Indeed, Japanese fashion doesn’t fail to amuse me. The diversity in taste and genre simply blows my mind away. To those who don’t have a predilection for heavy make-up, if you think the Ganguro trend is over the top, then you’ve got to see the Yamanba girls. Considered a spin-off of the ganguro trend yet a statement in itself, the eponym of the trend is the “yama-uba” — a character in old Japanese ghost stories.

Yamanba’s primary fashion monikers are 4-6 inch platform boots, micro-mini skirts and tops in vivid hues of yellow, pink, purple, blue, green and orange. Their unique style of make-up and hair, however, is what really sets them apart from the crowd. Deep, artificial-looking tanned faces are offset with white eye shadow, white lipstick and bleached white hair. (Imagine a negative image on a roll of film.)

Quoted from AsiaWeek

Back in the Edo period, the elderly were banished into the mountains when hard times fell upon the populace. According to legends, in retaliation (and hunger), the banished old women, known as “yama-uba,” would descend the mountains at night to raid the village food stores. The word “yamanba” comes from “yama” meaning mountain and “ba” which is a term used to call old women. I find it hard to comprehend why anyone would want to dress up as old mountain hags, but this is Japan we’re talking about, people.

The center of the yamanba fashion is, of course, Shibuya with the 109 Shibuya building serving as its headquarter of sorts. Reports back in 2006 indicate that the fashion isn’t as popular as the followers would like it to be and in fact, the yamanba trend might not last long at all. Could anybody who’s been to Japan lately tell us if they’ve seen any yamanba girls as of late? Oh yeah, before I forget, the male counterpart of the yamanba is called “center-gai.” Right.

Source: Weird Asia News