Noh masks
*noumen 能面 representing
women. This category divides broadly into three types: young, middle-aged,
and old, each of which includes examples of 'normal' and of 'heightened'
states of being. By far the most numerous, the young women's masks have
blackened upper teeth slightly exposed between smiling red lips, full cheeks,
rectangular pupil openings, high-set eyebrows and black hair with a white
band at the center part. Today they are classified into many subtly distinct
characters, each with a name and personality, and used in regulated ways
according to the traditions of each school of noh actors. When the type
first came into being in the 14c however, the early examples were simply
referred to as 'young woman' *wakaonna
若女 and used, presumably as the actor saw fit. Zeami 世阿弥 (1363-1443) in
his youth is known to have portrayed roles of young women barefaced, as
is still done in kyougen 狂言 performances today. Only when older actors
began to perform these most-demanding and sublime of the roles in noh, did
masks of young women come into being. The open, ingenuous expression, free
carving and immediacy of the early masks contrasts with the highly controlled
and prescribed details of the later masks bearing specific names. Although
the painting has flaked off many of the early masks, one can make out details
not found in later masks, such as eye lashes, or the lack of a center hair
part and of the absence of individual loose strands of hair lying along
the forehead and cheek. The last was to become a highly regulated feature
of the named masks and functioned as an iconoclastic identification of mask
types. Some striking examples of early wakaonna masks can be
found in shrine and temple treasure houses, such as one dated 1469 at Rin'ouji
輪王寺 in Tochigi prefecture, or the 15c mask at Niu Kawakami Jinja 丹生川上神社 in Nara.
Today young women masks include the standard masks of each school (*koomote
小面, *magojirou 孫次郎, wakaonna, *fushikizou
節木増 and their variations used for a wide variety of roles plus masks with
troubled expressions for crazed women *masugami 十寸髪, etc.), with sublime
expressions for angels zou 増, and with subtly intense expressions
for women with divine qualities *deigan
泥眼. Middle-aged women have leaner faces, with unsmiling lips and heavy eyelids
often shadowed by the eye socket bones. Fine 15c examples, labeled simply
'woman' onna 女, can be found, for instance, at Suwa-asugi Jinja
須波阿須疑神社 in Fukui prefecture. and Oki Jinja 息神社 in Shizuoka prefecture. Of
note also are two broad-faced masks, with curling slit eyes, short foreheads
and no white strip at the hair part. One, dated 1291 and reminiscent of
both Korean masks and the okina mask (*okinamen
翁面, *enmeikaja 延命冠者),
is an Important Cultural Property owned by Chuusonji 中尊寺 in Iwate prefecture;
the other, also 13c, is property of Hakusan Chouryuu Jinja 白山長竜神社 in Gifu
prefecture.
The advanced age of old women's masks appears in their sunken cheeks and
eye sockets, in their down-turned lips, in the wrinkles lining their foreheads
and cheeks, and in white streaks painted into their hair. *Uba
姥 masks are used for more passive roles, generally the supporting character in
the first half of a play, while all the other old women masks (*roujo
老女, *komachi 小町, *higakionna
桧垣女, and others) are used for main roles where the actor performs an instrumental
dance, a painfully slow, yet hauntingly beautiful jo-no-mai 序ノ舞. Accordingly,
the uba masks are gentle, kind and benevolent, presenting a wrinkled and
wizened grandmother, while the other masks expose the inner struggle and suffering
of the loss of youth and the approach of death. The latter have strong sculptural
affinity to masks of women suffering in hell, *ryouonna
霊女, *yaseonna 痩女. A twisted,
okina style old woman mask with attached wig and leering smile exposing
missing teeth above and below is housed at Chuusonji, along with the middle-aged
mask mentioned above. |
