Noh Stage Research Articles

The Basic Knowledge of the Noh Play

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.

The Seven Deadly Sins, by Wesley Savick, Micaleen Rodgers, and Sydney Grant

The Seven Deadly Sins, by Wesley Savick, Micaleen Rodgers, and Sydney Grant

A Study on Noh Stage in Houses of Shogun, Daimyo and the Court Nobles in the Early Modern Japan

A Study on Noh Stage in Houses of Shogun, Daimyo and the Court Nobles in the Early Modern Japan

A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz

Reviewed by: A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz Peter A. Campbell (bio) A History of Japanese Theatre. Edited by Jonah Salz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xli + 550 pp. $155.00 hardcover. As the first major text to cover the length and breadth of Japanese theatre since Benito Ortolani's The Japanese Theater in 1991, this ambitious work is successful in providing a comprehensive history of theatre in Japan while introducing various historiographical and performative methodologies that help the reader understand how the dozens of authors came to know what they know. It is also an engaging and enjoyable read, filled with strong prose and useful visual materials, including time lines and genealogies as well as depictions of costumes, masks, and performances. Despite its many authors, the structure and tone is clear and contains an engaging survey of Japanese performances from the origins of Japanese civilization to contemporary plays and theories of performance. The structure is not strictly chronological: while the first two sections move in a linear fashion to discuss traditional theater in part 1 and modern theatres (Meiji and post-Meiji) in part 2, the last third of the book moves across time and space to discuss themes and patterns of Japanese theatre arts, the architecture of spaces, criticism from within and outside of Japan, and intercultural aspects of Japanese theatre. However, even the linear history is interrupted with short sections that create opportunities for case studies and discussions of specific cultural traditions, performances, or biographies of significance. For example, during the forty-page chapter on Noh, brief one-to-two-page "Spotlights" focus on the Noh stage, Zeami's writings, and women in Noh; and "Focus" sections of similar length discuss Kurokawa Noh, Noh's first appearance in Europe, at the Venice Bienniale in 1954, twentieth-century Noh actor Kanze Hisao, and the repertory of Noh plays. There are also more extended "interlude" sections that discuss larger issues. At the end of the Noh chapter, there is an interlude that discusses the history and function of Noh and Kyogen masks and costumes. This is effective in preventing the reader from falling into a singular narrative and helps fulfill the promise of such a collaborative work by creating a complicated, varied, and entertaining landscape of different types of Japanese theatre. The most salient and unique part of the book is part 3, "Arcs and Patterns," which sets up helpful frameworks for discussing elements of Japanese theatre in ways that are directly useful for an undergraduate classroom. By having brief sections of different themes and issues that the study of Japanese theatre brings up, it allows for the reader, teacher, or student to see different approaches that can complement and even replace a strictly chronological course of study. This part also provides a bridge to those more accustomed to literary historical [End Page 317] studies. Especially in J. Thomas Rimer's section, "Modern Plays as Literature," and Salz's, "Traditional Meta-patterns," we are encouraged to see the intertextuality of different kinds of performances across literature and other cultural traditions. While the text as a whole valorizes the study of performance and production, this part creates a linchpin that demonstrates how this focus on performance does not diminish the works as literature. Instead, by providing such fundamental materials about the larger cultural and performative contexts in which the texts were created, it allows us to better comprehend how the texts have worked in their historical or contemporary contexts. Perhaps the smartest thing about this text is that it does not attempt to pretend that it is not created for an English-speaking audience. The egalitarian sensibility of the authorship allows for a clear diversity of voices, but at the same time it enables the reader to regularly recognize the perspectives that are offered by those voices. Salz makes sure that the kinds of issues and concerns that come from non-Japanese students and scholars are addressed in clear ways, including a very useful overview of English language scholarship provided near the end of the book by David Jortner and two excellent chapters (by Nakano Masaaki and Salz) discussing the use of Japanese training practices around the...

