Mask-making Demonstration and Talk

Renowned mask-carver Kitazawa Hideta will be joined by author and producer of English-language noh Jannette Cheong to explore the process of designing, carving and working with noh masks.

Kitazawa is unique in the noh world in making new masks for innovative and experimental noh pieces, including Englishlanguage noh. He will demonstrate the different stages of carving, offering a rare opportunity to understand how iconic noh masks are made.

About the speakers

Kitazawa Hideta is a wood sculptor and noh mask maker based in Tokyo. He learned traditional wood carving of Buddhist and Shinto statuary from his father, Kitazawa Ikkyo, and later studied noh mask carving. He currently produces classical noh and kyogen masks and has been designated a master craftsman by the Tokyo Metropolitan government. Kitazawa has also created numerous shinsaku “new” masks for foreign language noh productions, notably those of Theatre Nohgaku, as well as for other noh-influenced plays. He has given workshops and demonstrations in Japan and internationally and a book on his work entitled Noh and Kyogen Masks will be published by Prestel in Autumn 2024.

Jannette Cheong is a poet, playwright, designer and Theatre Nohgaku-affiliated artist. London born, she has been involved with education and artistic collaborations internationally for almost 40 years. She is the author of the English noh Pagoda, the first English noh using traditional noh techniques written by a British person, toured by the Oshima Noh Theatre/Theatre Nohgaku (Europe 2009, Asia 2011). Her ballet-nohopera collaborative piece, Opposites-InVerse, was performed for Matsui Akira’s tribute programme: Noh Time Like the Present, London (2017). Her English noh Between the Stones (Europe, 2020) was again toured by Oshima Noh Theatre/Theatre Nohgaku.

At the end of this demonstration talk Kitazawa Hideta will undertake a book signing of his newly published book Noh and Kyogen Masks: Tradition and Modernity in the Art of Kitazawa Hideta.

Registration

This event free, open to the public and in-person only. If you would like to attend, please register using the link above.

This event is part of the 'From Tradition to Modernity: Understanding nohgaku from its establishment 650 years ago to contemporary times' series of events. The full programme of events can be found on the Between the Stones website.

Header image: Kitazawa Hideta