A Memory

This guy is a Hyottoko Mask from Hyuga in Miyazaki Prefecture, my first home in Japan. He hangs outside my bedroom door, to remind me of my wild youth.
Hyottoko means "fire man", as in the man who lays the fires, for example to heat the old cauldron style baths that used to be popular here.
His face shows him blowing the flames.

In Hyuga every year, men would dress up with these masks and do a very lewd dance along the streets of the town. I see the mask and I can hear the characteristic notes of the music for the dance in my head: fond memories of a youth I spent in sunny Miyazaki.

He looks as surprised as i would have been if you'd told me then that I'd still be here after almost 19 years.