世阿弥以降の能舞台様式の変化と『序破急五段』の関係性の研究

This study was conducted to consider the factors related to change in Noh stage style using <<johakyu go dan>> (johakyu five parts), which was established by Zeami (1363-1443) as “The grammar of Noh.” To this end, we examined the relations between Noh stage (jo zone, ha zone, and kyu zone) and musical accompaniment and dancing by employing three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) and statistical methods. Research was conducted with emphasis on the relation between the following two points as a method to clarify the factors of change in Noh stage after Zeami’s time. 1) Zeami changed ancient Chinese three-part <johakyu> to the five-part style of <<johakyu go dan>>, incorporated it into Noh scripts with dancing, chanting, and musical accompaniment, and formulated the basic principle: “The grammar of Noh.” 2) Areas for <johakyu> exist on a Noh stage, each of which has a conventional direction method. It is designed to enhance stage effects to a great degree. The following findings were obtained: 1. We tried to extract <johakyu> from data of small hand drums, shouts, and dancing. The results led us to observe the following characteristics of <johakyu>: “The part of jo is light, and the expression is slightly rough, ” “Ha delicately folds ups and down, adds a little relaxation, and keeps a moderate speed, ” and “Kyu is very fast and tense, and the tempo becomes faster.” Furthermore, in the part called “kuse” in which the most characteristic acting is performed in a Noh drama, the characteristics of <<johakyu go dan>> were noticed clearly. 2. Results of statistical analysis revealed correlation existed between each zone and each area of <johakyu> of Noh stage and dancing and musical accompaniment (small hand drums and shouts) of <<johakyu go dan>>. Therefore, we found that <<johakyu go dan>> might be involved in change in Noh stage style. Noh was mainly a Shinto ritual until the Heian period (794-1185). It had been developed and initiated by shrines and temples. After the Kamakura period (1185-1333), public entertainment such as Kanjin (temple solicitation)-Noh performance rose suddenly and reached its prime during the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Coupled with that, shoguns and court nobles came to play the role of Noh supporters instead of shrines and temples. <<Johakyu go dan>> was effective to attract shoguns and nobles with performance as seen in Fushikaden written by Zeami. It is considered that the construction of stage space was necessary to practice <<johakyu go dan>> effectively.

A Male Transformation into a Female Character on the Noh Stage

Femininity and the feminine figure itself in Noh theatre plays an important role, though nowadays the interpreter is fundamentally masculine. The central aim of impersonating feminine roles by masculine performers, and therefore creating the masculine femininity consists of transmitting the spirit and the state of mind in place of ordinary copies of external femininity signs. That is the basis of the work of interpretation of the actor in the Noh theatre, similar in the case of both male and female roles. However, this paper will examine the technique in both occasions, and the difference in the event that there is a difference.

Two intercultural performances: Double Nora and Resurrection Day

I have so far directed two plays of Ibsen as the intercultural performance, that is, the collaboration of the modern theatre with noh , a traditional Japanese theatre, which was established as an artistic theatre form in the 14 th century. The first production was Double Nora , based on A Doll’s House , which premiered at a noh theatre in Tokyo in 2005, and the second was Resurrection Day , based on When We Dead Awaken , performed at the Ibsen Festival in Tokyo in 2010. In both productions, professional noh and modern theatre actors appeared together in their own acting styles. At the Ibsen Conference in Tromso in June 2012, brief scenes of the two productions were shown. But here in the present article the performances are partly described, and the interactive relationship between different acting styles of noh and modern theatre is examined. A new and difficult experiment of Resurrection Day was to try a conversation between the main noh actor and the modern actress. The experiment was possible because the performance took place not on a noh stage in a unique form but on an ordinary stage in a modern theatre. Thus, some problems involved in the intercultural performance of Ibsen are investigated.

Intercultural Intersections in a Noh-style Hamlet: (Re)presentations of and Exchanges between Shakespeare and the Japanese Stage

At first glance, Kurita Yoshihiro’s noh-style Hamlet (2007), an installment of the Ryutopia Noh Theatre Shakespeare series, may seem like a straightforward translation of a Shakespearean text to a Japanese context. However, the re-conceptualising of Hamlet to fit a traditional noh stage can itself be an intercultural process, as creative decisions become a way in which (inter)cultural interactions and negotiations can take place. Paying close attention to Kurita’s Hamlet/Hamlet, this paper will discuss the various intercultural exchanges between Shakespeare and culture(s) that appropriate and adapt him and his texts. Additionally, the close reading of this performance will assess how intercultural praxis has shaped and changed the relevance and development of both indigenous and Western theatre practice and performance modes in Japan. The intermingling of traditional Japanese art forms and modern performance modes in this production alerts us to the continuities and divergences of Japan’s (theatre) culture and history, and Japanese identity. As such, this case study will also examine how the cultural and aesthetic interactivities in contemporary Japanese Shakespeare productions are not only negotiated interculturally but intraculturally as well.

