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Kyoto geisha Toshimana holding a Nōh mask, wearing full make-up and a katsura (wig). Oshiroi (白粉) is a powder foundation traditionally used by kabuki actors, geisha and their apprentices. The word is written with kanji meaning "white powder", and is pronounced as the word for white (shiroi) with the honorific prefix o-.
Archaeological masks have been found from early Paleo-Eskimo and from early Dorset culture period. [2] It is believed that these masks served several functions, including being in rituals representing animals in personalized form; [14] being used by shaman (medicine man or angakkuq) in ceremonies relating to spirits (as in the case of a wooden mask from southwestern Alaska); [15] it is also ...
A Gyōdō mask from the Heian period at the Guimet Museum. Surviving masks include a pair of masks dating from 1086 and 1334 at Tōdai-ji (); [5] a set of ten masks dating from 1138 for use in the shōryō-e (聖霊会) ceremonies at Hōryū-ji (); [6] thirteen Heian-period masks from Mitsuki Hachimangū (御調八幡宮) (); [7] a Kamakura-period mask of Tamonten at the Tokyo National Museum ...
The masks are worn throughout very long performances and are consequently very light. The nō mask is the supreme achievement of Japanese mask-making. Nō masks represent gods, men, women, madmen and devils, and each category has many sub-divisions. Kyōgen are short farces with their own masks, and accompany the tragic nō plays.
The word hannya (般若) is a Japanese phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit word prajñā (प्रज्ञा), meaning 'wisdom'. [6] There are several hypotheses as to why the mask used in Noh, which represents a vengeful spirit expressing female jealousy and resentment, was named hannya. [7]
The book in Japan: a cultural history from the beginnings to the nineteenth century. Handbuch der Orientalistik. Funfte Abteilung, Japan, 7 (illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 90-04-10195-0. Mizoguchi, Kōji (2002). An archaeological history of Japan: 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700 (illustrated ed.). University of Pennsylvania Press.
In some parts of north eastern Japan, Hyottoko is regarded as the god of fire. There is a well known folk story in the form of music, izumoyasugibushi (出雲安来節) where a fisherman dances with a bamboo basket, having the same visual expression as the mask of Hyottoko. During this dance, a person puts five yen coins on their nose.
Onryō are used as subjects in various traditional Japanese performing arts such as Noh, Kabuki, and Rakugo; for example, hannya is a Noh mask representing a female onryō. [5] The Japanese people's reverence for onryō has been passed down to the present day.