No mask, Jo type

Object Details

• Label

  This mask was used for performances of No, a musical dance-drama that developed within troupes who performed under the patronage of Japanese Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Such dramatic entertainments often followed religious ceremonies. Gods in human or supernatural form, ghosts, spirits, and demons are often characters in No plays. Plays often evoke the close interrelationship between gods and spirits and the human world. Masks with generalized features are worn by the male performers to enhance the performance of the role and to create the illusion of transformations onstage. In addition to being colored over a white ground, this mask would have had hair attached to form the moustache and beard. The features of the elderly man are sensitively carved, and the condition is typical for masks of similar age. Inscriptions on the rear indicated that the mask was donated to a Shinto shrine. Performances of No on simple, open-air stages were once widely performed in the precincts of Shinto shrines.

• Provenance

  To 2003

  Seymour J. Janow, Washington, DC, acquired in Japan, to 2003 [1]

  From 2003

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by the family of Seymour J. Janow in 2003

  Notes:

  [1] According to Curatorial Note 1, Ann Yonemura, September 30, 2003, in the object record.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mrs. Selma Janow

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Collected by Seymour J. Janow and Gifted in his memory by his Family

• Type

  Mask

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Date

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• Name

  Janow, Selma

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Art, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615), Wood, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Masks