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TNoh: The Noh
Noh (能, Nō?), or Nōgaku (能楽, Nōgaku?) is a major form of classic Japanese
musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Together with the
closely-related kyogen farce, it evolved from various popular, folk and
aristocratic art forms, including Dengaku, Shirabyoshi, and Gagaku. Although Noh
has been slow and stylised for several centuries, its roots can be traced back
to Chinese Nuo theater (傩戏), Sarugaku, and folk theatricals.
Kan'ami and his son Zeami brought Noh to its present-day form during the
Muromachi period under the patronage of the powerful Ashikaga clan. It would
later influence other dramatic forms such as Kabuki and Butoh. During the Meiji
era, although its governmental patronage was lost, Noh and Kyogen received
official recognition as two of the three national forms of drama.
By tradition, Noh actors and musicians never rehearse for performances
together. Instead, each actor, musician, and choral chanter practices his or her
fundamental movements, songs, and dances independently or under the tutelage of
a senior member of the school. Thus, the tempo of a given performance is not set
by any single performer but established by the interactions of all the
performers together. In this way, Noh exemplifies the traditional Japanese
aesthetic of transience, called by Sen no Rikyu "ichi-go ichi-e".
noh
There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, waki, kyōgen, and
hayashi.
* The shite (シテ), literally "doers" are the most common roles in Noh
* Shite (primary actor). In plays where the shite appears first as a human and
then as a ghost, the first role is known as the maeshite and the later as the
nochijite
* Tsure (連れ) The shite's companion
* The waki (脇,ワキ) performs the role that is the counterpart or foil of the shite
* The wakizure (ワキ連れ) is the companion of the waki
* The kyōgen (狂言) perform the aikyogen interludes during plays. Kyōgen actors
also perform in separate plays between individual noh plays
* The hayashi or hayashi-kata are the instrumentalists who play the four
instruments used in Noh theater: the transverse flute (fue), hip drum (okawa or
ōtsuzumi), the shoulder-drum (kotsuzumi), and the stick-drum (taiko).
* The jiutai (地謡) is the chorus, usually comprising six to eight people
* Kōken are stage hands, usually one to three people
A typical Noh play will involve four or five categories of actors and usually
takes 30-120 minutes. Noh actors were almost exclusively male.
Plays
There are approximately 250 plays in the current repertoire, which can be
divided according to a variety of schemes. The most common is according to
content, but there are several other methods of organization.
Categories
1. Kami mono (神物) or waki nō (脇能, deity plays) typically feature the shite in
the role of a human in the first act and a deity in the second and tell the
mythic story of a shrine or praise a particular spirit.
2. Shura mono (修羅物) or asura nō (阿修羅能, warrior plays) have the shite often
appearing as a ghost in the first act and a warrior in full battle regalia in
the second, re-enacting the scene of his death.
3. Katsura mono (鬘物, wig plays) or onna mono (女物, woman plays) depict the shite
in a female role and feature some of the most refined songs and dances in all of
Noh.
4. There are about 94 "miscellaneous" plays, including kyōran mono (狂乱物) or
madness plays, onryō mono (怨霊物) or vengeful ghost plays, and genzai mono (現在物),
plays which depict the present time, and which do not fit into the other
categories.
5. Kiri nō (切り能, final plays) or oni mono (鬼物, demon plays) usually feature the
shite in the role of monsters, goblins, or demons, and are often selected for
their bright colors and fast-paced, tense finale movements.
Mood
* Mugen nō (夢幻能) usually deals with spirits, ghosts, phantasms, and supernatural
worlds. Time is often depicted as passing in a non-linear fashion, and action
may switch between two or more timeframes from moment to moment.
* Genzai nō (現在能), as mentioned above, depicts normal events of the everyday
world. However, when contrasted with mugen instead of with the other four
categories, the term encompasses a somewhat broader range of plays.
Style
* Geki nō (劇能) or drama plays are based around the advancement of plot and the
narration of action.
