TGT Pink Mask
< Concept as told by Gunpei Yamamuro >
The highlight in the eyes is a sun. The rabbit is often associated with the moon, so I purposefully paired it with the sun instead.
This mask has two motifs: the rabbit, and the silkworm. Although an insect, the silkworm is fluffy and I thought it would be interesting to combine it with the rabbit, but it was surprisingly actually rich with feminist implications.
In Japanese mythology, the silkworm is an incarnation of the fertility goddess Oogetsuhime, who is murdered by the god Susanoo. Oogetsuhime is known for the anecdote regarding the origin of food. She was able to produce all kinds of food from her bodily orifices, with which she prepared meals to serve to Susanoo. But one day, Susanoo snuck a look into her preparing the food, and thought that she was serving him food that had been defiled, and killed her. Her corpse produced the various seeds of the foods we eat.
This anecdote seems to illustrate the gravity of domestic violence and scorn towards care-giving work. Additionally, sericulture (the breeding of silkworms) is said to have been started by Amaterasu (the sun goddess), and is largely seen as women’s work, along with the spinning industry.
In modernity, this work and industry are seen in both positive and negative ways, as icons of women progressing in the workforce and other labor movements (Tomioka Silk Mill), and the history of labor exploitation (Oh, Nomugi-touge, novel by Shigemi Yamamoto), respectively.
The eyes are meant to reflect insect eyes, and there is a mulberry leaf brooch by the ear as a nod to the silkworm idea.