Okinawan Women and Beauty Salons

The Acceptance and Development of Beauty and Dress

Abstract

This paper examines Okinawan women’s practices and experiences with beauty and considers what Okinawan beauty salons have become for such women. This study analyzes beauty salons from the perspective of “place.”
By describing Okinawan women’s practices and experiences regarding beauty and examining how they have experienced beauty salons, the following points were identified: First, Arakaki Mitoko, one of the modern girls in Okinawa during the Taisho period, attended beauty school in Tokyo and became a hairdresser because she needed to support herself. She opened one of the first beauty salons in Okinawa. Second, during the U.S. occupation, manicures spread among Okinawan women through beauty salons around U.S. military bases. This is because people from U.S. military bases ordered manicures at beauty salons near the bases. Third, in contemporary Okinawan beauty salons, regular customers enjoy “yuntaku” (chatting) daily. Furthermore, hairdressers and regular customers sometimes form “moai” (mutual aid associations). For these women, beauty salons have become a “place” that is embedded in their lives that has its own unique meaning.
In conclusion, beauty salons in Okinawa have been linked to the local context throughout time and have become a “place” that is rooted in the daily lives of women.