William Vollmann - Kissing the Mask - Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, ... Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines

107: “As their ‘ruby’ lips parted…” — Hawks, p. 395. This took place in Yokohama. Here is a British reaction to geishas in the same period: “… some gorgeously dressed singing and dancing girls, their face painted ghastly white, their lips green, and their teeth black…” (Peabody Museum, p. 58 [Allen Hockey, “First Encounters — Emerging Stereotypes, ” quoting the Illustrated London News , 1874]). That this disgust was less ideological than aesthetic is suggested by the following kinder observation, noted in Simoda (p. 397): Among the Japanese, in distinction to other Asian nationalities such as the Turks, “woman is recognised as a companion, and not merely treated as a slave.”

108: “Her eyebrows look like furry caterpillars…” — McCullough, p. 258 (“The Lady Who Admired Vermin”, ca. 1300).

108: Court ladies blackening their teeth for the New Year’s banquet of 1025 — McCullough, p. 228 (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes).

108: Further piquant examples of black teeth: In The Taiheiki (p. 60) we encounter “the painted eyebrows and blackened teeth of a boy of fifteen years.” The Tale of Genji (p. 207) details the charm of a boy’s decayed teeth. Interestingly (p. 127), those of the heroine, Murasaki, are not blackened.

108: Black teeth of some geishas in last month of maikodom — Gallagher, p. 159.

108: Tanizaki on black teeth — Lopate, pp. 352–53 (much condensed).

108: “Like a jeweled hairpin…” — The Tales of Ise , p. 61 (Dan XXI).

109: The woman with boils on her body — The Tales of Ise , p. 137 (Dan XCVI).

109: “The moon was so bright that I was embarrassed to be seen…” — Lady Murasaki, Diary , p. 36.

109: “Her hair falls just about three inches past her heels…” — Ibid., p. 47.

109: “The contrast between her pale skin…” — Ibid., p. 48.

109: Ichirakutei Eisui’s print of “The Courtesan Karakoto of the Chojiyu House” — Seen at the Ota Ukiyo-e Museum in Tokyo, 2006. Tochigi Reiko suggests that “Chojiya” would be a better transliteration.

110: “Her tresses black as a mud-snail’s bowels…”— Manyoshu , p. 310, poem 986. See also p. 201 (poem 615).

110: The black hair is so common a stock epithet that it is mocked by Mishima in his twentieth-century version of “The Damask Drum” (Five Modern No Plays, p. 41).

110: The lovely woman is often compared to a mirror — For instance, Manyoshu , p. 168 (poem 513: “An Elegy”).

110: Osaka Port (Mitsu) compared to the mirror on a girl’s comb-case — Ibid., p. 93 (poem 273: Tajihi Kasamaro, “On His Journey to Tsukushi”).

110: “When I visited the abyss of Tamashima…” — Ibid., p. 258 (poem 793, one of the “Poems Composed on a Trip to the River of Matsura”).

110: “On the Death of an Uneme…” — Ibid., p. 45 (poem 112).

110: “Of the Maiden Tamana…” — Ibid., p. 216 (poem 614).

110: “Lovely eyebrows / Curving like the far-off waves” — Ibid., p. 128 (poem 402: Lady Otomo of Sakanoe, “Sent to Her Elder Daughter from the Capital”).

110: “The young moon afar” — Ibid., p. 135 (poem 430: Otomo Yakamochi, “On the New Moon”).

111: Direct and indirect quotations in the subsequent paragraph — Lady Murasaki, Diary , pp. 6, 7, 20, 19, 25. Other passages bearing on this subject may be found on pp. 15, 17, 47, 65.

111: “As long as the character is mysteriously beautiful…” — Hare, p. 132, excerpt from Sando .

111: Women depicted in the Tokugawa Museum’s Genji Picture-Scroll — Genji Monogatari Emaki , Tokugawa Museum version, p. 142.

111: Footnote: Description of the hikime kagibana technique — Ibid., pp. 157–61, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko; revised by me for grammar and style, and slightly abridged.

112: Genji has relations with women he cannot see — For instance, Genji , p. 149.

112: Screened reclusiveness of The Taiheiki ’s heroines — Op. cit.; e.g., pp. 53, 330.

112: Definition of miekakure — De Mente, pp. 78–79.

112: “Make your sensibility the basis of your acting…” — Ibid., p. 133.

112: Himi Munetada’s mask and its model — Kanze et al., Omote , commentary volume; remarks on plates 20–21.

113: Description of a seventeenth-century courtesan — Saikaku, pp. 137–38 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

113: Kamo no Chomei: “A beautiful woman…” — Quoted in Brower and Miner, p. 268.

113: Interview with Kanze Hideo — In the lobby of his hotel in Kyoto, 2005.

113: Extract from Dr. Zhivago — P. 247.

114: Footnote: “The transsexual’s position consists of wanting to be All…” — Millot, p. 42.

115: Public appearance of the Japanese Empress with unblackened teeth (1873) — Blomberg, p. 202.

115: “The ideal feminine face must be long and narrow” — Bacon, pp. 58–59 (fn).

115: “That reminds me of The Tale of Genji …” — Ms. Kawai Takako, interviewed by telephone, January 2006.

115: Footnote: “Chinese girl beauty is large eye…” — My interpreter “Michelle” (Wei Xiao Min), interviewed in Nan Ning, summer 2002. She appears at greater length in my book Poor People .

115: “I totally disagree! That is so weird!..” — Mrs. Keiko Golden, interviewed by telephone, January 2006.

8: AYA KUDO AND THE ZO-ONNA

117: Photographs of Aya Kudo — Saiki Hiroyoshi, unnumbered pp.

118: “A slender, oval face of the classic melon-seed type…” — Tanizaki, p. 144 (“The Bridge of Dreams”).

118: “A face well-rounded in the modern style” — Saikaku, p. 132 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

118: The zo-onna and waka-onna masks — Nakamura Mitsue postcards.

120: Footnote: “The crease lines between the eyebrows on statues of male Shinto gods…” — Takeda and Bethe, p. 65 (Tanabe Saburosuke, “The Birth and Evolution of Noh Masks”).

121: “On the last night of the year…” — Lady Murasaki, pp. 44–45.

121: Preference for young, symmetrical and composite faces — Nehamas, pp. 64–65.

121: Various masculine and feminine facial lengths, widths and distances — Heath, pp. 44–45.

121: “Extend the whites.” — Aucoin, p. 37.

121: Footnote: Alteration by angle of perceived expression of magojiro mask — Lyons et al.

122: “Female masks, whether ko-omote …” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 39. Hori continues: “When ‘Tsuki’ or ‘Yuki’ is worn for the shite role, ‘Hana’ can be used for the tsure . The nose is not tilted, but carved straight.”

123: Mr. Mikata Shizuka on the subject of Ms. Nakamura’s masks — Interviewed in his studio in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto, 2004.

123: Interview with Nakamura Mitsue — In her studio in Kyoto, 2004. “Why did you decide to make masks?” I asked her. She replied: “In the beginning, I just liked Noh masks. I started learning. As I trained, the more I worked on them, the more I loved them. I studied in art school at university. I was doing oil painting. And I liked to paint human faces. I was very good at sketching. I was very good at grasping shape. So, from hindsight, it was a very good decision.” I inquired (tactlessly, I suspect) whether she could support herself easily, and she modestly replied: “Generally speaking, I’m not known.”

9: HER GOLDEN LIPS SLIGHTLY PARTED

126: The parted lips of Kate Bosworth — Marie Claire , vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), pp. 108–13 (cover story, “Pieces of Kate,” photographed by Mark Abrahams).