Noh Ko Omote theatre mask, signed Tashibana Yoshitaka, Japan

This is a Noh Ko Omote theatre mask, the girl who is not 20. Ko omote is the emblematic Noh mask along with Hannya; it represents a young girl under 20, with rounded cheeks and a youthful appearance. Youth, freshness and even ingenuity are its main expressive features, and a touch of irony, perhaps even malice, can be detected in the young girl's smile. The repertoire in which this Ko Omote mask is performed is very extensive. Donald Keen tells us in his studies that it is used by the Komparu and Kita families. Komparu actors prefer the Ko Omote mask to all other female masks. They love it and prefer to use it because of its innocence. It bears the cartouche on the back by the sculptor Tashibana Yoshitaka saku (or Houidaka), a well-known artist of the late 19th / early 20th century, the Taisho era. The mask has its box (where it is written ‘small face') and its cloth envelope.
Tashibana Yoshitaka: Little is known about his life. He is considered a living national treasure and has been exhibited at the Fukuoka Museum. Often considered as an artist of the Edo period, 18em like the hannya mask exhibited in 3 successive museums which confirmed this date, published in the work Cedric le dauphin ‘ les noh masks de la collection the bernard le dauphin collection 2020 p 68,69,70. Stephen Marvin author of ‘ heaven has a face so does hell ' the Noh mask bible comments on this sculptor in a series of email exchanges:
The only mention of Houhidaka in English is in my book on pages 354 - 355. I have found very little about him in Japanese. The only published work in Japan with information about him is an exhibition catalogue produced by the Fukuoka Municipal Museum, which shows a Kyogen mask with his cartouche. The brief text accompanying the photograph states he lived in Kyoto and was a contemporary of the modern mask carver Nakamura Naohiko (born 1877, died 1945).