* Furyū nō (風流能) or dance plays focus rather on the aesthetic qualities of the
dances and songs which are performed.
Okina (or Kamiuta) is a unique play which combines dance with Shinto ritual. It
is considered the oldest type of Noh play, and is probably the most often
performed. It will generally be the opening work at any programme or festival.
Sources
The Tale of the Heike, a medieval tale of the rise and fall of the Taira clan,
originally sung by blind monks who accompanied themselves on the biwa, is an
important source of material for Noh (and later dramatic forms), particularly
warrior plays. Another major source is The Tale of Genji, an eleventh century
work of profound importance to the later development of Japanese culture.
Authors also drew on Nara and Heian period Japanese classics, and Chinese
sources.
Some famous plays
The following categorization is that of the Kanze school.
Name Kanji Meaning Cat
Aoi no Ue 葵上 Lady Aoi 4
Aya no Tsuzumi 綾鼓 The Damask Drum 4
Dōjōji 道成寺 Dōjōji 4
Hagoromo 羽衣 The Feather Mantle 3
Izutsu 井筒 The Well Cradle 3
Kagekiyo 景清 Kagekiyo 4
Kanawa 鉄輪 The Iron Ring/Crown 4
Kumasaka 熊坂 Kumasaka/The Robber 5
Matsukaze 松風 The Wind in the Pines 3
Nonomiya 野宮 The Shrine in the Fields 3
Sekidera Komachi 関寺小町 Komachi at Sekidera 3
Semimaru 蝉丸 Semimaru 4
Shakkyō 石橋 Stone Bridge 5
Shōjō 猩々 The Tippling Elf 5
Sotoba Komachi 卒都婆小町 Komachi at the Gravepost 3
Takasago 高砂 At Takasago 1
Tsunemasa 経政 Tsunemasa 2
Yorimasa 頼政 Yorimasa 2
Yuya 熊野 Yuya 3
Performance elements
Noh performance combines a variety of elements into a stylistic whole, with each
particular element the product of generations of refinement according to the
central Buddhist, Shinto, and minimalist aspects of Noh's aesthetic principles.
Stage
Enlarge picture
Noh stage before a performance
Enlarge picture
1:hashigakari. 2:kyogen spot. 3:stage attendants. 4:stick drum. 5:hip drum.
6:shoulder drum. 7:flute. 8:chorus. 9:waki seat. 10:waki spot. 11:shite spot.
12:shite-bashira. 13:metsuke-bashira. 14:waki-bashira. 15:fue-bashira.
The traditional Noh stage consists of a pavilion whose architectural style is
derived from that of the traditional kagura stage of Shinto shrines, and is
normally composed almost entirely of hinoki (Japanese cypress) wood. The four
pillars are named for their orientation to the prominent actions during the
course of the play: the waki-bashira in the front, right corner near the waki's
standing point and sitting point; the shite-bashira in the rear, left corner,
next to which the shite normally performs; the fue-bashira in the rear, right
corner, closest to the flute player; and the metsuke-bashira, or
"looking-pillar", so called because the shite is typically faced toward the
vicinity of the pillar.
The floor is polished to enable the actors to move in a gliding fashion, and
beneath this floor are buried giant pots or bowl-shaped concrete structures to
enhance the resonant properties of the wood floors when the actors stomp heavily
on the floor. As a result, the stage is elevated approximately three feet above
the ground level of the audience.
The only ornamentation on the stage is the kagami-ita, a painting of a pine-tree
at the back of the stage. The two most common beliefs are that it represents
either a famous pine tree of significance in Shinto at the Kasuga Shrine in
Nara, or that it is a token of Noh's artistic predecessors which were often
performed to a natural backdrop.
Another unique feature of the stage is the hashigakari, the narrow bridge to the
left of the stage that the principal actors use to enter the stage. This would
later evolve into the hanamichi in kabuki.
