Hige-zura (bearded face), hige-darake (covered with a beard), and higeyarō (bearded fellow) are all derogatory terms for a bearded person. Until recently most Japanese didn't grow beards, and people who did so were thought of as odd and somehow dirty. Thus, there are a number of derogatory terms for such individuals.
Hige is a general term for the beard, or the hairs that grow around the mouth (kuchi), cheeks (hoho), and jaw (ago). Kuchihige, then, is a mustache, hohohige is whiskers, and agohige is a beard. Sideburns are called momiage from the verb momiageru (to massage up), the action required when attempting to shave them off.
Nowadays, though, beards are becoming more popular among young Japanese. Such young men are called members of the hige-zoku (beard tribe or beard gang). This tendency reveals a change in social customs and the influence of foreign fashions.
Schick, an American manufacturer of razor blades, now sponsors a yearly beard contest in Japan and reports that the number of applicants has been growing steadily through the 80s and into the 90s. Japanese companies, too, may be taking a slightly more tolerant attitude towards employees who grow beards.
Uma-zura (horse-faced), geta (Japanese square wooden clogs), and rakkyō (shallot) are used to describe a face that tapers toward the chin.
As for the head as a whole, atama dekkachi (from atama meaning head and dekai meaning huge) refers to a person whose head is too large for his body. It also implies a person who has lots of book learning but no common sense. When someone says atama dekkachi shiri subori (or subomari), it means something that starts with a bang but ends with a whimper.
Tongari atama (tongari means sharply pointed) or biriken atama (biriken comes from Billiken—an American "happy god" with a sharply-pointed head created by a female artist in the early 20th century), both mean pointed head. Zeppeki (atama) refers to a person whose head is flat in the back, usually as a result of the traditional Japanese custom of laying infants on their backs. The Japanese traditionally fear laying babies on their stomachs. Fortunately, this fear is gradually coming to be understood as unfounded, and we see fewer and fewer cases of zeppeki atama these days. Zeppeki here means cliff.
Hage or hage atama are derogatory terms for bald men, hage being the word for bald. Hage has a number of variations, such as hage chabin (totally bald like a teapot), tsuruppage (entirely bald), zenippage (literally, coin bald; figuratively, bald in spots), jarippage (literally, gravel bald; likewise, bald in spots), and hage choro or usuppage (both meaning baldish). Choro actually means the state of sneaking or flitting about, as in shimi choro (a slip which occasionally shows). Teka-teka (bright), pika-pika (shining), and tsuru-tsuru (slippery) are additional terms used to describe bald people. Bōzu is a derogatory term both for bald people and for Buddhist monks, who usually shave their heads. O-bo-san, which uses the two honorifics o-and-san, is the accepted term for a monk. Taiwan bōzu (Taiwan monk) is a derogatory expression for someone with enkei datsumo-sho (a round patch of baldness). Hage and bōzu can refer to a sexually vigorous male as well, though.
Today, due to the variety of available wigs, hage people don't suffer as much as in the past. One of the biggest makers of wigs in Japan is a company called Aderansu, so the word has been adopted as a synonym for wig.
Even people lucky enough to have hair growing on their heads can become the target of ridicule with terms such as shiraga (gray hair), wakajiraga (prematurely gray), and gomashio atama (sesame-salt head), which is equivalent to the English salt-and-pepper.
Akage means red-head or carrot top. It has become less effective as an insult due to the popularity of an animated TV series entitled Akage no Ann, based on the book Anne of Green Gables. In fact, many Japanese young people nowadays dye their hair a great variety of shades of red.
Moving to the eyes, demekin, a somewhat exotic species of goldfish with round, protruding eyes, as well as deme, a derivative of this word, can be used for a pop-eyed or goggle-eyed person. Ano hito wa demekin means that guy's got bug eyes. When you want to convey the same meaning more politely and indirectly, you can say instead kare wa me ga chotto dete iru (his eyes protrude a little).
