These chisels are made with the same technique used to make Japanese swords. The blades are

fired and pounded repeatedly for sharpness

and strength.

Cypress wood (hinoki), typically dried for 80-90 years

“Since this wood is three times

older than I am, I treat it

carefully, with great respeect”

Bidou Yamaguchi

Noh carvers do not use the usual verb “horu” meaning to carve; rather we use the verb “utsu” meaning to strike, implying that we enter into the wood as we carve it.

Usually, only the masks

of demons require

metal eyes.

This whitewash is made from ground andbaked seashell (gofun), which is mixed with a glue (nikawa) made from the

marrow of animals. Typically deer marrow is used.

Pigments are made from various minerals.

Kegaki, or hair painting, is a step where fine brushes

are used. Each line is painted in a single stroke. Several hundred strokes

are required to suggest the hair of a beard.

A mistake here would mean having to go back to the

base coat, so much concentration is required.

This is a fresh mask. The final state is the aging (koshoku-zuke). A new mask would not fit with the atmosphere of Noh; a mask must be made to look aged, as if it had been created 400-600 years ago. Even from the beginning, masks

were made to look older. The aging processes are among the most tightly kept secrets of

Noh mask carvers.

"For me, "mask-making" is not a simple expression of representational art of

superficies. It is a task of materializing the "narrative" hidden behind each face.”

Bidou Yamaguchi

This is the mask after the aging process.