"Nô" theatre mask "tengu" ·  Japan · ID: 3042127

Description

wood/papier-maché, dark red lacquer, black paint, separate worked prominent nose, overlong and hanging downwards, rotatable, fixing renewed, slightly dam.;
“tengu” (“heavenly dog”) are a type of legendary creature which are attributed to the “yōkai” (supernatural beings). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon, the “tengu” were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest “tengu” were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which surely awakes sexual associations. But similar to the god of luck “fukurokuju”, the phallus is rather looked upon as a symbol of fertility or of fortune in general.