cocoro (心) — the Japanese word for heart, mind,
and inner world simultaneously.
No single English word contains all three.
 

Place an object in front of a Noh mask.
That is all.

Suddenly the mask appears to gaze at it —
to feel something, to think.

The viewer finds a story in its expression,
connects it to themselves,
projects an interior onto a face made of wood.

 

The mask becomes a mirror.
Or so it seems.

 

In reality, the mask is only carved wood.
The objects placed before it carry no meaning.
And yet the mind insists on finding one.

 

This is how cocoro works —
not by receiving feeling from the outside,
but by manufacturing it from within,
and projecting it outward onto the world.

 

——

Research
EEG measurement and eye-tracking experiments
were conducted to observe how viewers perceive
and emotionally respond to the expressionless Noh mask.

 

Presented at:
Forum Kaogaku 2023, Japan Academy of Facial Studies
The 25th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering

In collaboration with:
Prof. Koichi Kamijo, Prof. Masami Suzuki, and others
International Professional University of Technology in Tokyo