Duy Beni Bölüm 4
Haydee Cliche
The poisonous fruiting bodies of Amanita muscaria (L. ex Fr.) Pers, ex Hook, are harvested by rural inhabitants of Sanada Town, Japan. These mountain villagers consume beni-tengu-take as a local delicacy, despite its potential hallucinogenic effects. The Japanese use several methods to detoxify beni-tengu-take, but believe pickling the mushrooms to be the safest. Other methods of preparation include grilling and drying the mushrooms. I documented the preparation and consumption of each detoxification method through local interviews with Japanese informants. I then used ion-interaction rp-HPLC to quantify the hallucinogenic compounds, ibotenic acid and muscimol, and determined the efficacy of each traditional detoxification method. Fresh mushrooms contained 6.17mmol/kg of ibotenic acid (LD50 in mice is 0.9 mmol/kg when administered orally) and 0.93mmol/kg of muscimol (LD50 in mice is 0.4 mmol/kg when administered orally). Grilling and drying increased the toxicity of the mushrooms. The pickling process removed all detectable amounts of both hallucinogenic compounds.
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Beni is a natural cosmetic that is made only from a red pigment extracted from benibana (safflower) petals.
In Japan, beni has been used since ancient times in lip rouge and cheek rouge. The crystallization of the red pigment refined to a high grade by craftsman has an iridescent green glow. This glow is evidence of high-quality beni produced carefully by hand using traditional techniques.
The custom of wearing makeup spread among the common classes as well as the upper classes during the Edo Period. Especially in the mid- and late Edo Period, beni with an iridescent green color was sold as an expensive cosmetic. Beni production and trade thrived in and around Kyoto. However, the beni industry, which reached its peak during the Edo Period, began to decline after the Meiji Period. Imports of cheap and versatile chemical dyes gradually replaced beni-dyeing and beni cosmetics in the market. Just a few beni-ya (beni shops) in Kyoto, the center of beni production, remained in the Showa Period. Now Isehan-honten is the only beni-ya that has inherited and continues to use production methods unchanged from the Edo Period.
Kyoto was long the main area of beni production and sales. Beni production in Edo started to prosper in the late Edo Period (late 19th century). Isehan-honten was established at Kobuna-cho, Nihombashi, in 1825. Founder Hanemon Sawada started his own shop after apprenticing at a beni and oshiroi (face powder) wholesaler in Toriabura-cho, Nihombashi, for about 20 years. The shop was called Iseya-Hanemon, and it used the name Isehan. This is a picture depicting Isehan-honten in the Meiji Period.
High-quality benibana (safflower) is needed to make high-quality beni. After benibana was introduced to Japan in ancient times, regions that produced benibana gradually spread, and benibana became widely grown all over Japan at the beginning of the 17th century. The Mogami benibana brand grown in the Ushu Mogami area (present-day Yamagata Prefecture) built a reputation for quality and quantity. This brand name became firmly established in the early 18th century and was traded at high prices.
Mogami benibana was transported to consuming regions such as Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo from the production areas. To maintain higher quality, fresh benibana flowers were processed into benimochi before being transported. Benimochi was sent to cloth-dyeing companies and beni-ya through benibana wholesale stores and used to dye cloth and make beni. Benibana farms in Yamagata even today start to pick the flower petals and make benimochi when the flowers begin to blossom (from beginning to mid-July).
The beni-ya conducts many processes to extract the red pigment from benimochi. Experienced craftsmen with honed techniques and instincts play the most important role in extracting color from the natural product. Isehan-honten has inherited manufacturing methods unchanged from the Edo Period. While some of the environment and tools have been modernized, Isehan-honten still produces beni by hand for many of the processes.
Because the techniques to make iridescent green beni are secrets handed down orally from parent to child, they may not be published here in their entirety. Only some of the traditional processes are introduced here.
While the Meiji government implemented modernization policies to catch up with the European powers, Japanese makeup styles also needed to shake free from traditional beauty styles.
Along with importing cosmetics from Western countries such as France, Germany, and the United States, many kinds of cosmetics and skincare items including soaps, creams, pomades, perfumes, unleaded oshiroi, and multicolor oshiroi, were researched, improved, and developed in the Japanese cosmetics industry in the Meiji Period. However, many Japanese women still used lip rouge that was brushed inside beni-choko (domed rouge container).
The turning point came in 1917 when Nakamura Shinyo-do released the first domestic lipstick (bo-beni). After this, the form of Japanese lip rouge changed from beni-choko to the lipstick type.