, literally "

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

hair" in the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

, is a style of bleaching (and occasionally dyeing) hair, found among Japanese

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

s. The style was once banned at Japanese schools and became a widespread topic of the

civic right Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

to self-expression, but discussion of the topic died down due to the ubiquity of the style.

Etymology

The word ''chapatsu'' is formed from two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

: , meaning "

" and , meaning "hair". ''Chapatsu'' originally referred to a variety of colors of hair dye, including

blonde Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, and

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

, it now refers to a brown-tea

hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...

. In

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

the word is also frequently written in

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

syllabary.

Style

While the style itself began to show up in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

streets during the early to mid-1990s, ''chapatsu'' was first described in ''Imidas'', an annual publication of new words and concepts in the Japanese language, in 1997. ''Chapatsu'' did not appear in ''

Kōjien is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it had sold 11 mil ...

'', an authoritative dictionary of the Japanese language, until 1998. The style first gained popularity among adolescent girls, seeking to accentuate their tanned skin (rebelling against more traditional definitions of beauty), but quickly grew into the mainstream. By the mid 2000s, however, trends seemed to indicate that the "chapatsu" as a mainstream style was on its way out.Dyejobs make for the nearest stylist as hair experts proclaim black is back
Alhough ''chapatsu'' died out as youth-centered fashion trend of rebellion, it came to be accepted not only on young people but also in certain business settings, and it was established before long as a Japanese fashion. File:ヤンママP6014882a.jpg, The brown hair also became popular with Yanmama (young mother). File:Yumi Yoshimura 2009 (02).jpg, Japanese singer

Yumi Yoshimura is a Japanese singer, best known as a member of the pop duo PUFFY, along with Ami Onuki. Early life and career She was born in Neyagawa, Osaka, in 1975. She learned that there was a talent search underway in Tokyo. She successfully tried out ...

with a ''chapatsu''.

References

External links

Transcript of Speech by Nomura Masaichi of the National Museum of Ethnology on Chapatsu and Ganguro fashions
Hair coloring Japanese fashion Japanese youth culture {{Japan-culture-stub

Etymology

Style

See also

References

External links