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Interesting history of maks in Japan. While the article mentions premodern precedents, it ignores the example of Buddhism. This reflects a broader erasure of Buddhism from narratives of purity discourse and Japanese identity. 1/7 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/04/national/science-health/japans-history-wearing-masks-coronavirus/
The article briefly notes that "covering the mouth with paper or the sacred sakaki (Japanese cleyera) leaves to prevent one’s “unclean” breath from defiling religious rituals and festivals has been common from ancient times." It then lists examples at shrines. 2/7
I'm unsure about the source for the practice of covering the mouth with paper or sasaki at shrines mentioned in the article (I'd love a reference if anyone knows), but I do know of 8th-c. Shōsōin documents that describe a masked procession after copying the Buddhist canon. 3/7
Here, wearing masks appears to derive from continental Buddhist discourses about the breath and purity. Chinese tales, for example, describe a sutra copyist breathing out of a bamboo pipe to avoid defiling the text with their breath. These stories were known in early Japan. 4/7
Medieval Japanese ritual manuals for copying Buddhist sutras also mention wearing masks. This practice is depicted in a 19th-c. representation of a 12th-c. sutra copying project from the Waseda University Library. 5/7 https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko30/bunko30_e0225/bunko30_e0225_0007/bunko30_e0225_0007_p0003.jpg
I should stress that I see no connection between these practices and contemporary mask wearing in Japan, which really seems tied to a complex modern global story that Andrew Gordon has described. 6/7 https://www.tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/weblog/1896/
Rather, I simply want to note that the premodern history of masks and purity is at least in part a transnational Buddhist one. 7/7
