Sunday, September 12, 2010

Mask History Part 4

So, as Europe came out of the Dark Ages, and the Masks slowly following, an intriguing little bit of mask history was taking place far to the East in Japan. The masks were originally thought to have found their origin in Korea, but the details are sketchy. Very few original masks remain, and we know so little about them. The Gigaku masks had the forms of animals, demons and "super humans". The faces were made of wood and portrayed dramatic expressions. This theatre would go through a number of incarntions, leading eventually to Noh theatre, which is still performed in Japan and Asia. Noh, introduced by Kannami Zeami in 1336, also uses masks. Unlike our theatre, performances in Noh can take a full day to tell a story, and often have epic plots with detailed characters. An interesting fact about Noh is that Men would play both male and female roles, as females were forbidden from the stage, not unlike European theatre during this time. As a result, the men would wear female masks and become "dolls" or "dolling" practice. This practice would eventually contribute to modern day Kigurumi, "dolling" involves wearing a full body suit and mask of a female character for Anime and Manga characters, though it is not the only form of Kigurumi-other forms include "fur suit" or "furries", what we would know in North America as "mascots"; large animal costumes including fully encased head.

So Asia and Europe were moving forward with their mask making and wearing, where does North America lie? As we'll discover in our next part, we find masks dating back over ten thousand years before Common Era, not unlike our earlier discovery in France-though a different history is uncovered.

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