Mask Woman

This woodblock print combines Kinoshita Tomio's two central subjects, the mask and the female figure, into a single hybrid image. "Mask Woman" could depict a woman wearing a mask, a mask that has taken on feminine features, or a woman's face that has become mask-like through the artist's reductive treatment. In Noh theater, female masks such as the ko-omote (young woman) or the deigan (heavenly being) possess a studied ambiguity of expression that changes with the angle of the performer's head. Kinoshita may be exploring this ambiguity in woodblock form, creating a face-mask that shifts between states depending on the viewer's attention. The fusion of living face and carved mask raises questions about identity, performance, and the boundary between the natural and the artificial that run through all of Kinoshita's work.