hair oil; camellia oil; rape oil
Traditional Japanese hair oil, often made from camellia or rapeseed oil. Used historically for grooming.
Women in the old days styled their hair with mizuabura.
An older term for kerosene or lamp oil, now largely replaced by 灯油 (とうゆ). Still understood in historical contexts.
Kerosene lamps were widely used in the Meiji period.
Compound of 水 (mizu, 'water') and 油 (abura, 'oil'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the spelling is conventionally associated with the meanings of hair oil and lamp oil.