A few years ago, Hylian Dan published an article analyzing various elements of Majora’s Mask. It took some very crucial and curious elements from the game – especially motifs from the Stone Tower Temple – and considered some themes of the game before drawing conclusions about what exactly the designers of the game were trying to say. The author draws some very interesting conclusions and notices very peculiar things about the game that I did not notice until I read his article. His conclusions are optimistic (and the game does not necessarily discourage optimism) and well-intended. The author even draws (loosely) on Feminist and Freudian theories when making observations and analyses.

Another article written by Gerald Sword takes a look at Majora’s Mask through the lens of Nietzchian nihilism (try saying that five times fast). The article proposes that Termina is a hopeless land, the Terminians a hopeless people, and paints Link as a character struggling with early modernistic existential angst. Other theories float around the Zelda fan community include the “Link is dead” theory (sometimes coupled with the idea that Termina is a kind of purgatory), a theory that views the game through the lens of structuralism, and the well-known theory that maps the five stages of grief onto Terminian geography.

Now, these theories are entertaining and insightful into the problems and issues addressed in Majora’s Mask and their authors give a fair shot at analyzing the game. I’m not trying to bash their theories. However, I would like to point something out before throwing another analysis out into the fan community to think about and mull over. Does anyone see the connection between all of the theories I mentioned above? They all come from Europe or America (let’s just say “from the West”) and they all rely on ideas that are less than 200 years old. Let me make clear that I do not believe that either the geographical origin of a theory or a theory’s age should be used to judge a theory’s or an idea’s credibility. However, looking at this very Japanese game through a Western lens is problematic and places very restrictive limits to a proper analysis of Majora’s Mask (not to mention any other work of art). There is an enormous difference between eisegesis (reading into a text meanings that are outside of the text’s scope of concern) and exegesis (learning what the text itself has to say) and I believe that all of the articles and analyses mentioned above suffer from the problems of eisegesis.

That said, consider again two words from the paragraph above: “very Japanese.” No doubt many have made connections between the Keaton and the Japanese fox spirit kitsune and the possible connection between the Garo and old Japanese ninja clans. These are usually passed up or passed over as little elements from Japan that made it in because the game is Japanese. However, Majora’s Mask is about as Japanese as a game can get without making it painfully obvious.

In case you haven’t read the title of this introductory article, I hold that the main driving inspiration behind the structure and narrative elements (themes, tropes, motifs) in Majora’s Mask is the medieval dramatic form from Japan known as Noh. The abundant masks in the game, the common theme of death and remorse, even the structure of Termina and the game overall reflects the various costumes, traditions, and thematic elements of Noh theatre. It is very easy for we here in the West to miss this aspect of the game because we come from a tradition that is very different from that of the designers. This series of articles will seek to remedy that issue and, of course, to learn from, comment on, and draw conclusions about the game itself.

For the next few months, I shall be exploring the connection between Majora’s Mask and Noh in a series of articles. I shall first take a look at the use of masks in the game: what they are, how they are used, and why the game portrays them in the way it does. I shall even consider how the game uses the concepts of masks and reflection to address the player. Afterwards, I shall take a look at the structure of the game: the five point geography, the order in which the game designers seem to want players to play it, and the traditional themes and tropes from Noh theatre that match the different parts of the game. Finally, I shall (once again) talk about the Happy Mask Salesman as well as the beginning and final moments of the game and offer some conclusions as to what Aonuma, Miyamoto, and the rest of the development team were trying to say when they made this gem of a video game.