Ofuku Hairstyle:The Japanese Traditional Hairstyle

Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese to win the nobel prize (1968) once wrote “If for no other reason than to preserve traditional hairstyles, the geisha’s existance is vital. I wonder how and when these hairstyles developed.”

“Japanese men, as a rule, feel about a woman’s neck and throat about the same way as men in the west feel about a woman’s legs. This is why geisha wear the collars of their kimono so low in the back…I suppose that its like a woman in Paris wearing a short skirt.” Sayuri, in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ by Aurthur Golden.

An old image from last year’s Plum Blossom Festival.