Ko-omote (Nō theater) Print

Mask of a young woman (from a noble line) from the Heian period ( 710 - 1185 ). It’s main characteristic is smoothness of the face. The whiteness is achieved by priming and using a pigment made from ground sea shells. The hair is always made in a particular way to be smooth and symmetrical, comed according to court fashion standards of the Heian period. The subtlety of the face makes the KO-OMOTE one of the most recognizable, but also deceptively difficult to carve NOH masks. The first KO- OMOTE was supposedly made by Tatsemon Shigemasa ( 15th c. ) Classical Japanese dance theatre is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Noh was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Taken literally the word means "skill" or "talent". Most prominent feature of Noh are Masks which represent the character’s type. The first maks were carved some time during the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573) and are still being crafted to this day using the same templates. They are carved from blocks of Japanese cypress (檜 "hinoki"). Every mask represents a different character and conveys a set of emotions they experience during a play. There are approximately 450 different masks mostly based on sixty types, all of which have distinctive names. The reason to portray the masks in the triptych "NOH Masks" is my admiration of the fabrication perfection of each mask, as well as a wish to showcase the emotions that accompany the character's transformation.