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Edo Kabuki in Transition: From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost by Satoko Shimazaki (review)

Edo Kabuki in Transition: From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost by Satoko... 502 Book Reviews The masks are grouped by female and male, ordered by youth to old age, human to god. It is fascinating to see the progression of female ages and temperaments, from the charming naïveité of the ko-omote teenager, to the fearful sorrow of the Yaseonna woman condemned to hellfire to the fearful, pained expression of a jealous horned Hannya spirit. One begins to recognize the nuances of hair wisps, forehead depressions, subtle frowns, and asymmet- ric eyes that distinguish them. Udaka brings a connoisseur’s eyes to the dis- tinctions among similar masks, stressing the importance of carving the proper angle of the eyes and curvatures of forehead, nose, and mouth that betray the mask’s personality. Typical is a single feature, such as the eyes in the “thin woman” Yaseonna mask, “sunken deep in their sockets, vacant, dull, devoid of hope.” The difference is elucidated between Hannya, the famous woman turned mad demon, and Shinja, a malevolent spirit suffering in hell without possibility of salvation, depicted with rapacious red mouth and no ears (she no longer wants to hear). For those of us who marvel at the way a mask can seem to transform expression during the play, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Theatre Journal University of Hawai'I Press

Edo Kabuki in Transition: From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost by Satoko Shimazaki (review)

Thornbury, Barbara E.
Asian Theatre Journal , Volume 34 (2) – Aug 14, 2017
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 The University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-2109

Abstract

502 Book Reviews The masks are grouped by female and male, ordered by youth to old age, human to god. It is fascinating to see the progression of female ages and temperaments, from the charming naïveité of the ko-omote teenager, to the fearful sorrow of the Yaseonna woman condemned to hellfire to the fearful, pained expression of a jealous horned Hannya spirit. One begins to recognize the nuances of hair wisps, forehead depressions, subtle frowns, and asymmet- ric eyes that distinguish them. Udaka brings a connoisseur’s eyes to the dis- tinctions among similar masks, stressing the importance of carving the proper angle of the eyes and curvatures of forehead, nose, and mouth that betray the mask’s personality. Typical is a single feature, such as the eyes in the “thin woman” Yaseonna mask, “sunken deep in their sockets, vacant, dull, devoid of hope.” The difference is elucidated between Hannya, the famous woman turned mad demon, and Shinja, a malevolent spirit suffering in hell without possibility of salvation, depicted with rapacious red mouth and no ears (she no longer wants to hear). For those of us who marvel at the way a mask can seem to transform expression during the play,

Journal

Asian Theatre Journal – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Aug 14, 2017

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