Concept of KOGAO, or “little face” is absolutely mysterious to me. I bumped into this term when doing my research about proportions in Japanese ideal of women’s beauty. I see now that I scratched the surface of something very interesting. Below are some of my findings that I am going to think through step by step:
Small face as an ideal of beauty is correlated with concept of ideal proportions in Japanese tradition.
Acording to this source "while 'kogao' (small face) is a compliment, 'nekozura' is usually derogatory. "
Acording to
The Japan Times Online "Height and build also enter into the small-face equation because any face will appear smaller when perched atop a long, leggy body. The ideal seems to be having a head that makes up one-eighth of your total height, expressed in Japanese as hattoshin (literally, eight-heads-body). This, my friend Yoshiko told me, is the head-body ratio most Westerners have, while Japanese noggins are more likely to be bigger in proportion to the body. That body type worked fine when Japanese wore kimono and big hair, she said, but makes it harder to look stylish in Western clothing."
There are special techniques and devises which can help to obtain “small face”
Acording to
The sirens of Tokyo: "To obtain a kogao, or “little face,” there is an endless range of products, from sauna masks to creams. You cna see the
image of the "stylish mask while taking a bath to achieve a cute small face (”kogao”).
