Noh Mask of Shishiguchi

With bared fangs and teeth and eyes staring intensely under furrowed brows, this Shishiguchi mask appears fearsome. Although the mask has human-like features, actors wear it when performing lion characters. In the Noh play Shakkyō (Stone Bridge), a Japanese monk who travels to Mount Wutai in China attempts to cross a bridge to reach the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī’s Pure Land. As he begins to cross, a young woodcutter convinces him to refrain and wait. He then witnesses a miraculous sight: a lion dancing with peonies. He then understands this lion is Mañjuśrī’s vahana, the bodhisattva’s form of conveyance.