Practical and horrifying!
Usually when we’re talking about Japanese lifestyle brand Felissimo, we’re highlighting one of their animal-themed creations, like the Shiba Inu-shaped hot water bottle cover or red panda nap cushion. But Felissimo also has a “Museum Division” that draws inspiration from the arts, and who’ve come up with something a little less cute and cuddly looking.
Felissimo has entered into a creative partnership with the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, or Kyoto Kanze Noh Theater. Noh is Japan’s oldest form of stage theater that’s still performed today, with its origins predating kabuki by more than a century. Noh performers wear masks while on stage, and with many of the stories dealing with demonic possession, madness, and other such chilling topics, the masks too are often unnerving in design, but the amount of undeniably skilled craftsmanship that goes into them also makes them, one could argue, in a way, beautiful.
Of course, Felissimo realizes that the average person doesn’t really have many occasions on which to slip on a Noh mask, so they’ve instead applied three classical designs as motifs for organizer pouches. With help from Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, Felissimo has produced a hannya mask pouch, showing a female demon consumed by jealously and sporting intimidating horns, and also a Okina mask, showing an old man with a long beard.
Being roughly the same size as a person’s face, they can actually hold quite a bit of stuff, with interior zippered sections and pockets to keep everything nice and organized.
Also part of the lineup is a pouch styled after a Kasei mask. Also known as a manbi mask, this type of mask is meant to create different atmosphere depending on the angle it’s viewed from, switching from a beautiful woman with a demure smile to something bolder or even sinister. The Kasei mask pouch was actually created by Felissimo’s designers prior to the start of their collaboration with Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, but as you can see, they were still able to achieve some terrifying results.
As further proof of just how committed Felissimo was to authenticity, even the backsides of the pouches mimic the interior surface of Noh masks.
The whole lineup is available from Felissimo online store here, priced at 2,860 yen (US$18.50) each. And should you find yourself instead in the mood for something that’s still strange but not quite so scary, don’t forget about Felissimo’s steamy Myaku-Myaku photo album.
Source, images: Felissimo
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