People are said to look peaceful in death. But imagine if a deceased's family were to gaze fondly at their loved one only to find the face garishly caked with foundation, rouge and lipstick. Horrifying, or what?

Unfortunately, this happens uncounted times every day all over Japan.

Yet, it is no wonder that many of these faces turn out to be something out of a horror movie, because the nurses have no proper training on making up the dead, and they even have to supply their own cosmetics.

Ironically, these hospital nurses, who are making up the deceased out of kindness and at their own expense, end up disappointing themselves as well as the bereaved family.

"The aftercare, which some of us call 'angel care,' is done for free," says former nurse Mitsue Kobayashi. "This means that the nurses must supply all the materials, including the cosmetics, themselves. And although hospital officials may acknowledge there is a problem, they have their priorities -- and angel-care makeup is not one of them."

In an effort to prevent such heartrending final makeovers, in January 2001, Kobayashi, a freelance writer, formed Enzeru Meiku Kenkyukai (Angel Makeup Research Group). Comprising seven people from various specialties -- herself and professional makeup artists -- the group aims to help end the "nightmare" that is now shinigeshyo (making-up a dead person).

"It is extremely complicated, because we only know how to put makeup on ourselves," says 41-year-old Kobayashi. "And furthermore, when we're doing shinigeshyo we often rub too much foundation and rouge on the face as we desperately try to cover signs of sickness, injury or wounds from tubes that had been inserted into the patient."

In times past, shinigeshyo was normally performed by family members on their dearly departed, who generally breathed their last at home. Nowadays, however, Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry data for 2001 shows that out of 970,331 people who died that year, 760,681 -- or 78 percent -- did so in hospital. So nurses now take the place of the family and attend to the body.

One of the first things Kobayashi did after founding Enzeru Meiku Kenkyukai was to conduct a survey on shinigeshyo among 702 nurses at five hospitals in the Kanto region. The results of this showed that the four things the nurses found hardest to deal with were the eyelids and the mouth opening; dry skin and lips; the difficulty of putting on foundation; and ill-fitting dentures.

However, underlying these problems is the fundamental issue of cost, since hospitals can only charge for the care of live patients.

The survey results showed that more than 75 percent of the nurses wished hospitals would supply them with the necessary items -- at present they dig around in the back of their closets for old unused cosmetics or any of those tacky five-packs of lipstick they might have been given as souvenirs from Hawaii.

"No one would use those awful colors in their daily life," says Kobayashi.

In the circumstances, it's hardly surprising that the results of the nurses' makeup efforts on the deceased are not exactly satisfactory.

Consequently, Enzeru Meiku Kenkyukai held a demonstration seminar in August for nurses at Haibara General Hospital in Shizuoka Prefecture, conducted by makeup artist and association member Teruko Kobayashi. Teruko took along her sample makeup kit created just for shinigeshyo. The association would like to see a widespread move toward hospitals providing nurses tasked with shinigeshyo.

"[Teruko] taught them everything they needed to learn," Kobayashi says. "For instance, the way to give the appearance of a healthy complexion is to mix pink or yellow with the foundation. To make the deceased look like they are sleeping peacefully, it helps to draw vertical lines under the eyes to create eyelashes."

Certainly such a kit would be welcomed by nurses, who have to perform other, exacting afterdeath care as well. This includes first pressing the deceased's stomach to clear the bowel, then using chopsticks to stuff nonabsorbant cotton into every orifice. Then, because rigor mortis sets in soon after death, the nurses must then bind the hands in a praying position and tie the jaw to keep the mouth from falling open.

"It is after all of this is finished that we start making up the face and styling the hair," says Kobayashi.

When that's done, finally they dress the deceased, usually in a white gown with the right over the left. This is because kimono are worn left over right, and the changed sides signifies that the person wearing it has passed away.

If all that sounds demanding for nonspecialists to do, it is -- and the reason lies in the fact that embalmers are few and far between in Japan, where 99.4 percent of the dead are cremated. In contrast, in a country like the United States, where more than 90 percent are buried, there are embalmers queuing to move into action once a person dies.

"In Japan, as long as the face and hands look nice inside the coffin, nothing else really matters," says Kobayashi. "So embalming is not necessary, and people are not used to the concept at all."

However, as there's no prospect of cremation ending in Japan, Kobayashi believes it's high time the issue of afterdeath care was addressed realistically -- and with resources -- by both hospital management and medical insurance companies. "Priorities or not, the hospitals must decide whether or not angel care will be recognized as a part of the medical procedure," she says.

"But most important of all, people must realize that this is an issue concerning everyone, not just the nurses, because for the family of the deceased, shinigeshyo is the last thing they can do for their dearly departed as a token of their love."