Mask

The 1983 Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co (London) catalogue listing for the mask said it was a "Noh mask of Jo, the old man with gaunt features crisply carved...painted on a gessso ground..., 18th century." A label said it was the character 'Akujo'.

Akujo mask. Brown coloured mask with high upraised eyebrows outlined with black diagonal lines and three curvy horizontal lines carved for furrows at the wrinkled brow. The slightly triangular inset eyes bulge out at an angle as the high cheek bone angles to a downward bulge. The open cut out mouth has upper teeth. The moustache and goatee are painted with curved black lines. There is a grouped clump of curly black hair coming down from each upper corner of the mask from a set of holes. The beard is also done in a similar fashion to the hair. The pupils of the eyes and the nostrils are also cut out.