"Shakkyō, The Stone Bridge, oil on canvas, 1998. This in one of the small number of oil paintings of Nō/Noh subjects that I still have from a series of over 80 pieces, made when I lived in Tokyo in the 1990s, and it hangs in my San Diego studio. This Nō mask represents a shishi, the Buddhistic Lion, and is worn with a wig of long yak’s hair from mainland Asia, dyed white for an older shishi, or bright scarlet as here for the younger shishi. The play title refers to the mythical bridge to heaven which is guarded by the shishi." Binnie, June 25, 2021
