Calakabuki. Full-face mask blending human, animal, and demon figures. It is made of plaster bandage and paper clay, painted with acrylic paints and ribbon, which ties the mask to the performer. Blue and red V design on forehead that extends to bridge of nose and continues with blue around the eyes and red accents on the lower outside edges of eyes and sides of nose. Dark purple eyebrows come to a furrowed point in center. Teeth and fangs are outlined in purple paint. Blue and red curved lives on cheeks, jawline and chin.

CalaKabuki is a blending of the words Calaca and Kabuki.

This style came to the artists while working at the Japanese Matsuri festival in Phoenix, Arizona. The artists wanted to blend the theatrical kabuki style of mask painting, the Japanese Noh mask look, and the Calaca Día de los Muertos skeleton style.

These masks are currently used by Ken Koshio and his group at Cultural Coalitions’ Mask Alive festival for taiko drum performances.

All masks were initially sculpted for specific individuals while performing parkour at the Cultural Coalition Día de Los Muertos festivals. Their group name at the time was called the Flow-Ninjas.

These masks are part of the Performance Collection, which contains pieces available for loan to use in community and artistic performances.