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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& #39;m too lazy to get it)
At any rate, this carver is apparently the only one still making bugaku masks and I& #39;m...frankly worried what& #39;s about to hit Japan and how that it& #39;ll affect some of the older craftspeople I& #39;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& #39;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& #39;ll take a month to carve and get blessed at his nextdoor shrine, but I& #39;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.
