Welcome to the blog and welcome back for those who have been following this, thanks for the time, really.
As promised let's continue from the last post, i'll be covering four type of noh mask, that kinda caught me intrigue, when the first time i saw them and one of them is the Kishin type, which will be the main topic on today's blog.
So..the question of the century is, what is Kishin actually? Kishin means demon, kinda obvious really, if you see the most of these mask type feature, long teeth, evil eye, and of course angry eyes, that’s what demon mask looks like if they ever be called a demon mask. But a Kishin mask has it’s own types that differeniate for each other through it’s feature, there’s a blue colored one, which called Ao-Oni which means a blue demon, some have hair,, heck, some of them looks intentionally innocent and many others.
Kishin type of mask carries a character with a supernatural origin, who brings a mystical power that any man or mortal could only hope to imagine, some brings it for the good over gratitude and some brings it for over something else entirely, that more resemble an actual demon. so today i'll be covering some of the Kishin type mask that i found interesting.
The first one is..
Shikami
From the look of the mask, tilted eye as seems looking furiously at something ready to prey, along with it's sharp teeth as if trying to biting something, somehow in my opinion, a fitting mask to portray a violently malicious spirits or monsters, which this mask did represented on his play. The name Shikami, came from the word "shishi" which means lion and "kami" which means bite, so this represented a demon of a lion trying to biting something, which shown perfectly on the mouth part of the mask. This mask have a leading characters in Part Two of "Tsuchigumo" and "Momijigari" as malicious spirits and monsters, because he got those teeth for reasons, and being the one scared isn't one of them.
O-Beshimi
Long nose, thick brows, and always with an intense face whatever the circumtances, Tengu has been refered as one of the most popular goblins in Japanese legends, and this one mask, from the look of the trait that this mask have, have every category to potray Tengu in noh theatre, which it did and a grand one at that. The name Beshimi comes from the term Heshimu, which translated to "close the lips firmly" as shown on the mask, wide open eyes and with tightly close lips, which expressing the goblin's power over something and bring everything under it's control. It is used for fifth
group pieces featuring Tengu, including "Kurama-tengu."which in the story, play as a Grand master of Tengu and Mentor of a lovely boy named Ushiwakamaru, which trained him out of sympathy, and tells him to destroy the Heike clan because they once neglected him, a suprisingly kind and humble goblin.
Shōjō
When you look a demon smiling as sinister as this mask, you've probably wondering what your fate as a demon toy from now on, because demon and a smile always a bad mix, full of tricks and all other kind of sleeves behind those malicious expressions, but lo and behold, the demon did it again, because it got me and probably you too, because that smile is genuine as any demon doing a killing spree just for fun. So what the story behind this mask actually? in the story Shojo is a spirit that lives in the sea and loves drinking, a demon sent by heaven just to hang out it seems, in the play, it appears by the Yangtze River at the foot of Mt. Jinshan in China, and treats a dutiful son to a drink and yes for free, and yes again he didn't die, which odds from the situation of it all, being a demons and all. it wears the innocent expression of a smiling boy, which is unusual for a noh mask and a demon, really question what defining a demon isn't it? a kind and innocent demon who loves alcohol, who woulda thunk?
That's it for me today guys, thank you so much for whoever bothering to read this, always appreciate it, and hope you enjoyed it in someway.
I'll be covering the next type of noh mask on the next blog, Until then.
Reference:
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As promised let's continue from the last post, i'll be covering four type of noh mask, that kinda caught me intrigue, when the first time i saw them and one of them is the Kishin type, which will be the main topic on today's blog.
So..the question of the century is, what is Kishin actually? Kishin means demon, kinda obvious really, if you see the most of these mask type feature, long teeth, evil eye, and of course angry eyes, that’s what demon mask looks like if they ever be called a demon mask. But a Kishin mask has it’s own types that differeniate for each other through it’s feature, there’s a blue colored one, which called Ao-Oni which means a blue demon, some have hair,, heck, some of them looks intentionally innocent and many others.
Kishin type of mask carries a character with a supernatural origin, who brings a mystical power that any man or mortal could only hope to imagine, some brings it for the good over gratitude and some brings it for over something else entirely, that more resemble an actual demon. so today i'll be covering some of the Kishin type mask that i found interesting.
The first one is..
Shikami
From the look of the mask, tilted eye as seems looking furiously at something ready to prey, along with it's sharp teeth as if trying to biting something, somehow in my opinion, a fitting mask to portray a violently malicious spirits or monsters, which this mask did represented on his play. The name Shikami, came from the word "shishi" which means lion and "kami" which means bite, so this represented a demon of a lion trying to biting something, which shown perfectly on the mouth part of the mask. This mask have a leading characters in Part Two of "Tsuchigumo" and "Momijigari" as malicious spirits and monsters, because he got those teeth for reasons, and being the one scared isn't one of them.O-Beshimi
Long nose, thick brows, and always with an intense face whatever the circumtances, Tengu has been refered as one of the most popular goblins in Japanese legends, and this one mask, from the look of the trait that this mask have, have every category to potray Tengu in noh theatre, which it did and a grand one at that. The name Beshimi comes from the term Heshimu, which translated to "close the lips firmly" as shown on the mask, wide open eyes and with tightly close lips, which expressing the goblin's power over something and bring everything under it's control. It is used for fifth
group pieces featuring Tengu, including "Kurama-tengu."which in the story, play as a Grand master of Tengu and Mentor of a lovely boy named Ushiwakamaru, which trained him out of sympathy, and tells him to destroy the Heike clan because they once neglected him, a suprisingly kind and humble goblin.Shōjō
When you look a demon smiling as sinister as this mask, you've probably wondering what your fate as a demon toy from now on, because demon and a smile always a bad mix, full of tricks and all other kind of sleeves behind those malicious expressions, but lo and behold, the demon did it again, because it got me and probably you too, because that smile is genuine as any demon doing a killing spree just for fun. So what the story behind this mask actually? in the story Shojo is a spirit that lives in the sea and loves drinking, a demon sent by heaven just to hang out it seems, in the play, it appears by the Yangtze River at the foot of Mt. Jinshan in China, and treats a dutiful son to a drink and yes for free, and yes again he didn't die, which odds from the situation of it all, being a demons and all. it wears the innocent expression of a smiling boy, which is unusual for a noh mask and a demon, really question what defining a demon isn't it? a kind and innocent demon who loves alcohol, who woulda thunk?That's it for me today guys, thank you so much for whoever bothering to read this, always appreciate it, and hope you enjoyed it in someway.
I'll be covering the next type of noh mask on the next blog, Until then.
Reference:
- http://www.the-noh.com/sub/jp/index.php?mode=db&action=e_index&class_id=1
- https://nohmask21.com/eu/mlist.html
- http://www.historyofmasks.net/famous-masks/noh-mask/
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It will be so creepy if someone use it in the middle of night
ReplyDeleteNow, come to think of it... I'm worried that we all humans wearing those kind of Kishin type mask into our daily emotions too! Ex: 1st we put the Shikami mask when we're hungry but there's no food been served, 2nd we put the Obeshimi mask when we're sulked at suck things, and 3rd we put the Shoujou mask when we thought about "WTF moments" to someone's bullshit(?) LOL agree me!? hahaha By the way, I like the way you wrote down those typical type of mask, so much detail and perfect! Nice one and keep the good work! ^^
ReplyDeleteWah, it's the meaning of the mask still same from ancient until now?
ReplyDeleteIts so scary to see the picture and the description about thr mask
ReplyDelete