All stages which are solely dedicated to Noh performances also have a hook or
loop in ceiling, which exists only to lift and drop the bell for the play
Dōjōji. When that play is being performed in another location, the loop or hook
will be added as a temporary fixture.
Costumes
The garb worn by actors is typically adorned quite richly and seeped in symbolic
meaning for the type of role (e.g. thunder gods will have hexagons on their
clothes while serpents have triangles to convey scales). Costumes for the shite
in particular are extravagant, shimmering silk brocades, but are progressively
less sumptuous for the tsure, the wakizure, and the aikyōgen.
The musicians and chorus typically wear formal montsuki kimono (black and
adorned with five family crests) accompanied by either hakama (a skirt-like
garment) or kami-shimo, a combination of hakama and a waist-coat with
exaggerated shoulders (see illustrations). Finally, the stage attendants are
garbed in virtually unadorned black garments, much in the same way as stagehands
in contemporary Western theater.
Masks
The masks in Noh (能面 nō-men or 面 omote, feature) all have names.
Usually only the shite, the main actor, wears a mask. However, in some cases,
the tsure may also wear a mask, particularly for female roles. The Noh masks
portray female or nonhuman (divine, demonic, or animal) characters. There are
also Noh masks to represent youngsters or old men. On the other hand, a Noh
actor who wears no mask plays a role of an adult man in his twenties, thirties,
or forties. The side player, the waki, wears no mask either.
Several types of masks, in particular those for female roles, are designed so
that slight adjustments in the position of the head can express a number
emotions such as fear or sadness due to the variance in lighting and the angle
shown towards the audience. With some of the more extravagant masks for deities
and monsters, however, it is not always possible to convey emotion. Usually,
however, these characters are not frequently called to change emotional
expression during the course of the scene, or show emotion through larger body
language.
The rarest and most valuable Noh masks are not held in museums even in Japan,
but rather in the private collections of the various heads of Noh schools; these
treasures are usually only shown to a select few and only taken out for
performance on the rarest occasions. This does no substantial harm to the study
and appreciation of Noh masks, as tradition has established a few hundred
standard mask designs, which can further be categorized as being one of about a
dozen different types.
Props
The most commonly used prop in Noh is the fan, as it is carried by all
performers regardless of role. Chorus singers and musicians may carry their fan
in hand when entering the stage, or carry it tucked into the obi. In either
case, the fan is usually placed at the performer's side when he or she takes
position, and is often not taken up again until leaving the stage.
Several plays have characters who wield mallets, swords, and other implements.
Nevertheless, during dance sequences, the fan is typically used to represent any
and all hand-held props, including one such as a sword which the actor may have
tucked in his sash or ready at hand nearby.
When hand props other than fans are used, they are usually introduced or
retrieved by stage attendants who fulfill a similar role to stage crew in
contemporary theater. Like their Western counterparts, stage attendants for Noh
traditionally dress in black, but unlike in Western theater they may appear on
stage during a scene, or may remain on stage during an entire performance, in
both cases in plain view of the audience.
Stage properties in Noh including the boats, wells, altars, and the
aforementioned bell from Dōjōji, are typically carried onto the stage before the
beginning of the act in which they are needed. These props normally are only
outlines to suggest actual objects, although the great bell, a perennial
exception to most Noh rules for props, is designed to conceal the actor and to
allow a costume change during the aikyogen interlude.
Chant and music
Enlarge picture
Hayashi-kata (noh musicians). Left to right: taiko, ōtsuzumi (hip drum),
kotsuzumi (shoulder drum), flute.
Noh is a chanted drama, and a few commentators have dubbed it "Japanese opera."
However, the singing in Noh involves a limited tonal range, with lengthy,
repetitive passages in a narrow dynamic range. Clearly, melody is not at the
center of Noh singing. Still, texts are poetic, relying heavily on the Japanese
seven-five rhythm common to nearly all forms of Japanese poetry, with an economy
of expression, and an abundance of allusion.
