Two masks 1807

Curator: What a striking print. This woodblock, created around 1807 by the famed Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, is entitled “Two Masks." Editor: It's almost unnerving. The stark contrast between the vacant white space and the Kabuki mask's exaggerated features immediately grabs my attention. There’s an undeniable tension here, a kind of unsettling theatricality. Curator: The Kabuki mask is indeed the more visually arresting of the two, and the juxtaposition is telling. The almost monstrous depiction speaks to Kabuki’s role in exaggerating archetypes and exploring heightened emotional states within societal boundaries. It really begs us to consider the societal forces in play. Editor: Precisely! Red is used quite specifically in Japanese theater, particularly Kabuki, to symbolize heroes, passion, or even anger. Here, the touches around the eyes, cheeks, and even suggesting a beard amplify the character's intensity. This links it directly to codified meanings. It gives a nod to tradition in that very specific visual language. Curator: Looking through the lens of the socio-political climate in the early 19th century Japan, Kabuki often served as a sanctioned space to express anxieties that would have otherwise been suppressed. Hokusai would be reflecting on very contemporary performance traditions that still reverberate today. What do you make of the other mask? Editor: That one is more puzzling to me, abstract, almost like a void, though that dark shading suggests a shadow of sorts. If the Kabuki mask represents performance, spectacle, and even the outward projection of power, this blank one might symbolize the hidden or unknown – maybe the limitations or the fragility masked behind the pageantry? Curator: I'd suggest the vacant mask also mirrors societal roles imposed upon people of lower social rank at that time, who often are rendered invisible by systems of power, lacking an identity of their own or actively being made ‘blank.’ Hokusai uses his work to call out exactly this societal injustice! Editor: That reading definitely gives a vital grounding in the context. This woodblock provides a wealth of avenues for contemplating human psychology, visual traditions and performativity as an exploration of the social role, a wonderful object.