The Basic Knowledge of the Noh Play

Abstract

The Noh play is a Japanese dance-drama performed at theatres. Its practice tradition has a glorious history of six hundred years and is still considered one of the most distinguished achievements of Japanese art and culture. In the thirteenth century, a traditional performance called Dengaku took shape and developed into a kind of Japanese opera. In the fourteenth century, another drama performance called Sarugaku flourished and the two famous actors, Kanami and Zeami, integrated the two performances into the Noh play. In the sixteenth century, a fixed set of rules about the drama performance started to come into fashion, which was accepted by all performers gradually and still prevails today. The whole set of rules include the follows: 1. A God play or a play of prayer; 2. A battle play, in which the spirit of a warrior appears; 3. A wig play, in which the actor wears a wig because the main character is a female; 4. A demon play; 5. A play which inculcates the values of benevolence, justice, politeness, and wisdom. The main actor is called Shite, and the subordinate character is called Waki. The others include Tsure, Tomo, Kokata, and Ai. On the Noh stage, there are eight persons named Jiudai, who sing the songs like a chorus, and there are four persons named Hayashikata, who play some musical instruments like an orchestra. The Noh play contains the performance of the actors, the stage setting (background), the tools and the objects named Tsukurimono, the masks named Nohmen, and the costumes named Shozoku. In this paper, the author o ff ers a detailed explanation and description about these elements.