Japan or SE Asia, possibly pre-1603 CE. This is a light wood mask with the hair painted black/blue and the face painted white. The eyes and nostrils are pierced. There is a small hole drilled in the top front of the head, likely for ventilation as it was being worn. There is a black mustache-like line above the upper lip and another design in black at the top center just below the hair line. The mask is assembled from at least five pieces of wood which are joined securely together without nails. A mask like this was used in the Gyodo ceremony, a tradition which began in Tang Period China (618 to 906 CE). Priests wearing bodhisattva masks paraded outside of temples, to enact the welcome of the dead into Paradise by the Buddha Amida (Amitabha). This particular object was examined by Mr Shinichi Doi, the now retired Associate Conservator of the Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum, at his home on January 14, 2006. He concluded that it is very old and very possibly pre-Edo, but that it may not be Japanese. Size: 10.5" L x 8" W x 4" H (26.7 cm x 20.3 cm x 10.2 cm).

Provenance: ex-New Jersey Collection.

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#111151

Surface wear, plus loss to right eye and top back part of the headdress, as shown.