tsūen 通円

Also 通圓. A mask of an old man, used in the kyōgen 狂言 play Tsūen (The Tea Priest, Tsūen 通円). This mask has regular, stylized features, crescent eyes, open mouth, and thin cheeks with prominent cheek bones. It represents the ghost of a priest who owned a tea house in Uji 宇治, and died from many hours of practicing tea ceremony. The play Tsūen is a parody of the *Noh 能 play *Yorimasa 頼政, and the tsūen mask closely resembles the Noh mask *nōmen 能面 of Yorimasa's ghost, although the kyōgen mask *kyōgenmen 狂言面 lacks the bitter, fearful intensity of the Noh version.