杉彫 (Sugicho)
Furyu Mask "A" (Female Oni) - Hand-carved Camphor by Sugicho of Saga
Furyu Mask "A" (Female Oni) - Hand-carved Camphor by Sugicho of Saga
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Carved to order — each mask is cut by hand at the workshop in Saga, which asks one to three months, and is then dispatched from Tokyo with tracked international shipping (typically 3–7 days, up to about two weeks where customs processing is slow).
Worldwide shipping from Japan with tracking. U.S. orders: we prepay all U.S. import duties before shipping — nothing to pay on delivery. Other destinations: any duties or customs fees charged by your country are billed to the recipient on delivery.
A furyū-men — the horned oni mask of men-buryū, the masked drum dance of southwestern Saga. This is the a face, the female of the pair: the mouth open wide with the tongue put out, the eyes swept upward, the furrows of the forehead streaming up with them, and the horns kept short.
Carved by hand at Sugicho in Kashima, Saga, from camphor — the tree of the prefecture — and finished with a clear coat and nothing else. Around Kashima the lacquer is deliberately left off. Lacquer, the workshop says, makes a mask look no different from moulded plastic, and you stop being able to feel the weight of the wood. Left plain you get the grain, the scent of the camphor, and a colour that goes on deepening for years. Every mask is cut from a different block, so no two of them come out the same.
The oni of this dance is not the one you throw beans at. It fights the gods at the shrine, loses, changes heart, and comes down into the villages as the god's messenger, carrying fortune from house to house. Masks like this are hung at home as a guard on the house.
About this piece
- Maker — Sugicho (杉彫), Kashima, Saga. The carving name Keiun has passed down five generations.
- Material — camphor (kusu), the tree of Saga Prefecture. Plain wood with a clear coat only — no lacquer.
- Finish — cut and finished with chisels alone. No sandpaper is used anywhere in the work.
- Carved to order — the workshop asks one to three months.
Furyū-men are traditionally carved and displayed as a pair, a and un. About furyū-men, the dance and the workshop →
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