Kiyohime

This netsuke mask is a collective portrait of one of the most fearsome antagonists in Japanese literature, the legendary Kiyohime (Princess Kiyo). Her story, immortalized in ancient tales and the famous Noh play Dōjō-ji, is the quintessence of jealousy, fury, and transformation. Kiyohime, having transcended human boundaries, represents a Honnari Hannya—a demon woman who has attained the maximum level of destructive power.
​The sculpture, carved from mammoth tusk (7 cm in length), reflects this fateful transformation and symbolism. The demoness’s eyes feature a double inlay, where golden mother-of-pearl symbolizes her initial beauty, and black buffalo horn represents all-consuming rage. The strand of hair caught between her lips is a powerful Japanese symbol of obsession and madness, emphasizing the heroine’s inner transition from woman to demon. Her hair, red lips, and makeup are rendered using various urushi lacquers, lending the mask authenticity and depth.
​The legend tells that the rejected Kiyohime, pursuing the monk Anchin, plunged into the Hidaka River, transformed into an fiery dragon, and, coiling around the temple bell where her beloved was hiding, incinerated it with her breath. This mask is a frozen, tragic moment where beauty and passion merge with destructive force and a fatal outcome.
​The work was featured in the exhibition “Contemporary Netsuke in Private Russian Collections” at the Oriental Museum in November 2017.
​China, private collection.