Japanese Masks

Most people who search for a Japanese mask want the fox, and most people who search for the fox mask with horns are looking at a hannya. Japan has been making faces to wear and to hang for a very long time, for the Noh stage, for the shrine festival, for the temple gate, and each one means something specific. Twenty-three here: the kitsune fox in hand-painted white with red markings and bells, the hannya in red, green or blue resin, the long-nosed tengu, the hyottoko clown, the Noh ko-omote, samurai menpo half masks in latex, and demon and folk masks carved from a single block of wood for the wall. This page tells the faces apart.

Kitsune, the fox

The fox is the messenger of Inari, the god of rice and prosperity, and the kitsune mask is the one worn at summer festivals and hung on walls by people who were never at one. White, with red inner ears, red and black sweeps at the eyes, sometimes a red disc or a kanji on the brow, red tassels and brass bells at the sides. Ours are hand-painted PVC, full face, with elastic; five versions, from the classic red-and-white to a black-marked one and a cat on the same shape. The Journal goes through the folklore.

Hannya, oni, tengu, hyottoko, ko-omote: the stage and the street

The hannya is the Noh mask of a woman consumed by jealousy: two horns, gold-rimmed eyes, a grin of teeth, and it is the face people mistake for a demon. The colour is a scale of feeling: red for the fully possessed, green cooler, pale blue the coldest and most aristocratic. Ours are cast in resin and painted by hand, with crossed elastic straps. The oni is the actual demon, horned and fanged, carved here from pale wood for the wall. The tengu is the mountain spirit with the long straight nose, in a glossy moulded finish with gold swirls. The hyottoko is the clown with the puckered mouth and one squinting eye, the comic relief of every festival dance. The ko-omote is the young woman of the Noh stage, white, with high painted brows and the fixed half-smile. The menpo is the samurai's half mask, a bared grin of teeth and fangs covering the lower face, here in flexible latex painted green, silver or black.

The wooden masks, for the wall

Six masks carved from a single block of pale wood and left unpainted, the grain showing: an oni with two long horns and drilled eyes, a frowning demon with a knotted brow, a roaring one with fangs, a large folk face with a topknot and a moustache, a wide-eyed spirit in the manner of the Okinawan festival masks, and a smiling one with narrow closed eyes and two small horns. They are decorative rather than wearable, hung on a nail beside a Hokusai print or over a doorway, and they are the pieces in this collection that read as objects rather than as costume.

Wearing them, hanging them, keeping them

The kitsune, hannya, tengu, hyottoko and ko-omote are full-face with elastic and are worn at festivals, to conventions, and pushed to the side of the head the Japanese way when you want to talk. The menpo and the ninja half mask cover the nose and mouth and sit under a hood or a helmet. The wooden ones hang. Wipe the painted masks with a damp cloth; dust the wood; keep all of them out of direct sun, which fades paint and dries wood. Made to Japanese designs in Asia, and every page says so.

Japanese masks: the questions we are asked

What is the fox mask called?

Kitsune. White with red markings, the messenger of Inari, worn at festivals and hung on walls.

Is the horned mask an oni?

Usually a hannya: a woman consumed by jealousy, from the Noh stage, with two horns and a grin. The oni is the demon and looks angrier.

Can I wear them?

The painted full-face masks, yes, with elastic. The wooden ones are for the wall.

Are the wooden masks hand-carved?

Each is carved from a single block of pale wood and left unpainted; no two are identical, and the grain shows.