Hair oil - Kami-Abura

Oil used for styling hair, giving it shine and nutrition. It is made from both plant and animal products. In ancient times in Japan, the stems of the vine plant, also known as the beautiful kudzu plant, were finely chopped and the mucus was mixed with water to be used as hair oil. There are also examples of wild boar oil being used as hair oil in the Nara period, but this was a special case, and it is thought that vine plant was used in most cases. Rice water was also used as yusuru (water for washing and combing the hair). As hair styles changed, oils from sesame, clove, camellia, and walnut were also used for hair oil, and of these, walnut oil was considered the highest quality. As all of these oils were water-based oils, fragrances were later added to create umeka-ko, and in the Meiji period, Izutsu oil and Chiyoda-ko oil were created. During the Edo period, a hair oil made from a mixture of wax, pine resin, and fragrance was sold as Kyara oil and became popular among women in the pleasure quarters, and by the Genroku period (1688-1704), it had spread to ordinary women and was eventually used by men to style their hair as well. Kyara oil was used until the beginning of the Meiji period to give hair a glossy finish and prevent fraying.

As Western culture began to spread in the Meiji era, Japanese hairstyles were deemed unsanitary, inconvenient, and uneconomical, and in 1885 (Meiji 18) the Dai-Nippon Hairdressing Improvement Hairdressing Association proposed that a simpler method of styling hair should be adopted, with the use of aloeswood oil being discontinued and hair styled with water and oil after washing. After that, Western-style updos and downdos using perfumed oils became more common, while Japanese hairstyles using kneaded oil gradually declined and remained only in special societies. The beauty of Japanese hairstyles declined rapidly after the Taisho era, as can be seen in the diary of Nagai Kafu.

On the other hand, oil-based pomades gradually came to be used by both men and women with the rise of buns and Western hairstyles, and their use increased as people started to cut their hair. Ticks were also used at the same time as pomades, but after World War II, the use of emulsion-type hair creams increased rapidly. In today's age of popular permanent hair, water-oils made by adding mineral oils to vegetable oils are preferred, and account for the majority of modern hair oils.

[Takeshi Endo]

"Terashima Ryoan's 'Wakan Sansai Zue' (1970, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)" ▽ "Ikukawa Haruaki's 'Thoughts on Women's Customs in the Early Modern Period' (1895, Toyo-do)" ▽ "Hikioan Nanchiku's 'My Clothes' (included in 'Ten Types of Enseki, Vol. 1', 1907, 1979, Chuokoron-Shinsha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

整髪をするために用いる油で、頭髪につやと栄養を与えるもの。これには植物製品と動物製品とがある。わが国では古くはサネカズラ、一名美男葛(びなんかずら)の茎を細かく刻んで、その粘液に水を加えて、頭髪用の油として用いた。またイノシシの油を髪油として使用した例が奈良時代にあるが、これは特殊な例で、多くはサネカズラを使ったと考えられる。また米のとぎ汁が泔(ゆする)（髪を洗い、くしけずるための用水）として用いられた。髪油の発達は、髪形の変化につれてゴマ、チョウジ、ツバキ、クルミなどの油も使われ、その中でもクルミ油は最高級品とされていた。これらの油は、いずれも水油であったから、のちには香料を加えて梅花香が生まれ、明治時代には井筒油、千代田香油などができた。また江戸時代には、ろうに松脂(まつやに)、香料を混ぜてつくった鬢(びん)つけ油が伽羅(きゃら)油として売り出され、遊里の女たちに人気を博し、また元禄(げんろく)時代（1688～1704）になると、一般の女性の間にも及び、ついには男性の調髪にも用いられるに至った。この伽羅油は髪のつや出しとほつれをなくすために、明治の初めまで使われた。

　明治になって欧風文化がしだいに波及すると、日本髪が不衛生、不便、不経済であるところから、伽羅油をやめて、洗髪後は水油で整え、そのうえ簡単な結髪法である束髪にすべきであるという提唱が、1885年（明治18）大日本結髪改良束髪会からなされた。それ以後、香油による西洋上げ巻き、西洋下げ巻きが多くなり、練り油を使用する日本髪はしだいに減って、特殊な社会にのみ残った。日本髪の美しさは、大正を最後に急速に衰えていくことが、永井荷風の日記のなかにもみられる。

　一方、油性のポマードは、束髪、洋髪の台頭とともにしだいに男性にも女性にも用いられるようになり、断髪姿とともにその使用量は増加した。チックもポマードと歩みを同じくして使われたが、第二次世界大戦後は乳化状のヘアクリームの利用が急速に伸びている。パーマネントの大衆化時代の現代では、植物性油に鉱物性油を加えた水油が好まれ、現代髪油の大半を占めている。

［遠藤　武］

『寺島良安著『和漢三才図会』（1970・東京都美術）』▽『生川春明著『近世女風俗考』（1895・東陽堂）』▽『曳尾庵南竹著「我衣」（『燕石十種　第1巻』所収・1907、79・中央公論社）』

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