yakan 野干

A Noh mask *nōmen 能面 representing a small Chinese fox. Its thin-lipped, slightly open mouth which reveals sharp upper and lower teeth is drawn tightly back, giving the mask a sinister quality. Pronounced eyebrows and heavy eyelids cover the upper half of the metallic gold eyeballs. Coarse hair painted with short, black and white strokes for the eyebrows, mustache, and beard below the lip creates the sense of an older fox. The mask is colored brown. A similar mask called deiyakan 泥野干 is painted gold. Yakan is worn by the spirit of the Death Rock in the second act of the play Sesshōseki 殺生石. 

A yakan mask inscribed by the 18th-century Ōno Deme 大野出目 master, Hokan Mitsunao 甫閑満猶, is owned by the Tokyo National Museum.