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Directory: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese: Lacquer: Pre 1930: Item # 1487566

Please refer to our stock # 1-1423 when inquiring.

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AfricAsia Primitive and Antiques
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120 Impasse de La Borie
81170 Livers Cazelles, FRANCE
(0033) 6 32 63 98 15

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Dry lacquer mask of the traditional Gigaku Theater, finely carved and lacquered to depict an elderly man (old widower) with a long aquiline nose, full red lips forming a smile, elongated earlobes, and deeply carved wrinkles. The eyes and mouth are pierced. The back with a label inscribed inside deszcribing the mask and with the artist signature. Rich, dark patina. Height: 25 cm. Good condition with some wear and minor age flaking and losses to lacquer, tiny chips to edges. NOTE: This mask represents one of many varied and colorful characters of the masked dance drama called Gigaku, of which some are grotesque, some of Indian and Persian appearance, some from Buddhism and some from Brahmanism. According to the Nihon Shoki, Gigaku was brought to Japan by one Mimashi, an immigrant from Baekche, Korea in 612. It originated in the Chinese kingdom of Wu, or Kure in Japanese, and was also known as Kure no Uta Mai (Song and Dance of Kure). The drama was performed in the recently built temples of Nara which were then the centers of learning and culture, and the Nihon Shoki further records that envoys from Silla were entertained with a performance of Gigaku at the Kawahara temple in 692. Masks of the period survive in the Horyuji and Todaiji temples, with more than a hundred preserved in the Shosoin repository, some with ink inscriptions of dates and the names of the characters. Among them some are dated 9 April 752 showing that they were used in celebrations accompanying the ‘Eye Opening’ ceremony for the great bronze Buddha in the Todaiji in that year. The Todaiji records indicate sixty musicians and four ‘Gigaku Masters’ present at the ceremony.