Mask for Noh drama, "Yoroboshi" (Blind Monk)
Used for only one play, Yoroboshi (Blind Monk), written in the fifteenth century by Juro Motomasa (1395–1432), this mask captures the complex emotions of intense grief and spiritual deliverance. The deceptively simple tale revolves around a youth driven blind by the intensity of his grief when he is rejected by his family as a result of a false accusation. His repentant father, having realized his mistake, comes to pray for his son at the great Shittenōji temple in Osaka. There the blind boy daily begs for his bread, enjoying the few pleasures afforded by his refined imagination and confident of the saving mercy of the bodhisattva Kannon. Behind the painful derangement that is the surface expression of the mask lies an elegance of feeling and sense of awed faith that eventually reunites the blind boy with his father.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mask for Noh drama, "Yoroboshi" (Blind Monk)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: 18th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Painted wood
- Dimensions: H. 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm); W. 5 1/8 in. (13 cm)
- Classification: Masks
- Credit Line: The Howard Mansfield Collection, Gift of Howard Mansfield, 1936
- Object Number: 36.120.685
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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early 17th century
second half of the 17th century
ca. 1670s
ca. 1700–1750
first half 18th century
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