otokomen　男面

KEY WORD :　art history / sculptures

Noh masks *noumen 能面 representing men. These realistic portrayals of men of both high and low social status at various stages in life are often classified by age. Youths include the temple boys *kasshiki 喝食, the eternally young *jidou 慈童 and *douji 童子 (perhaps better classified as sprites along with the sculpturally similar red *shoujou 猩猩), and the blind boys *semimaru 蝉丸 and *yoroboshi 弱法師. Most of the young men's masks represent refined courtiers, many of whom were also warriors of the Heike clan and died in battle. The most universally used of these is *chuujou 中将. Others include atsumori 敦盛 *imawaka 今若 and *juuroku 十六. To represent commoners *wakaotoko 若男 or *kantan otoko 邯鄲男 are used. Middle-aged men appear only as victorious warriors and are represented by the mask *heita 平太, of which several variations exist. Old men, venerated for their wisdom, appear in the first act of many noh plays. They are described under *joumen 尉面. In addition there are a number of special masks tokushumen 特殊面 used exclusively for a single play that bears the name of the character as its title, such as *KAGEKIYO 景清, *SHUNKAN 俊寛, *YORIMASA 頼政 and *IKKAKU SENNIN 一角仙人, For these, each school has its own portrait-like interpretation. Thus while in general a mask can be used for a wide variety of roles in a large number of plays, the opposite is true for these special masks: a single role is represented by several quite different masks. Hair styles for men's masks vary. Youths generally have hair streaming down over their forehead or in clear-cut bangs. Warriors and courtiers wore tall black lacquer hats. The line where the bottom rim of the hat would cut across the forehead is shown on the men's masks by a straight black horizontal strip. Side hairs are then painted along the left and right rims of the mask. Eyebrows are painted with thin black lines along the upper eye-socket, often thickening with an upward swerve for the outer portion. For the highest ranks (e.g. chuujou ), however, as with women's masks, eyebrows appear as 'caterpillar' fuzz above the bone structure, reflecting the custom of shaving them off and painting in false eyebrows. For mature men's masks, a mustache, sometimes slight, sometimes aggressively magnificent, and suggestion of a beard are painted in with black hair lines. The eyes are rendered realistically, with eyelids enclosing indented eyeballs. The pupils, however, unlike the square openings for women's masks, are rounded to give a strong dynamic, though they are not fully round circles as is found on demon masks. Coloring tends to be more ruddy than for women's masks.

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