Barber shop - Tokoya

Abbreviation for kamiyudoko (hairdresser). Since the Muromachi period, the profession involved styling men's hair, beards, and shaving their topknots. Currently, it is also called a barber's shop or a hairdressing shop. Originally, men had their hair fully combed, with nobles wearing it under their crowns, and commoners simply wearing their hair up in a bun. As the samurai society evolved and people competed for power and fought each other, the wars continued for a long time, and samurai began to leave their topknots open to prevent their hair from getting steamy, and as the topknots grew longer, there was a demand for barbers as a profession. Until then, hair was pulled out using tweezers, which, according to records from the Nanban people, left people covered in blood. The oldest painting of a barbershop can be found in the Uesugi book "Rakuchu Rakugaizu byobu," so it can be said that barbershops were established as a profession around the Eiroku to Tensho period (1558-1592). Initially, barbershops' job was to pluck out hair that had been trimmed. It was towards the end of the Tensho period that they began to also do hair tying, and initially they were called "ichisen zori" or "ichisen shoku." In the Edo period, stock associations were formed in each town of Edo, and as can be seen in the comic book "Ukiyodoko," they flourished, and with the opening up of the country to civilization, they changed into Western-style barbershops.

[Takeshi Endo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

髪結床(かみゆいどこ)の略称。室町時代から男子の調髪、髭(ひげ)、月代(さかやき)を剃(そ)った職業。現在は理容室、調髪所ともいう。元来、男の髪は総髪で、高貴の間では冠下髻(かんむりしたのもとどり)とし、庶民は簡単な束ね髪であった。武家社会となって、互いに勢力を競って戦いを挑み、その戦乱が長く続くと、武士は髪の蒸れるのを防ぐために月代をあけるようになり、その月代が大きくなるにつれて、職業としての床屋の需要が生じた。それまでは毛抜きを用いて抜いたので、血だらけになったことが南蛮人の記録にある。床屋としての最古の絵画は上杉(うえすぎ)本『洛中(らくちゅう)洛外図屏風(びょうぶ)』にみられるので、永禄(えいろく)～天正(てんしょう)（1558～92）のころには職業として成立していたといえる。当初の床屋の仕事は、月代の毛を抜くことにあった。それが髪を結うようになったのは天正年間も終わりごろからであり、当初は一銭剃(ぞり)、一銭職ともいわれた。江戸時代に入って江戸の町ごとに株仲間ができるようになり、滑稽本(こっけいぼん)『浮世床』にみられるように繁盛していき、文明開化とともに洋風の床屋に変わっていった。

［遠藤　武］

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