What was a toothbrush in the Edo period like?

In the Heian period as Buddhism became widespread, upper-class people, such as court aristocracy, priests and military commanders, began cleaning their teeth using tooth twigs. It did not spread among common people until the middle of the Edo period. Behind this is the fact that fusayouji (tufted toothpicks) was invented and tooth powder was put on the market. Materials of fusayouji included willow or spicebush. One end of a twig was smashed with a wooden hammer and combed using an instrument with needles lined up to make threads tufted. At a toothpick shop in the grounds of Sensoji Temple,a beautiful girl was put to attract people’s attention and sell fusayouji and tooth powder. When Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, visited Sensoji Temple, he rested at the toothpick shop, which is the reason it became famous. In many ukiyoe paintings, beautiful women, who are brushing their teeth using fusayouji, are portrayed.