TITLE: Hyottoko Folk Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: Japan
ETHNICITY: Japanese
DESCRIPTION: Hyottoko (Fire-Blower) Dengaku Mask
CATALOG ID: ASJP027
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Dengaku Dance
AGE: 2000s
MAIN MATERIAL: paper
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; wood; glue
Hyottoko (“fire-blower”) is a comical Japanese folk character used in the dengaku dance ceremonies accompanying rice planting, accompanied by the sasara, a wooden clapper. His distorted face represents a peasant blowing on fire with a bamboo pipe. The Hyottoko is now also used in festivals in urban Japan, such as Miyazaki Prefecture’s Hyuga Hyottoko Natsumatsuri.
