2 Vintage Japanese Miniature Noh Pottery Theater Masks Old Man Woman 3"

Description

Vintage pair of miniature Japanese noh masks made of ceramic portraying an old man and old woman, including boxes and panel for display.

“ The word Noh means talent, skill and craft in art performance. Noh is the oldest theater style played today.

Noh is classical Japanese musical drama based on tales from traditional literature performed since the 14th century. In the story, supernatural creature transforms into human shape and tells the story. The actors tell a story through gestures and appearance in masks. They capture the essence of the story with masks, props and costumes trough dance performance.

Noh masks are carved from single piece of wood painted with natural pigments. Mask represents age, gender and social ranking of human or nonhuman being like animal, demon or divine. All of the masks have a distinctive name. There are 60 types and over 400 different masks. Noh mask is used to emphasize and stylize the facial expressions which is accompanied with adequate body language and movement in order to stimulate the imagination of the audience of Noh play.

Mask is made when slightly held differently it gives slightly different expression. When the mask is held slightly upward, it will get more light, and it would look more smiling. When the mask is held slightly downward, it would look more mad or sad. The holes on the eyes are very small, so the field of vision of the performer is very limited. Not all the characters wear a mask. It is the honor of the main characters. Actors who don’t wear a mask are expected to make very distinctive face expressions like mask expression.”

Condition

Very Good

Dimensions

Man - 2.25” x 1” x 3.25” / Woman - 2” x 1” x 2.75” / Boxes - 4” x 3.25” x 1.5” (Width x Depth x Height)