Hannya

Hannya popular with tattoos. When you hear the word Hannya, you may associate it with demons, but it is originally a Chinese translation of the Buddhist word Pannya, which means the wisdom of the Buddha. It has nothing to do with demons.

One theory holds that the commonly seen demon mask was named Hannya because it was made by a monk named Hannyabo.

Hannya looks like a scary demon, but she is originally a young human woman. It is said that her expression expresses four things: anger, sorrow, jealousy, and anguish. It seems that she is ashamed of her figure who has become a demon after being crazy with passion.

A tragic love story called Dojoji is one of the representative Noh plays that use Hannya masks. This is the so-called legend of Anchin and Kiyohime.

There was a traveling monk named Anchin. She ended up falling in love with Anchin even though she knew Kiyohime wouldn’t forgive her. Anchin runs away. Kiyohime chases after him.

While chasing him, Kiyohime became disgusted and turned into a giant snake and burned Anchin to death.

By the way, Hannya has stages, and what is generally associated with Hannya is still in progress. It corresponds to the inner part of the Namanari, Chunaru, and Honnari.