Engelbert Kaempfer
Many Westerners, including Engelbert Kaempfer, Philipp Franz von Siebold, and Rutherford Alcock, who visited Edo period Japan, described as an abhorrent custom which disfigured women. Alcock conjectured that the purpose of it was to encourage chastity, by making the women intentionally unattractive to prevent extramarital relationships. Japanese social scientist Kyouji Watanabe disagrees with this theory, arguing that based on the fact that Japanese girls were allowed a large degree of both social and sexual liberty until the time of , when they assumed the responsibility of wife and mother, constituted a social ritual by which both society and girls confirmed the determination of matured women.