Speaking of Old Japan, I’m sure some of you may have heard of blackened teeth being a traditional sign of beauty in Japan. It was, and can still be seen sometimes (though only for reenactment purposes as far as I know)
Called ohaguro1 (お歯黒), it started around the 8th century and continued up until fairly recently, only starting to fade after the Japanese government banned the practice in 1870 in an effort to modernize the country2.
It may look strange and distasteful to us today, but how will some of our fashions today look to people in a few hundred years? At any rate, it did have benefits beyond those of fashion. It is thought to have strengthened the teeth and protected them from cavities and other gum diseases.
Follow the following link for more details on the practice, as well as a brief look at a yokai who still practices the art.
LINK: The Allure of Blackened Teeth
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oh-hah-goo-roh See: Pronunciation of Japanese ↩
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Which itself was primarily motivated by an attempt to avoid being colonized. ↩