Coast Salish / Squamish / Kwagiulth First Nations Komokwa Mask features a crown design and many other masterfully carved details with traditional black, green and red paint atop Cedar.

Priced at $2200. Measures 14h x 10w x 5d. Cedar raffia hangs down to 22h.

The Komokwa is a mythological creature, symbolizing wealth, healing power and is able to for see the future. Komokwa can also be spelled Kumukwe, Kumugwe, Goomokwey, Kumugwe, or Komo-Kwa.

Komokwa is King of the Undersea World, Master and Protector of the seals, who are a symbol of wealth. His name means “wealthy one,”. He and his queen rule from a great longhouse under the water. His house posts were live sea lions, which guarded the entrance. The house contains great wealth in blankets, coppers, and other treasures.

He is responsible for the rising and ebbing of the tides as well as the riches these tides deposit on beaches and those claimed by the vagaries of sea weather, both material and human lives.

One story recounts how he eats human eyes as if they were crab apples. Kumugwe has the power to see into the future, heal the sick and injured, and bestow powers on those whom he favors.

This house is guarded by sea monsters and octopus, who will create rising tides and whirlpools if humans attempt to reach Komokwa’s kingdom. Legends identify starfish as the wealth of the Komokwa. Traditional carvings of Kumugwe are often adorned with starfish as well as sea lions and seals.

Masks of Kumugwe often show him with sea creature attributes, such as rounded fish eyes, rows of gills at the corners of his mouth, fins encircling his head, the suction cups of an octopus, and fish and aquatic birds which frame or sit upon his head. His most important totemic animals are loons, seals, sea lions, octopuses, orcas, and sculpins.