Styles of Contemporary Make-up: no. 5, Glossy Black Hair (Kindaijisesho no uchi: go, Kurokami)

"Styles of Contemporary Make-up: no. 5, Glossy Black Hair" (Kindaijisesho no uchi: go, Kurokami), from 1931, is the fifth and likely final entry in Kobayakawa's cosmetics series, closing the investigation with hair — the most extensive and architecturally complex element of the body's surface ornamentation. Kurokami (black hair) was a trope of feminine beauty in Japanese poetry reaching back to the Man'yoshu, here reframed within the context of 1930s modern beauty consciousness. The lustre Kobayakawa achieves in rendering dark hair makes this among the most technically accomplished of the series.