Chikame (chika is near, and me is eye or eyeball), or kingan, which is an alternate way of pronouncing the same characters, refer to near-sighted or short-sighted persons. Do-kingan is more derogatory. Kingan comes from kinshi (myopia or short-sightedness) and gan (eye). The expression kinshigan-teki is used as an adjective to describe a short-sighted viewpoint on something.
Yabunirami, shashi, and yorime all refer to cross-eyed persons. Yabunirami and shashi refer to a person with one eye in the correct position and the other either looking excessively outward or inward. Yorime is the condition of both eyes looking inward, toward the nose. As for shashi, sha is slant and shi is the direction of the eyes. The origin of yabunirami is more obscure. Yabu means growing willy-nilly in all directions, and nirami means staring or glaring. Yabunirami can also be used to refer to a twisted viewpoint on something.
Ronpari is an amusing variation. It comes from the ron in London (as it is rendered in Japanese) and the pari in Paris, and implies one eye on London, the other on Paris; in other words, both eyes positioned outward.
Donguri-manako means goggle-eyed, donguri being acorn and manako being eyeball. Gyoro-me is a synonym; gyoro is a mimetic expression for glaring. Kitsuneme describes a person with narrow, slanting eyes; kitsune means fox in Japanese.
As for the ears, tsubureta mimi (literally, destroyed ear) is rendered into English as cauliflower ear. Mimidare is a runny ear. The-dare here comes from the verb tareru, which means to run down, ooze, or fall in drops. Fukumimi (literally, happy ears) is used to describe someone who has big ears, especially when the lobes are thick. People with big, thick earlobes, it is said, will be blessed with good luck and wealth.
Dangoppana and shishippana refer to a snub or pug nose. Dango is a kind of dumpling and shishi is lion.-Ppana is a euphonic change of hana, or nose. Butappana is a pig nose. In Japan, there are quite a number of hanapecha (flat-nosed people) who keep the pockets of the nation's plastic surgeons full of crisp, new yen notes. Pecha comes from pechanko, a mimetic expression which means the state of being crushed or smashed.
Hana ga hikui is a low or flat nose, in contrast to hana ga takai, which means either a long nose or to be proud of something. Japanese people often speak admiringly of Western noses, describing them as hana ga takai.
Washippana or kagippana (Roman or hooked nose) are rarely seen among the Japanese. In these expressions washi means eagle and kagi is hook.
Hana no shita literally means under the nose. When hana no shita ga nagai (long under the nose) is said of a man, it means he is somewhat foolishly amorous or lecherous. Bikachō has exactly the same kanji characters and meaning, but uses the pronunciations bi instead of hana, ka instead of shita, and cho instead of nagai.
Dekai kuchi, ōki-na kuchi, and ō-guchi are all derogatory expressions used to describe a person with a large mouth. Dekai is a colloquial term for big. Traditionally, a small mouth was considered more acceptable in Japan than a large one; thus these derogatory expressions for big mouths. When you say dekai kuchi o tataku or kiku, it means to talk big.
Mitsukuchi (three mouths) refers to a harelipped person. Ukeguchi (receiving mouth) describes a person with a protruding lower lip. Kaō, one of the largest manufacturers of soap in Japan, has as its trademark a crescent-shaped face with an ukeguchi. Thus people use the expression kaō sekken (sekken is soap) as a synonym for ukeguchi. Deppa (protruding teeth) means buck-toothed.
Still in the mouth, shitatarazu is used to mean a person who easily becomes tongue-tied or a person who lisps. Shitatarazu also means lacking sufficient explanation.
Moving down to the shoulders (kata), there are two types of expressions: ikari-gata and nade-gata. The former literally means angry shoulders, but is used colloquially to signify someone who is, in fact, square-shouldered.
The term nade-gata, from the verb naderu (to stroke), means drooping or sloping shoulders and is used in reference to an attractive, elegant woman.
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