Years ago I wanted to buy some Noh masks from a carver, who invited me to his home in Fukuchiyama north of Kyoto, picked me up from the station, and drove me to the old row-house where his workshop is...

As it was winter we went to the top floor and sat at a kotatsu and ate mikan before I walked down the rows and rows of wall-mounted masks before I picked out three masks - Hashihime, Masukami, and a bugaku mask for Ranryuuou 蘭陵王- who FGO peeps may know as Lanling Wang

In bugaku, his threatening mask to mask his beautiful face looks like this (mine is wrapped up and I'm too lazy to get it)

At any rate, this carver is apparently the only one still making bugaku masks and I'm...frankly worried what's about to hit Japan and how that it'll affect some of the older craftspeople I've met over the years - the silk weavers, the mask-carvers, the glassblowers, brewers

I saw he was carving a special 祈祷般若 - "Prayer Hannya" for COVID19, so I emailed and asked if I could buy it and mentioned I'd been there once some years ago, and he remembered - he must have pulled my invoice after I mentioned I was a weird gaijin who visited some years ago

Anyways, it'll take a month to carve and get blessed at his nextdoor shrine, but I'm so curious about this one:

I got an answer from the mask carver! This dates back to an 8th century smallpox epidemic, it seems - @UncannyJapan may find this interesting! He corrected himself and said it was Emperor Shōmu.