It is important to note that the chant is not always performed "in character";
that is, sometimes the actor will speak lines or describe events from the
perspective of another character or even a disinterested narrator. Far from
breaking the rhythm of the performance, this is actually in keeping with the
other-worldy feel of many Noh plays, especially those characterized as mugen.
The chorus is accompanied by four musicians (hayashi-kata): three drummers and a
flautist.
Jo, Ha, Kyū
One of the most subtle performance elements of Noh is that of Jo-ha-kyū, which
originated as the three movements of courtly gagaku. However, rather than simply
dividing a whole into three parts, within Noh the concept incorporates not only
the play itself, but the songs and dances within the play, and even the
individual steps, motions, and sounds that actors and musicians make.
Furthermore, from a higher perspective, the entire traditional Noh program of
five plays also manifests this concept, with the first type play being the jo,
the second, third, and fourth plays the ha (with the second play being referred
to as the jo of the ha, the third as the ha of the ha, and the fourth as the kyū
of the ha), and finally the fifth play the kyū. In general, the jo component is
slow and evocative, and ha component or components detail transgression or the
disordering of the natural way and the natural world, and the kyū resolves the
element with haste or suddenness (note, however, that this only means kyū is
fast in comparison with what came before it, and those unfamiliar with the
concepts of Noh may not even realize the acceleration occurred).
Actors
There are about 1500 professional Noh actors in Japan today, and the art form
continues to thrive. Actors begin their training as young children,
traditionally at the age of three.
The five extant schools of Noh shite acting are the Kanze (観世), Hōshō (宝生),
Komparu (金春), Kita (喜多), and Kongō (金剛) schools. Each school has a leading
family known as the sōke, and the head of each family is entitled to create new
plays or edit existing songs.
The society of Noh strictly protects the traditions passed down from their
ancestors (see iemoto). However, several secret documents of the Kanze school
written by Zeami, and of the Komparu school written by Zenchiku have been
diffused throughout the community of scholars of Japanese theater.
Actors normally follow a strict progression through the course of their lives
from roles considered the most basic to those considered the most complex or
difficult; the role of Yoshitsune in Funa Benkei is one of the most prominent
roles a child actor performs in Noh.
Aesthetic terminology
Zeami and Zenchiku describe a number of distinct qualities that are thought to
be essential to the proper understanding of Noh as an art form.
* Hana (花, flower): the true Noh performer seeks to cultivate a rarefied
relationship with his audience similar to the way that one cultivates flowers.
What is notable about hana is that, like a flower, it is meant to be appreciated
by any audience, no matter how lofty or how coarse his upbringing. Hana comes in
two forms. Individual hana is the beauty of the flower of youth, which passes
with time, while "true hana" is the flower of creating and sharing perfect
beauty through performance.
* Yūgen (幽玄): an aesthetic term used to describe much of the art of the 13th and
14th centuries in Japan, but used specifically in relation to Noh to mean the
profound beauty of the transcendental world, including mournful beauty involved
in sadness and loss.
* Kokoro or shin (both 心): among the most difficult of the conceptual elements
of Noh, kokoro describes the internal state of mind in which the self is thought
to be both formless and total. It appears to be related to the more mainstream
Japanese notion of mushin.
* Rōjaku (老弱): the final stage of performance development of the Noh actor, in
which as an old man he eliminates all unnecessary action or sound in his
performance, leaving only the true essence of the scene or action being
imitated.
* Myō (妙): the "charm" of an actor who performs flawlessly and without any sense
of imitation; he effectively becomes his role.
* Monomane (物真似, imitation or mimesis): the intent of a Noh actor to accurately
depict the motions of his role, as opposed to purely aesthetic reasons for
abstraction or embellishment. Monomane is sometimes contrasted with yūgen,
although the two represent endpoints of a continuum rather than being completely
separate.
* Kabu-isshin (歌舞一心, "song-dance-one heart"): the theory that the song
(including poetry) and dance are two halves of the same whole, and that the Noh
actor strives to perform both with total unity of heart and mind.
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