Reflection of ideals of woman's beauty of Japan and Korea in literature: from ancient times to the present day

Ideal of woman’s beauty differs in every culture. Besides, feminine beauty ideal is not unchangeable and constant, it transforms with the flow of time. The proposed research aims to analyze the development of canons of feminine beauty in Japan and Korea on instances from literary works and poetry. For example, during the centuries white skin was considered in Japan and Korea as one of the most important elements of canons of beauty, while black teeth were regarded as a beautiful feature only in Japan till the middle of the 19th century. While there is a significant number of studies on ideal female beauty in Japan and Korea, authors mostly investigate artistic sources and classical literature and poetry. In order to conduct a more detailed research on contemporary ideal of woman’s beauty and fill the literature gap, Japanese novel Goodbye Tsugumi (2002) and Korean novel Vegetarian (2016) were examined. This study provides a comprehensive and complete overview of development of canons of ideal feminine beauty in Japan and Korea from ancient times to the present day by analyzing literary sources.