KIYOHIME

"Kiyohime" has been carved from mammoth tusk, its length is 7 cm.Her eyes are double inlayed with golden mother-of-pearl and black buffalo horn. Her hair and make-up were colored with different Urushi lacquers. "Kiyohime" was exhibited in "Contemporary netsuke in private Russian collections" in the Oriental Museum in November 2017. My mask Kiyohime is a collective image, taken from theaters Kabuki and Noh, printed pictures and my imagination… Kiyo hime is one of the most famous antagonists in Japanese literature, and an example of a honnari hannya—a demon woman who has attained the maximum level of power. She appears in The Legend of Anchin and Kiyo hime, or Princess Kiyo, an ancient tale from Wakayama prefecture. Versions of the story appear in a number of ancient books. Her tale is retold in the famous noh play Dōjō-ji. One day, a handsome visiting priest named Anchin fell in love with the beautiful Kiyohime, but after a time he overcame his passions and refrained from further meetings. Kiyohime became furious at the sudden change of heart and pursued him in rage. The priest and Kiyohime met at the edge of the Hidaka river, where the priest asked a boatman to help him to cross the river, but told him not to let her cross with his boat. When Kiyohime saw that Anchin was escaping her, she jumped into the river and started to swim after him. While swimming in the torrent of the Hidaka river, she transformed into a large serpent or dragon because of her rage. When Anchin saw her coming after him in her monstrous new form, he ran into the temple called Dōjō-ji. He asked the priests of Dōjōji for help and they hid him under the bell of temple. However, the serpent smelled him hiding inside the bell and started to coil around it. She banged the bell loudly several times with her tail, then gave a great belch of fire that melted the bell. The fire was so great and large that it not only melted the bell, it also killed the priest as well. 2017. China, private collection.