Noh theatre

Noh

• Medieval Japan

• Living tradition

• Symbolic language and gestures

• Introspective and retrospective

• About past event and memory

• An atmosphere of quiet loss

• Verbal comedies were performed in between the noh plays for some levity (recall the earlier Sarugaku)

• A mask is worn with the essence of a spirit or higher power possessing the actor. The god communicates with the actor 

• Similar to neutral mask

• Origin forms of Noh Are Sarajaku and Dendaku

Jyo-ha-kyu

• Noh is a three part structure

• Beginning, Break, Rapid

• Rising acceleration that leads to a breaking point, followed by a rapid resolution

Yugen

Triangle of Noh.

The grace of like that can neither be explained nor refined. Subtle profundity and the mystery of what is beyond intellectual calculability. Transitory nature

Hana

Triangle of Noh.

• what is achieved in the moment of performance. The spontaneous energy that connects the actor and the audience 

Monomane

Triangle of Noh.

• “impersonation” “individual embodiment” abstracting essential patterns from reality to present essence of emotions and actions (Kata: formal patterns of gestures, postures and movements. First memorized then studied)

Zeami

• Perfected the form of Noh

• Writing between 35-50 plays 

• Also composed a number of treatises on Noh

• Kan’ami’s son

Kabuki

• Woman’s Kabuki: a Miko went to make money for the Izumo Shrine and performed and danced in the dry bed of the Kamo river in Kyoto this made the first phase of Kabuki

• Started a theatrical form: parodied samurai culture in short comic skirts that included sensuous and often risque dances

•  The form changed over to young boys because the Shogun forbade women onstage. Then it was shut down for the same reason

• Then men took it over

  • Action packed plays

  • Male actors performed in female roles: the Onnagata roles

• Women's kabuki was banned for being too eurotic, boys were banned for causing disturbances in the audience

• The adult male kabuki was restricted and regulated but did not control any performance traditions

• Actors are the centre of the plays

  • Extreme emotion and freezes briefly to capture the intricacy of the moment (Mie)

Bunraku

• Traditional puppet theatre

• Performed to chanted narration

• Based on ancient tales and legends 

  • Exploring the conflict between social obligations and human emotions

• Masterpuppeteer: no hood

• Other puppeteers: hooded

Chikamatsu Monzaemon

• Chikamatsu Monzaemon - Shakespeare of Japan

  • Kabuki plays and Bunraku puppet plays

  • Most famous play is “love suicides at Sonezaki”

  • Complained that actors were rewriting scripts to enhance emotional moments

    • Actors argued that audience came to see that

Onnagata

Male actors performed in female roles: the Onnagata roles