Female Pubic Hair as Aesthetic Form and Political Signifier in Japanese Visual Culture

Abstract

Since the hegemony of any discourse is always associated with the West, we will turn to Western art as a more appropriate reference for this article, as is customary. There are many examples in art history of the removal of pubic hair in paintings depicting naked female bodies. This is why Courbet’s 1866 L’Origine du monde was long debated in art history as a provocative statement against the previous tradition. According to Foucault’s analysis, the concept of the docile body shows that ‘pubic hair’, like other bodily features, can be understood as having evolved for all uses through social norms. Many cultures represent some kind of regulation regarding pubic hair, and it is reduced to a body part that is traditionally subject to ‘concealing’ or ‘restricting’, offering ideas about love, shame, control, purity, sexuality, protest, and obscenity. This article, titled “Female Pubic Hair as Aesthetic Form and Political Signifier in Japanese Visual Culture,” discusses the symbolic representation of pubic hair in Japanese society as an aesthetic, social, and political signifier that communicates ideas of sexuality, maturity, role, fear, and power. The question that has been raised along this line is: How has female pubic hair been constructed as an aesthetic form and political signifier in Japanese visual culture, and what cultural, gendered, and ideological meanings are produced through its representation? However, despite the inherent and long-standing fascination with ‘hair’ or ‘pubic hair’ in historical and contemporary societies, it has not yet become a popular subject in academic circles. However, the presence of a specific ethnographic study collection in the discussion of ‘pubic hair’ in the visual arts is a significant part of it. Especially compared to other Asian societies, there is a unique visual collection in Japanese art from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. But its discussion is a small, suppressed, and debated subject. Even so, pubic hair on the female body is a complex situation. It is a suppressed/debated subject in Asian society compared to Western societies today.