Translating canons: Shakespeare on the Noh stage

Translating intercultural theatre is a complex practice. When Shakespeare is adapted into Asian traditional performance styles, the canonicity of the English text confronts the authenticity of the canonical performances in Asia. This essay analyses the process of intercultural translation of King Lear: His Shadows, a Noh adaptation of King Lear directed by Kurita Yoshihiro. Through the archiving process of this production in a multilingual digital archive called Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A∣S∣I∣A), which provides English translation of the script, two dimensions of the intercultural translation can be observed: the translation and adaptation from Shakespeare's English text into Noh style in the process of the original production on the one hand, and the “reverse” translation of the Japanese script into English in the process of archiving on the other. Framing the former as the “translation in Asia” and the latter as the “translation of Asia,” I examine the characteristics of each translation and the interactions between these two processes, which demonstrate the strategies employed by the director to crystallize his appreciation of Shakespeare's play.

ディジタルコンテンツ ３次元モーションデータを活用した創作能パフォーマンス

Recently many live performances have featured the use of information technologies, for example, projecting visual images. We created a new Noh-style stage performance based on traditional forms combined with a modern arrangement using information technologies. In the performance, we had virtual actors presented by CG animation act on the Noh stage. We used human motion data obtained by a motion capture system to create the movements of the virtual actors and had them act with the real actors. We describe the method of projection in a traditional Noh theater, the creation of virtual actors using 3D-motion data, and the method of controlling virtual actors.

Tradition meets Tech&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;noh&lt;/span&gt;logy: Integrating Japanese Noh &amp; New Technology in Shakespeare’s &lt;i&gt;Macbeth&lt;/i&gt;

This paper addresses technical and aesthetic problems encountered in adapting Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the noh stage, used for the six hundred year-old dance-drama form. In July, 2009 the Noho Theatre Group created a dancing Witch and Ghost for <em>Sleep no More, Lady Macbeth’s Nightmare</em> by integrating motion-capture technology to create 3D computer graphic animations set to automatic choreography, which were then projected on a screen. <em>Sleep no More</em>, performed bilingually in English and Japanese, by noh and kyogen actors with modern actors and dancers, was given a public rehearsal July 17^th at the Oe Noh Theatre, Kyoto. This paper examines the problems in screen placement, interaction of performers with technology, as well as performer’s reflections and audience reception.

A STUDY ON THE FOUNDATION OF IREKO STYLE'S NOH THEATER

In Meiji period, the placement relations of auditorium and Noh stage, was changing from contraposition style to surrounding style. But when the end of Meiji era, the Noh theater space was beginning changed to new style. That is the traditional Noh stage located at indoor of theater and still being an individual building. I called it as Ireko style. This paper picked up two cases, one is Kongo Noh Theater, another is the theater of Hosho Noh Society. Though these two case study, I clarify the construction process of new style. In addition, I inspected the outbreak of Ireko style Noh theater how related with the Noh improvement movement for the same period.

A STUDY ON REBUILT NOH THEATER IN THE PEERS' CLUB AND ITS SPATIAL STRUCTURE

This paper examines the rebuilt Noh Theater at the Peers' Club. This Noh Theater first was built at 1915 in Imperial Court, and then was rebuilt at the Peers' Club at 1917. When the Peers' Club was moved from Uchiyamasitamachi to Sannenmachi at 1927, only the Noh Theater was moved to new site and was rebuilt, designed by Sonechuujou Kenchiku Jimusho. There are three characteristics in the rebuilt Noh Theater. The first, Noh stage was layout just in front of main building, and Goranjo was put in the center of main building. The second, the plan of Kenjo was symmetry of the axis of stage and main building. The third, top light was set up at the roof of Kenjo. I analyze these characteristics by using the new source design plans which I found. At last, I analyze how the Shouwa Emperor used the Noh Theater, in order to declare the relation of royal activities with the Noh Theater design.

