fusakumen 布作面

Lit. cloth masks. Also sakumen 作面. Eighth-century burlap (ramie) pieces with a human face sketched in the center in ink, sometimes with added colors. Holes are cut for eyes—some large, some irregular at the pupils, and some as narrow slits above the lower eyelids. Most are rectangles, some have lower corners cut round. With the exception of one female face that has gentle eyes without openings, small red lips, and a black topknot, all the other faces are of bearded men of various ages and expressions. A reference to 25 fusakumen used in a dance piece called Tōchūgaku 東中楽 appears in a *Shōsōin 正倉院 document of 764. These may be among the 32 cloth masks preserved in the repository now.