Japanese Noh
Between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries, performers of a number of Japanese theatre forms vied for audience attention and for the patronage of Buddhist temples and the court in and around the important cities of Nara and Kyoto. Jugglers and acrobats, singers of epic romances, and players of various kinds of short plays and dances especially those known as dengaku, literally field music, and sarugaku, monkey music—were part of the theatre scene. Both dengaku and sarugaku troupes performed sketches, songs, and dances, but as independent pieces. Around the middle of the fourteenth century, the sarugaku troupe leader Kannami Kiyotsugu (1333-1384) introduced into his performances a sung dance section, the kusemai or kuse, thus for the first time giving the dance a genuine dramatic function. In the kuse section of a play, a crucial tale of the past is narrated as the protagonist dances out the story. Kannami's new way of performing was called sarugaku-noh, and in time this was shortened to Noh.
Kannami's son, the famous Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1444), was twelve years old when he was seen performing Noh by Yoshimitsu, the shogun, or military ruler of Japan. Yoshimitsu was captivated by the boy's beauty and grace, and he brought Zeami to the palace in Kyoto to be his catamite. Zeami spent most of his adult life at the court, even after his patron died. In the sophisticated atmosphere of the shogun's court, he raised Noh from a plebeian, almost rustic, theatrical form to an exceptionally subtle art. Zeami was not only the chief performer of his troupe (inheriting this position from his father) but also the writer of more than one hundred plays. And in a series of treatises on the practice of his art, he established the aesthetic basis of Noh. For four hundred years following Zeami's death, Noh troupes were supported by feudal lords in Kyoto and in the outlying provinces, thus preserving down to the present the texts of Noh and the style of performance as well. About two hundred and forty plays make up the Noh repertory that is performed today. Another two thousand or so plays have been written, but are not performed. Plays are divided into five groups according to subject matter and style: god (kami) plays, congratulatory pieces praising the gods; warrior (shura) plays, in which the protagonist is usually a slain warrior who appears as a ghost and relives his sufferings; woman (katsura) plays, in which the protagonist is a woman; miscellaneous plays—one type concerns a woman driven mad by grief for a lost child or lover, another a character who is obsessed, and a third, known as living person plays, an unmasked male protagonist; and demon (kiri) plays, in which the protagonist is a demon, devil, or supernatural figure.
A day's performance in Zeami's time was made up of one play from each group, staged in order, and interspersed with comedies called kyogen. A program of five plays was viewed as an artistic entity. Atmosphere, tempo, and tension changed perceptibly from one play to the next. The god play was quiet and dignified, the warrior play active and strong, and the woman play radiated elegant beauty. Increased tempo marked the fourth play, and in the demon play, a furious battle between demon and hero was resolved with the demon being killed or subdued—thus bringing the performance back to a congratulatory mood similar to that of the first play. Zeami wrote that the five-play series should be organized according to the principle of jo, or introduction (first play); ha, or development (second, third, and fourth plays); and kyu, or scattering (fifth play). According to Zeami, also, each play was to be organized into jo, ha, kyu—beginning, middle, end—with the same principle of artistic progression in mind. Significantly, the jo-ha-kyu concept is derived from gagaku court music, and not for literature.
Noh plays are deeply impregnated with the doctrine of Amida Buddhism, according to which human salvation is achieved through prayer and penance. The profoundly pessimistic Buddhist theme of the impermanence of life is common to a number of plays. … A noble warrior is slain before achieving his dream of conquest; a beautiful young woman eagerly sought after in her youth wanders alone in her withered old age. In Buddhist thought, the soul that clings to earthly attachments after death dwells in a purgatory of ceaseless torment. Plays of the second and third type concern these tortured souls.
Only a small number of characters appears in most Noh plays. In a text they are designated by their role-type and not by their character's name. The shite, or doer, is the central figure, and is usually an aristocrat, a court lady, or a powerful spirit. The shite completely dominates a performance; other actors are mere by-players. It is the shite who always performs the kuse dance and other important dances. Normally the shite is masked. The shite may have attendant courtiers, retainers, or maids (tsure). In the play there may be a noble child role (kokata) or roles for other minor characters (tomo), all of which are acted by lesser performers associated with the shite actor's school. The waki, or supporting role, is most often that of a priest who initiates the action or the play. Only rarely is the waki an antagonist to the shite. The waki may have attendants (wakizure), acted by performers associated with the waki's school. Kyogen actors play roles of villagers or other commoners (kyogen actors also perform the kyogen farces between two Noh plays).
Plays are presented on a raised stage, about eighteen feet square, with a highly polished Cyprus floor. Scenery is not used, but constructed props and hand props commonly are. A bridgeway (hashigakari) about thirty feet long, leading from stage right to the dressing rooms, is used for exits and entrances. The tempo of song and dance is regulated by accompanying music, played by musicians who sit in view of the audience at the rear of the stage. One flute, two hand drums (one large and one small), and in some plays a stick drum compose the small Noh ensemble. A chorus of six to ten actors from the shite group sits on the left side of the stage. Several other actors, disciples of the shite and sometimes of the waki, assist their teachers on the stage. They give and take away hand properties, adjust costumes, and move larger set properties. All performers in Noh are male.
The most important influence on the aesthetics of Noh theatrical art is Zen Buddhism. From austere Zen came the principle that suggestion is preferable to flat statement, that subtlety is preferable to clearness, that the small gesture is preferable to the large, that, in short, the secret of beauty lies in restraint. Beauty in Noh is refined and it is everywhere: in the chaste planes of the masks, in the simplicity of the stage, in the rigor of the line of musicians or chorus on the stage, in the quavering tone of the actor's chanting voice, in the elegant movements of the performers. Zeami described the unique beauty which Noh strives toward in two terms: mysterious and sublime. Mysterious beauty, or yugen, is the ephemeral beauty that lies in impermanence. The cherry blossom, delicate and fragile, is touched by the wind and in an instant is scattered and gone. Elegance is tinged with the sadness of passing. The sublime would appear to be Zeami's more mature view. In sections of Noh that suggest the sublime, melancholy over the impermanence of life gives way to serenity and acceptance. The beauty of the sublime is the beauty of old age, restful, at peace with the world. It is silent, austere. That such a theory of beauty was developed for a theatrical art must impress us deeply. Indeed, there is no other form of theatre in the world in which the externals have been more thoroughly abandoned in favor of elliptical, concentrated, austere expression.
Noh is not a storyteller's art; it does not (in most cases) present the unfolding of a human action. Rather, through recollections of the past, it evokes a mood, an emotion, a religious state. Human characters appear on the stage, but they are not three-dimensional figures living the usual round of daily routine. At the most extreme they are quite literally momentary manifestations of the spirit world; at the very least, they exhibit an unworldly degree of composure and restraint. Through the gradual increase in tension created by the steady musical accompaniment, the chanting of the chorus, and the formal movements of the characters, content is subsumed to form, until the knowledgeable spectator perceives the occurrences before him, not as emotionally bound human actions but as elegantly formed patterns of sound and color that impinge on his emotions peripherally if at all. Noh is the purest of the art forms of theatre and consequently makes the most demands on its audience.
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