Noh. It is said to be revised from the older art of Suragaku-noh under the appreciative eye of the Shogun in the 14th century. Today it is recognized internationally as a theatre of great sophistication and beauty. Five categories of plays that are synonym to Noh are God, Warrior, Woman, Human interest themes and Demon. The masks used in Noh plays are pretty expensive. This particular mask shown in the picture named ‘Hannya’, is said to be priceless. As scary as it looks, it only represents a woman transformed by jealousy and resentment into a serpent-like daemon with horns, fangs and wide gruesome mouth (The information written in this post is summarized from a leaflet obtained from Kyoto Prefectural International Center)