The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art February 1975 [antikvár]

Noh: Masks and Robe The Noh play is the most subtle and complex development of the Japanese tradition of ritual, dance, and drama—a tradition well over a thousand years old. Perhaps no other developed culture has so long and varied a history of the use of masks and costume as an integral part of both religious and cultivated secular life. It began with the importation in ad 612 (and subsequent total absorption) of Central Asian and T'ang China (618-907) music, dance, costume, and mask forms in the gigaku form of music and dance-drama, executed in conjunction with Buddhist ritual. From this time on, the Japanese used varied and constantly developing mask forms for a variety of purposes—mostly religious, but even when secular, touched with the spirit and substance of religious faith. The gigaku mask (Fig. I) was large and covered most of the head. While the expressions of the masks varied, the largest number are broad and humorous in appearance and were evidently used to provide some emotional relief from the longer periods of serious religious observance. Well over two hundred of these masks from the Nara Period (645-794) are preserved, principally at the Shoso-in, Horyu-ji, and Todai-ji —the former the unique Imperial warehouse of 753, the latter two of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan. Soon after the appearance of these masks a slightly smaller face mask was developed for another and similar musical dance, the bugaku, which was performed for many centuries, especially for the court. The height of production was in the Kamakura Period (1186-1392), but a bugaku troupe still performs today under the patronage of the Imperial Household. In addition to these broadly conceived and boldly modelled music-dance masks, later Buddhist ritual of the Heian Period (794-1185) required the use of gyodo masks (Fig. 2), more strictly religious in character, being representations of celestial beings, bodhisattvas, and other deities. These were used in solemn religious processions rather than in semi-religious— or even non-religious—interludes, as were the gigaku and bugaku masks. The gyodo mask conformations, beatific and holy, are markedly different from the masks used for the festivals and interludes. Bugaku and gyodo masks continued to be made and used at least into the Muromachi Period (1392-1573), principally in connection with the extra-curricular activities associated with major Buddhist temples. At the same time (that is, by the thirteenth century) we read of at least three other less formal and more popular music, dance, and mime activities which included the use of masks. There was sangaku, corrupted to sarugaku (monkey-music), a variety of the juggling, magical. Figure 1. Gigaku Mask : Suikoju. Paulownia wood, lacquered and painted, 11 x 8-1/4 inches (28 x 21 cm.). Japan, late Nara (Tempyo) Period (710-794). Purchase, John L. Severance Fund, cma 49.158 opposite Figure 11. Noh Mask: Ko-heshimi. Paulownia wood with polychromy, H. 8 inches (20.4 cm.). Japan, Muromachi Period (1392-1573). Purchase, John L. Severance Fund, cma 72.70 cover Noh Rohe. cma 74.36. See page 34. The Bulletin oj The Cleveland Museum of An. Volume LXH, Number 2, February, 1975. Published monthly, except July and August, by The Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Boulevard at University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Subscriptions: S8.00 per year for Museum members; $10.00 per year for non-members. Single copies: Sl.OO. Copyright 1975, by The Cleveland Museum of Art, Second-class postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio. Museum photography by Nicholas Hlobeczy; design by Merald E. Wrolstad. 27