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 on Face Studies 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, Tokyo International Technology College.