καιρός remembered

Okame

Okame is the name of the mask depicting a young woman with a small, upturned nose and large, round cheeks. It is also the name of the wife of the master carpenter who built the main hall of the Senbon Shakado Temple in Kyoto, where I saw this beautifully illuminated mask. The story goes that she helped her husband build the temple and then took her own life to save his honour. This must be why her mask is displayed on a wooden tray in the temple’s main hall.
It is believed that the Okame mask brings good luck. There appears to be a custom in Kyoto of attaching an Okame mask to a wooden pole during roof-raising ceremonies. (Source of the text: Japanese Wiki Corpus)

Photo of the week: Okame mask in Senbon Shakado temple, Kyoto, Japan 2008