THE TRANSITION OF NOH SPACE'S FORMATION IN RESIDENCE FROM LATE MEIJI TO EARLY SHOWA ERA

This paper study on the transition of Noh space's formation in residence from late Meiji to Early Showa era. In meiji era, the Noh stage was built at the courtyard which was called sirasu in front of main building in the nobility or Noh actor's residence. This style's Noh space which was called nougaku-goranjou was used to be entertain Meiji Emperor. But from taisho era to showa era, it was developing to new style, that surrounding the stage auditorium was built and it was called nohgakudou. That the auditorium was extended to sirasu, at the side of stage which was called wakishoumen, as a result, the roof was built on the sirasu, it means courtyard of sirasu became to an indoor space. This paper focus on the new L style auditorium to investigate what transfiguration happened on the space of nohgakudou.

奈良県北部および京都府南部の神社に現存する能舞台・社殿構成に関する研究

We made the investigation and the research on the composition of the shrines, the Noh stages and the galleries of existing 30 Noh stages in Nara Prefecture and northern part and southern part of Kyoto Prefecture. The composition of the shrines takes mostly general modern form and is classified in ten kinds of 5 types. The Noh stages were built mostly facing to the Honden (a place of god) in Niwa (an inner shrine garden). The Honden (a place of god) is built on the highest ground level, and the Haiden (a place for worship) on the lower next level, and the Noh stage at the lowest ground level. Most of the passages pass on the right side of the Noh stage. For the fundamental module of the Noh stage they have used the Kyo Ma (1969mm=1Ken), Chukyo Ma (1908mm=1Ken), Kanto Ma (1818mm=1Ken), 7 syaku Ma (2121mm=1Ken), and 8 syaku Ma (2424mm=1Ken).

明治天皇行幸における華族邸宅の能楽御覧所について

In this study, I analyze the composition of Noh space (in Japanese named as Nohgaku-golan-jo) of nobility residence in the Meiji period. Nohgaku-golan-jo is an Ima (room) for daily life, but it is changed to a place to watch Noh when Emperor visiting. At first, I clarify when and where and how many times Noh were played as entertainment events for entertaining Meji Emperor, by using the official documents "Meji Tenno ki". The second, I examine the space of Nohgaku-golan-jo, for example, how is the surrounding of Noh stage, how the stage being layout with the main building, more further, when events was opening how to use the spaces including the other rooms of the residence. I take up Toshinari Maeda's house as a case of nobility residence, because there left rich documents recording the event for Emperor. In addition, comparison the Noh event for the general visiting at Edo era, I will make clear what part of the event space to play Noh was changed in Meji era.

明治初期における能楽堂誕生の経緯 : 青山御所能舞台,能楽社の建設を通して

明治初期における能楽堂誕生の経緯 : 青山御所能舞台,能楽社の建設を通して

Citations on the Noh Stage

Citations sur la scene Noh ; ; L'article analyse les diverses manieres dont plusieurs pieces Noh de l'epoque de Zeami (1363-1443) recourent a des citations. Celles-ci avaient depuis longtemps constitue un element clef de la poesie medievale japonaise. En important cette technique dans le Noh, Zeami l'eleve d'art populaire, qu'il etait jusqu'alors, au statut de forme d'art superieur, changeant ainsi la composition de l'auditoire auquel il est adresse tout en contribuant, reciproquement, a l'elevation du statut culturel de ce nouveau public. Par ailleurs, la mutation de medium permet a Zeami de redefinir le type de sources auxquelles il etait loisible de puiser, et de ne pas utiliser uniquement les modes classiques de citation mais d'en introduire de nouveaux lesquels mettent a profit la longueur des pieces et les metalangages propres au theâtre. Ses usages des citations combinees, des metaphores visuelles, des allusions mises en scene, des citations reiterees, deformees, dispersees, reconstruites et amplifiees sont examines successivement.

