Two recent news items prompted an interesting digression in Asahi Shimbun's unattributed "Tensei Jingo" column April 23. Making initially veiled references to Lower House lawmaker Kenshiro Matsunami's alleged links with underworld figures and the election last month of professional wrestler the Great Sasuke to the Iwate Prefectural Assembly, the article pondered the "faces" that people wear for the public.
After explaining the etymology of "persona," a Greek word that originally meant the masks worn by actors onstage to depict character, the column stated that sometimes a person's mask got stuck, and the wearer is subsequently "corrupted by his personality." In the case of Matsunami, the mask that he wore in the Diet "didn't quite fit" and fell off when the scandal was exposed.
Whatever mask Matsunami was wearing (his famous chonmage hairstyle, which he sported to assume the bearing of a samurai, certainly added to his public persona), it seems to have been a cheap one. According to the column, it has been rumored for years that Matsunami, a college professor and one-time amateur wrestling champion, has had relations with underworld figures. Masks, even ones that fit tight, are easier to spot than a lot of people think.