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Studio Ghibli’s two most famous character masks come into the real world with mini o-men【Photos】

Casey Baseel Jul 11, 2022
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Ghibli Museum’s hand-crafted masks are here just in time for Japan’s summer festival season.

At just about every decent-sized Japanese summer festival, you’ll find a booth selling masks, or o-men, as they’re called in Japanese. Many modern masks are based on popular anime characters, but some are also inspired by classical Japanese folklore, so it makes a certain sort of sense that Studio Ghibli is now making o-men of its own.

今週の屋台は…。
おめん、売ってます。ラムネもあります。 pic.twitter.com/MFGmduQKmW

— 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館 (@GhibliML) July 3, 2022

Fittingly, the o-men are recreations of two masks worn by Ghibli characters within their movies, Spirited Away’s No Face and Princess Mononoke’s San.

But while o-men are a fun and playful part of Japanese summertime culture, wearing a full-face mask cuts down on your peripheral vision and can make it hard to navigate festival crowds. So instead, a lot of people wear them not over their faces, but rotated around to the side of their heads, as a fashion accessory. That’s actually the intended way to wear these Ghibli masks, which are officially called “mini o-men.”

▼ The No-Face mask is 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) long, while San’s is 10.5.

Those compact dimensions mean that the Ghibli masks are just as well suited for using as interior decorations, with their straps allowing for easy wall-mounting or simply slinging over the corner of a dresser or other piece of furniture.

Inexpensive modern o-men are often made of cheap plastic, but Ghibli’s are papier mache. They’re also hand-crafted, meaning each one is just a little different and a unique piece of artwork for fans to cherish.

お待たせしました。「おめん」、オンラインショップにも入荷しました。

「サン」https://t.co/nEw26I6FKh
「カオナシ」https://t.co/612AACdtRM pic.twitter.com/MFAj2WRzYX

— 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館 (@GhibliML) July 8, 2022

The masks are being offered at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo as well as through the museum’s online shop (No-Face here, San here) for 880 yen (US$6.50). And if you’re more of a Totoro fan, Ghibli has something for your fingers this summer too.

Source: Ghibli Museum
Top image: Ghibli Museum
Insert images: Ghibli Museum (1, 2)
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s trying to remember where he put the Magic Knight Rayearth mask he bought at the very first Japanese summer festival he ever went to.