The Mask That Could Not Be Removed

from Ibaraki Folk Tales by Minoru Fujita

Once upon a time in Ōtsu-chō (大津, now Kitaibaraki-shi 北茨城市), there lived a girl and her mother. They were very poor. They were so badly off that the mother sent the girl to find work as a housemaid in the neighboring town.

On the day that the girl was to leave, the mother brought out a special mask and gave it to her. It was an okame mask (岡目, a Nō drama mask of a fat-faced woman). "Take this with you," the mother said to her daughter. "If the face on the mask changes, then you will know that I am sick and that you must come home immediately."

When the girl arrived at her new home, she put the mask into the rice bin, where she would take off the lid every morning and look at it. She came to think of the mask as her mother, and each time she was relieved to find the mask still smiling. "Mother is smiling. She must be well," the girl thought to herself.

One day, one of the girl's fellow servants, a mischievous man, swapped the mask in the rice bin for that of a female demon. The next day, the girl lifted the lid of the bin as usual, unaware of the trick that had been played on her. She was shocked to find that the expression on the mask had changed. Instead of a smile, a ghastly frown leered back at her. The mask even had horns! "Oh no," thought the girl. "Something has happened to Mother!" Without wasting a moment, she set off back home to her mother's house.

As she was running down a mountain path, her breath growing short, she came across a group of men gambling by a campfire. She stopped and asked the men if she could warm herself by the fire. The men were so engrossed in their gambling that none of them even responded to her request. So, without waiting for permission, the girl placed the mask between her teeth and began to warm both hands near the flames. Before long, one of them lifted his head from gambling and gazed into the fire. Seeing the visage of a horrible demon gazing back at him through the smoke, he screamed, and all the men jumped up and fled, leaving everything behind. The girl waited, but no one came back. Not knowing what to do, she collected the money which they had left and continued quickly along her way.

When she reached her mother's house, she was surprised to find her mother as healthy as she had been before. The girl, relieved, told her mother about the female demon mask. "Someone played a trick on you," her mother said. "You should put the mask back into the rice bin and continue working as usual. Act as if nothing has happened." Saying this, the mother took the money the girl had collected and gave it to the head man of the village. The girl returned to work and placed the mask back in the rice bin, determined to do as her mother had said.

The man who had tricked her wondered, "It's strange that she doesn't look surprised." Then he thought, "I will scare her tomorrow by lying in wait behind the rice bin while wearing the okame mask." The mext morning, as the girl came to the rice bin as usual, the man rose his feet, shouting "Boo! Boo!" However she was so used to looking at the mask, she wasn't a bit frightened. The man asked, "Why aren't you frightened?" and started to take off the mask—but he couldn't! Try as he might, it wouldn't come off, and neither could the girl remove it. They called for help, but to no avail. Even fervent prayers to the Gods didn't work. The mask was stuck.

Soon, the story of the dutiful daughter spread to the neighboring villages. The money her mother had entrusted to the head man was returned to the girl as a reward for being such a good child.