Bibliograph

Kissing the mask, beauty, understatement, and femininity in Japanese Noh theater : with some thoughts on muses (especially Helga Testorf), transgender women, kabuki goddesses, porn queens, poets, housewives, makeup artists, geishas, valkyries, and Venus figurines, William T. Vollmann

Type

Label

Kissing the mask, beauty, understatement, and femininity in Japanese Noh theater : with some thoughts on muses (especially Helga Testorf), transgender women, kabuki goddesses, porn queens, poets, housewives, makeup artists, geishas, valkyries, and Venus figurines, William T. Vollmann

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [436]-500)

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Kissing the mask

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

419855470

Responsibility statement

William T. Vollmann

Sub title

beauty, understatement, and femininity in Japanese Noh theater : with some thoughts on muses (especially Helga Testorf), transgender women, kabuki goddesses, porn queens, poets, housewives, makeup artists, geishas, valkyries, and Venus figurines

Summary

Explores the enigma surrounding Noh theater and the traditions that have made it intrinsic to Japanese culture for centuries and extracts the secrets of staged femininity and the mystery of perceived and expressed beauty

Table Of Contents

Understatements about this string-ball of idle thoughts -- Black hair -- "The mask is most important always" : the Noh performances of Umewaka Rokuro -- Schematics : roles, rules, props -- Malignance and charm : a catalogue of female maks -- A branch of flowers : steps to ineffability -- The dragons of Kasuga : texts, places, histories, masks -- Sunshine at midnight : an interview with Mr. Mikata Shizuka -- Perfect faces : maiden, mask, geisha, wife, princess -- Aya Kudo and the zo-onna : a porn model compared with a Noh goddess -- Her golden lips slightly parted : an image of Kannon -- Crossing the abyss : the three beings of three women -- What is grace? A list and a possible hermeneutic -- Rainbow skirts : the loveliness of Lady Yang -- Jewels in the darkness : the dances of Kofumi-san and Konomi-san -- "She cannot do anything else" : compulsions, costs, achievements -- Suzuka's dressing room : a geisha gets ready -- "They just want to look in the mirror" : Yukiko makes me over -- "I sit with my legs closed" : glimpses of onnagatas -- "There's no ugly lady face" : Katy transforms -- The phallus of Tiresias : what is a woman? -- White arms -- A curtain of mist : understatement and concealment -- In the forest : an apology -- Sun-bright like swords : the beauty of valkyries -- Passing light : Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures -- Who is the willow tree goddess? Snatches of a play -- Beauty's ghost -- Snow in a silver bowl : an epitaph for Radha's grace -- Beauty's ghost : Ono no Komachi in traditional Noh plays -- Urashima's box : a few thoughts about time -- The decay of the angel : Komachi in the Noh plays of Mishima Yukio -- The moon maiden goes home -- Sunshine on Silla : the unknown -- Pine tree constancy : "Takasago," "Izutsu" and "Matsukaze" -- Kagekiyo's daughter : "Semimaru" and the plays of separation -- Behind the rainbow curtain : going home beneath the skin -- Appendix A : Descriptions of feminine beauty in The pillow book of Sei Shonagon (ca. 1000-1010) -- Appendix B : Descriptions of feminine beauty in some Old Norse sources -- Appendix C : Descriptions of feminine beauty in Sappho and miscellaneous Greek lyric sources -- Appendix D: Proportions of feminine beauty in some classical and Western European sources -- Appendix E : Noh play groups, and plays mentioned

Classification

Creator