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Mieko is modeled on the Rokujo Lady who appeared in The Tale of Genji. She is an intelligent woman of great complexity with extraordinary charm whose precious son dies in a disaster on Mt. Fuji. She manipulates her widowed daughter-in-law Yasuko in an attempt to obtain a surrogate for the son she has lost. It is a tale of erotic desperation and complexity. Fond of the using blood as a metaphor for talking about the way women are both linked in solidarity and also regarded as polluted in the male gaze, Enchi finds a way to both collude with dominant representations of females while simultaneously subverting them. One among many of Masks themes seems clear: Japan's matrilineal heritage is reclaimed through blood lineage handed down from generation to generation by and through women and thereby freed from its subordination to the dominant, patriarchal ideology. The structure tripartite, with each section named after three different types of onnamen or women's Noh masks, and it follows the jo-ha-kyuu developmental pattern in terms of the intensity of plot development, but it is literally teeming with other triads and triangular relations: Yasuko-Ibuki-Mikame, spirit-medium-possessed, Mieko-Yasuko-Harume,Mieko-Togano Masatsugu-her mysterious lover, etc. There are even three sets of substitutions occurring in the text: the twins for Aguri's two abortions, Yasuko for the twins, and Harume's baby for Mieko's miscarriage as well as for Akio's loss. Thus, what brings and keeps Yasuko and Mieko together is the quest for a child. Mieko has worn several masks as she has moved through different roles--from disillusioned lover and wearing the Ryoo-no-onna mask, to the end when she dons the Fukai mask, the Deep Woman mask.
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