Noh mask

Among the oldest masks in Japan are those of gigaku, said to have been brought in 612 by Mimashi of Baekje: large masks with high noses that cover the back of the head as well. The bugaku masks that followed are smaller. Noh masks began to be made in the Nanboku-chō period, and by the late Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama periods the types were complete. Masks of this time are called honmen, “original masks,” and became the model for those that followed. In the Edo period noh became the ceremonial art of the shogunate; daimyō competed to collect old masks and famous pieces and had mask carvers copy the honmen. Few new types were created, and copies, called utsushi, became the main work. Some copies are thorough enough to reproduce chisel marks, fine scratches, and flaked paint. On stage, roles of living men in their prime are as a rule played without a mask, with the bare face (hitamen). Women's masks are said to have a subtle “intermediate expression”: tilting the mask slightly up (terasu) or down (kumorasu) changes the expression the audience sees. Kyōgen is basically performed bare-faced, but kyōgen masks are used for special roles. At Seikado@Marunouchi, THE MASKS follows people who were drawn to old masks, collected them, and copied them, through Kanō Tessai's copies of gigaku masks and the noh masks that belonged to the Mizoguchi family, lords of the Shibata domain.

Change the height you look from: bend a little, then stand tall in front of a mask. Does its expression seem to change?

Whose face is this mask: a living person, a ghost, or a demon?