Studio: international art (55.1912)

Studio-Talk

Vase Otoko The Great Hanuya 7.0 Sekiwo sho

(The Thin Man) (Spirit of Evil)

Kowomote Okina (Old Man) Kami nashi sho Kasoshiki

MASKS FOR USE IN THE JAPANESE “NO” DANCE. CARVED BY SEIJI SHIMOMURA

suddenly, I mean it in the sense that he, like other
artists of distinguished note, had been long pre-
paring for his appearance. In fact, he has been a
carver on wood or metal since his boyhood ; and
during the last thirteen or fourteen years he has
bestowed close attention on this special art of mask-
carving. The fact that his family’s hereditary pro-
fession during long generations was the playing of
the “ little drum ” in the No performance might
explain something of his determination to make,
single-handed, this dead art of the No mask rise
again, if possible, with more splendour; doubtless
he felt its fall more keenly than others.

There are many opinions, of course, about the
relative value of these masks ; when we understand
that they are principally based on the rare old
masks of the great masters, though not mere copies,
it would not be far wrong to say that their differ-
ences of merit are after all the differences of the
originals. One who is disappointed in Okina (Old
Man) would be also displeased with Nikko’s original
from which Mr. Shimomura made his own mask;
again, the man who goes into raptures over famous
336

Shazuru’s Hanuya (Spirit of Evil) will certainly be
an admirer of the same mask by Mr. Shimomura.
There were exhibited two masks of the said Hanuya,
one of them known as The Great Hanuya, which
should express fearful resentment in addition to
ghostliness, the main qualification of the ordinary
Hanuya. The chief feature in the facial expression
of all the Hanuyas consists in the large wrinkles on
the cheeks ; see the slow, large, waving line joining
the eyebrows in The Great Hanuya, and again how
strikingly the eyes are sunken.

Although Yase Otoko (The Thin Man), Kami
nashi sho, and Kawazu are by no means work
that will lower Mr. Shimomura’s reputation, which
is already high, I think that the three masks of
Zo and two Kowomotes should be, above all, ex-
amined carefully. One of the two Kowomotes is
painted perfectly white, making a grace akin to
the sweetest sadness speak in the whole thing; it
is used for the rdle of angel, for instance, in the
Hagoromo or Feather Robe. To make a mask
reveal kurai as it is said here, or beautiful dignity,
is, I believe, the highest form of art, only to be