Today I mostly plowed through exhibition catalogs. I ran across a few examples of the chuujoh-type mask that I'm studying. That type of mask is the "standard" mask for male courtiers (the way the ko-omote mask is the standard for young women). The chuujoh mask is said to have been modeled after the 9th century, Heian-period courtier-poet Ariwara no Narahira. I wonder how this attribution came to be known? This is related to a type of mask called "Imawaka" (whose face is a little more youthful, I think). The more "human"-type faces are so subtle. There are three particularly salient features of the face, or rather, three sections the mask can be divided into: the mouth area, the nose, and the eyes. For chuujoh, the eyes are thin, narrow, and long, a narrow pointiness particularly emphasized by the black outlining of the eye. It seems that the more supernatural the being gets, the larger and rounder the eye. Gold might be employed in the iris for especially passionate characters; a red coloring of the "whites" of the eyes is also found in more supernatural masks. Chuujoh's mouth is parted open slightly, revealing a blackened upper row of teeth (which upperclass folks did in Heian period Japan). Demonic masks like hannya have wide-open mouths, sometimes with fangs shown, sometimes with tongues prominently showing; beshime masks have wide mouths with lips pressed firmly shut together.
The rendering of hair might be another important
