irebokuro

I notice someone asking about this on facebook today, I thought I would share this one with you

Kumadori (隈取) is stage makeup worn by kabuki actors, particularly when performing in the bold and bombastic aragoto style. Kumadori makeup generally consists of brightly-colored stripes or patterns over a white foundation, the colors and patterns symbolizing aspects of the actor’s character. 

• Bright red stripes indicate a powerful hero role. The most famous of these roles, and the one which has come to stereotypically represent kabuki in the West, is the hero of Shibaraku. Red symbolizes virtue and power.

• Villains are often depicted with a design of black beard, purple veins, and dark blue antler-like eyebrows.

• Blue makeup can represent a ghost, spirit, or other magical creature, depending on the patterns. Kitsune such as Genkurō in Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura wear blue makeup. Blue represents negative emotions such as jealousy or fear; ghosts in traditional Japanese drama are often trapped by their attachment to such emotions.

• Greys and browns can be used sometimes, particularly when representing animals, oni (demons), yōkai (monsters), or anything else inhuman. One example is the tsuchigumo (ground spider) fought by Minamoto no Raikō.

The term also applies to a painting method in which two brushes are used simultaneously, one for the color and the other used to create shading or other details.

An impression of a kabuki actor’s face make-up, preserved on a piece of cloth, is known as an oshiguma.

Rokuro-kubi are yōkai that used to be ordinary human beings, but somehow they have come to suffer from a ghostly affliction that allows their heads to float away from their bodies, their necks stretching in between like a fleshy garden hose, sometimes indefinitely. Usually they are women. The rokuro-kubi’s condition is sometimes brought about by a curse, and sometimes as a supernatural manifestation of the person’s desires. The neck-stretching almost always happens at night, often while the rokuro-kubi sleeps, and the freed head may wander through the house perpetrating such obake-esque mischief as sucking the life energy out of people and animals, and licking up the oil of andon lamps. Some of them simply wind up using lintels high above doors and windows as their pillows, and scaring the living daylights out of anyone who happens to peek in on them. Rokuro-kubi women are often unlucky in love, frightening their new husbands away when the men discover their wives’ unnerving nocturnal abilities.

Tsukumogami (付喪神, “artifact spirit”) are a type of Japanese spirit. According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become a Tsukumogami. Tsukumogami are considered spirits and supernatural beings, as opposed to enchanted items.

Tsukumogami vary radically in appearance, depending on the type of item they originated from as well as the condition that item was in. Some, originating from paper lanterns or broken sandals, can have tears which become eyes and sharp teeth, thus giving a horrifying visage. Others, such as worn prayer beads or teacups, may merely manifest faces and appendages, giving a warm and friendly appearance.

Though by and large Tsukumogami are harmless and at most tend to play occasional pranks on unsuspecting victims, they do however have the capacity for anger and will band together to take revenge on those who are wasteful or throw them away thoughtlessly. To prevent this, to this day some jinja ceremonies, such as the Hari Kuyō, are performed to console broken and unusable items.

It is said that modern items cannot become Tsukumogami; the reason for this is that tsukumogami are said to be repelled by electricity. Additionally, few modern items are used for the 100-year-span that it takes for an artifact to gain a soul.

Common Tsukumogami:

• Abumi-guchi: stirrup
• Bakezōri: straw sandals
• Boroboro-ton: comforter
• Chōchinobake: lanterns
• Furu-utsubo: archer’s quiver
• Ichiren-bozu: prayer-beads
• Ittan-momen: roll of cotton
• Jotai: cloth draped from folding screens
• Kameosa: sake jars
• Kasa-obake: umbrellas
• Kosode-no-te: kimono robes
• Kyōrinrin: scrolls and papers
• Morinji-no-okama: tea kettles
• Shirōneri: mosquito netting or dust cloths
• Ungaikyo: mirrors
• Yamaoroshi: grater or porcupine
• Zorigami: clocks

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