The Noh Theater: Mirror, Mask, and Madness

The Noh Theater: Mirror, Mask, and Madness Mikiko Ishii Noh is often misunderstood as a frozen theatrical tradition only, a relic of antiquity, or a suitable subject for a scholarly study of medieval culture in Japan. However, ever since it was first developed and refined as an independent dramatic form it has never ceased to be performed. Unlike the English mystery plays that have been revived in modem productions which have struggled to re-create lost traditions, Noh is a living art, and it also is a representative of those Japanese art forms that have been seen as introducing Japanese culture in a wider sense. Originating in dance and music performed at sacred rituals and festivals , Noh grew out of the Japanese soul's yearning "for a concrete epiphany of the Divine: . . . lightning-like incarnation of the gods, god-men, spirits, souls of the dead, souls of animals."' It was thus indeed bom in the days when men felt the gods as living beings in close proximity to them. Even when brought to maturity and refinement by the two great dramaturgists Kan-ami Kiyotsugu (1333-84) and his son Ze-ami Motokiyo (1363-1443), the gods and the spiritual realm which they represented were still close to the people. However, all that was very long ago, and times and beliefs have changed. But how can we explain the fact that there are at present no fewer than eight major Noh theaters (Nohgakudo) in Tokyo alone—and that the number of performances and the size of the audiences are both increasing? Almost every day, somewhere in Tokyo, a Noh play is being staged by one of the principal Noh theaters. The National Noh Theater, founded in 1982, has become the center for the study of Noh and Kyogen, and in 1993 presented sixty performances of plays in this genre. The other major theaters such as the Kanze Nogakudo, the Hosho Nogakudo, and the Yarai Nogakudo give several performances each month, and there are also many experimental productions 43 44The Noh Theater by amateur groups. Noh in fact thrives today as never before and enjoys a tremendous prestige, attracting even the younger generation accustomed to the pace of films and television—persons who might never have been expected to endure the extremely slow pace and high level of sophistication of Noh. Clearly the continuing popularity of Noh does not depend merely on a scholarly interest in tradition. The Noh stage of today has a history of more than six hundred years in the course of which it has, of course, gone through many stages of development . Yet the memory of its origins still lingers, and within the world of the Noh stage the passions associated with the struggles of human relationships are presented through the symbolic language and gestures of the drama. The Origins of Noh Theater: Sarugaku and Dengaku. The word Noh originally designated a kind of drama with a plot which incorporated music and dancing. Sarugaku-Noh and Dengaku -Noh, both important for our discussion, had different origins and qualities. Sarugaku (a corruption of Sangaku) is thought to have been a folk art imported from China. Saru means "monkey ," and hence Sarugaku initially designated an entertainment— farce or acrobatics—using trained monkeys. But in the course of the Muromachi period in the mid-fourteenth century Sarugaku came to be performed at shrines or temples on ceremonial or ritual occasions to expelí evil spirits or to bring good fortune—or simply to celebrate the prosperity of the place and the people. The change which took place in Sarugaku is explained by Masaru Sekine: In the Nanbokuchô, a brief phase which fell between the Kamakura (1192-1333] and the Muromachi [1333-1573] periods. Sarugaku actors began to use a different Chinese character to denote Sarugaku. Originally it was represented by two Chinese characters, one meaning a monkey, the other meaning music. The monkey character was changed to a part of one denoting a god, so the meaning became divine music. . . . While the monkey form was used the art of Sarugaku was crude; but by the time the god form was employed the art had become much more refined and was either musical...

The Impact of Noh on Paul Claudel's Style of Playwriting

During his tenure as the French ambassador to Japan, from 1921 to 1927, Paul Claudel saw at least thirteen performances of Noh plays, became acquainted with several figures of the Noh stage, and read the excellent scholarship and many of the fine translations (as well as transliterations) of Michel Revon, Noel Peri, Arthur Waley, and Gaston Renondeau.1 His journal and essays in this period contain frequent, perceptive reference to Noh. And many of his plays composed after 1921 reveal a profound impact arising from three aspects of the Noh: the peculiar use of dream, the figure of the shite, and the retrospective dimension.