Nishiki-jô: The sacred old man (kami) of the founding ritual of Noh, Okina. The old man's age indicates longevity; his smiling face denotes benevolence. Note the tufted eyebrows and hinged jaw. Both are unique to the Okina mask, and indicate that it predates all other masks used in Noh.

The Okina deity is linked to the origin of Noh through the following story: once a priest at Kasuga Shrine saw a miraculous old man appear and dance on a pine tree within the shrine compound. Kasuga Shrine was one of the main patrons for Noh in the medieval period, and each year the shrine held a large festival in which all the major schools of Noh performed. The pine painted on the back of the stage is said to represent the original pine at Kasuga Shrine.

In the medieval period (from about the 11th century onwards) kami often appeared in the form of an auspicious old man. See week two, the woodblock print by Yoshitoshi of the Sumiyoshi Shrine kami (the patron deity of waka poetry) appearing to Fujiwara Teika in a dream. In this dream the Sumiyoshi deity reassures Teika that the path of poetry and the path of Buddhism are not separate.