In general, Genpuku was held in order to declare that a boy, who became 15 years old (age according to the traditional Japanese system), reached manhood, and in the rite, the boy changed into adult clothes in front of the shrine of his ujigami (a guardian god or spirit of a particular place in the Shinto religion), changed his hairstyle from the hairstyle for children called agemaki (mizura: trefoil knots) to the hairstyle for adults called kanmurisita no motodori (the hair is bundled up on the top of the head and made to stand up to accomodate a crown), and was crowned by eboshioya (a person who put on an eboshi (formal headwear for court nobles) during the genpuku ceremony); in Court nobles and the Taira families of samurai, the boy often had heavy makeup, hikimayu (painted eyebrows) and ohaguro (black painted teeth), while in the Minamoto families of samurai, the boy mostly did not have any makeup.)
一般に15歳（数え年）に達した男子が成人したことを表すために行われ、氏神の社前で大人の服に改め、総角（角髪（みずら））と呼ばれる子供の髪型を改めて大人の髪（冠下の髻（かんむりしたのもとどり））を結い、烏帽子親により冠をつける（公家、及び、平氏系の武家では、厚化粧、引眉にお歯黒も付ける、源氏系は付けない場合が多かった）。