Page 404 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Kan'ami (1333-1384), Zeami's father. The tenjin served as the forelegs, the other comprised the head. A H6ryu-ji type has been distinguished
appears as a benevolent spirit in the play Kin- hindquarters and rear legs. The shishi was also from the Todai-ji masks by its greater linearity,
satsu, and in Tamura as a manifestation of Saka- prominent in other imported dance forms. more reminiscent of dog or wolf features. These
noue no Tamuramaro (758-811), a military hero The Gigaku shishi was quickly adapted to a two early types emphasize animation achieved
associated with the founding of Kiyomizu Temple variety of masked dance forms performed from through fierce features and movable parts. The
in Kyoto (see cat. 217). In yet other plays the early times at Shinto shrines and grouped under later lion masks, as typified by this one from
mask represents the justly vengeful spirit of the general heading Kagura (gods' music), Pre- Kuromori Shrine, have fewer moving parts; they
Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), the slandered Buddhist forms of religious dance were intended were intended more as awesome sculptures than
scholar-statesman who died in exile from the primarily to ensure fertility and exorcise evil. as "dramatis personae."
court, a victim of political intrigue. Shamanistic dancing seems to have included the The use of these masks, and the lion dance,
The highly stylized features and coloration of exorcistic features as well as rhythmic repetition are recorded in various narrative scroll-paintings,
this mask, including the gilding of the bulging to induce trance or ecstasy. The earliest of most notably the twelfth-century Shinzei Ko-
eyes, convey an otherworldly aspect, but the recorded Japanese myths refers to dance as a form kaku Zu (Shinzei's Illustrations of Ancient
image was surely based on a nobleman of middle of seducing or pleasing the gods (see cat. 241). Music). Other works depict the shishi mai as part
years. j.u. The dedication in 752 of the Great Buddha of larger processions and also, in later times, as an
sculpture (Daibutsu) at Todai-ji in Nara marked independent street entertainment.
the high point of early Japanese assimilation of So popular was the shishi mai that it was incor-
continental culture and of early Japanese admira- porated into many forms of dance and theater:
tion for Tang Chinese aesthetics and political some No performances incorporated it as an inter-
principles. Religious dances and processions lude. One reason for its wide adoption may be its
247 attendant to that watershed celebration displayed exorcistic nature: its rhythmic and incantational
the wide variety of Asian dances imported to aspects clearly complemented both indigenous
LION MASK Japan. Virtually all of the imported dances con- cult practices and certain Buddhist rituals. The

dated to 1485 tained the shishi mai, or lion dance. Gigaku masks advent of populist strains of Buddhism in the
Japanese from that time preserved in the Shoso-in reposi- Kamakura period (1185-1333) familiarized the
polychromed wood tory of Todai-ji include lion masks. The Todai-ji Japanese with odori nembutsu f a rhythmic dance
3
5
approx. 40 x 60 fi5 /4 x 2^ /s) lion mask type, from the eighth century, has some of repetitive foot movements and sung or chanted
of the blockish features seen in fifteenth-century prayer formulas. It has been suggested that a
Kuromori Shrine, Iwate Prefecture
types, but the earlier style and construction growing popular use of incantational dance in
were directed more toward ingenious mechanical Buddhism made the rhythms of the shishi mai
In Japan lions were unknown outside Buddhist effects, such as a movable tongue and metal all the more appreciated.
iconography, and depictions of them were flights sheaths on the teeth to produce a distinctive Another type of dance, called shishi odori,
of fancy based on images from China and Korea, sound when the mouth was snapped shut. Ears involved a dancer costumed with a deer headdress.
where lions were likewise unknown. Among were separate pointed elements attached to the It was performed in late summer and autumn as
several dozen dated lion masks produced from the
mid-fourteenth through the early seventeenth
century is this one from Kuromori Shrine. The
mask is constructed according to a stylistic for-
mula characteristic of fifteenth-century interpre-
tations of the beast. Articulated from a series
of fleshy, rounded components, the features are
designed to emphasize the wide and fiercely
focused eyes. The prowlike upper mouth and
bulbous snout jut menacingly, the nose slopes into
the face. An overhanging continuous eyebrow
line completes the cavernous frame for the eyes.
The lower jaw is a separate unit attached at either
side near the rear of the head; this lower element
also serves as a rectangular base for the mask. The
teeth somewhat resemble round-cornered stone
tablets. A curling upper lip reveals stylized inci-
sors, of architectonic rather than carnivorous
function.
The lion dance (J: shishi mai} was probably
first introduced to Japan by Koreans in the early
seventh century as one element in the repertory
of Gigaku, a kind of religious mime originated in
China and enacted by masked performers. The
masks generally depicted grotesquely or comically
exaggerated human faces, perhaps caricatures of
Indian or Central Asian facial types. The Gigaku
lion form required two performers, concealed
under a large drape: one wore the mask and

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