Masking as Ludic Practice of Selfhood in Japan

Abstract

At least since the work of Durkheim and Mauss on the primacy of social relations for the establishing of mental categories, the idea of self seemed only relevant insofar as it was perceived as a social category. This essay addresses the question of the essential or phenomenal givenness of selfhood, as proposed in Zhao’s (2005) paper, by tracing the conceptual strife in anthropological theories from Marcel Mauss onwards, pointing to the problems associated with abstract categories which become only meaningful as well as observable through concentration on the performativity of the social. To concretize the abstract issue, the essay concentrates on the notion of the mask as it surfaces through ritual and theatrical performances in Japan. As Japanese behavioural codes have also become the mainstay of comparative references for western notions of individuality, the essay presents a case-study of masked ritual performance in order to show the embodiment of abstract notions in ritual play as well as in theatrical staging. Following this case study the essay finishes with questions about the ludic nature of theatrical, ritual as well as social enactments of self in Japanese cultural practices, trying to connect these to the theoretical system of the ludic, as proposed by Roger Caillois (1958).