actual numbers, I'd assumed from watching his variety show that Hikawa was around six feet tall. But that's because his guests are usually so much shorter than he is. So we may be talking about tastes governed by situationally-relative dimensions.
To be sure, as an enka artist, Hikawa is most popular with the forty-plus crowd. Though the boy band idols on NHK's Pop Music Club (think American Bandstand) that have thousands of teenage girls screaming their lungs out every week look pretty much like teenage Hikawa clones.Then consider yaoi and the Takarazuka theater troupe. In Takarazuka productions, all the male roles are played by women. The willowy, porcelain-skinned Takarazuka "leading man" looks exactly like the typical yaoi protagonist, and an awful lot like Kiyoshi Hikawa.
But the most annoying aspect of contemporary male fashion in Japan is long bangs. I can't abide my bangs getting into my line of sight (pragmatics, not aesthetics). Yet you see it even on suit-wearing businessmen and news anchors. It brings out the old geezer in me. I want to throw things at the screen and shout, "Cut yer darned hair!"
Labels: cool japan, eye-of-beholder, japan, nhk, romance, sex, yaoi
May 08, 2007
Miki Yamamoto
My interest in cooking is pretty much limited to what can be fried, boiled, or microwaved in ten minutes or less. Except when Miki Yamamoto comes on the screen to host Cooking Today. She doesn't actually cook anything. Her job consists of introducing the day's guest cook, looking admiringly over his or her shoulder, playing the attentive student, and sampling the final product.She may well be the cutest "announcer" (as the occupation is known in Japan) in existence. (The graphic above does not come close to doing the live version justice.) Though it is possible that she's an android manufactured in a secret laboratory beneath Mount Fuji, where thousands of high-speed centrifuges spin away 24/7, distilling the essence of the adorable into weapons-grade kawaii-ness.
The same factory made Kelly Ripa, though the Japanese version cranks the demureness factor up to eleven (she doesn't have Regis to put up with). I'm not talking "gorgeous" in the otherworldly Grace Kelly/Audrey Hepburn sense (yeah, that dates me). I mean, there's "pretty" and then there an inconceivable beauty (imagine Wallace Shawn saying that) that causes rifts in the fabric of spacetime.
Miki Yamamoto isn't that. And, frankly, the thought of that in real life is rather terrifying (my basic problem with Densha Otoko). Rather, I'm talking about the human form of whatever it is that makes grown men with no interest in cooking watch cooking shows while saying, "Awww."
Labels: eye-of-beholder, japan, japanese tv, nhk