Noh , or Nogaku —derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent"—is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and consists of five Noh plays interspersed with shorter, humorous kyogen pieces. However, present-day Noh performances often consist of two Noh plays with one Kyōgen play in between.
While the field of Noh performance is extremely codified, and regulated by the iemoto system, with an emphasis on tradition rather than innovation, some performers do compose new plays or revive historical ones that are not a part of the standard repertoire. Works blending Noh with other theatrical traditions have also been produced.
History
Together with the closely related kyogen farce, Noh evolved from various popular, folk and aristocratic art forms, including Denaku, Shirabyoshi, and Gagaku.
Kan'ami and his son Zeami Motokiyo brought Noh to what is essentially its present-day form during the Muromachi period(1336 to 1573) under the patronage of the powerful Ashikaga clan, particularly the third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. It would later influence other dramatic forms such as Kabuki and Butoh. During the Meiji era , although its governmental patronage was lost, Noh and kyōgen received official recognition as two of the three national forms of drama.
By tradition, Noh actors and musicians only rehearse together once, a few days before the actual performance. Generally, each actor, musician, and chorus member practises his or her fundamental movements, songs, and dances independently, under the tutelage of a senior member of the school. Thus, the mood 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 could be seen as exemplifying the medieval Japanese aesthetics of transience, exemplified by the saying of Sen no rikyo, "ichi-go-ichi-e", "one chance, one meeting".
One of the important centres of Noh was Nagoya, which upholds its tradition in today's Nagoya Noh Theater.
Roles
There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, waki, kyōgen, andhayashi.
- Shite (仕手, シテ). 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 thenochishite.
- Shitetsure (仕手連れ, シテヅレ). The shite's companion. Sometimesshitetsure is abbreviated to tsure (連れ, ツレ), although this term refers to both the shitetsure and the wakitsure.
- Kōken (後見) are stage hands, usually one to three people.
- Jiutai (地謡) is the chorus, usually comprising six to eight people.
- Waki (脇, ワキ) performs the role that is the counterpart or foil of the shite.
- Wakitsure (脇連れ, ワキヅレ) or Waki-tsure is the companion of thewaki.
- Kyogen (狂言) perform the aikyōgen (相狂言) interludes during plays. Kyōgen actors also perform in separate plays between individual noh plays.
- Hayashi (囃子) or hayashi-kata (囃子方) are the instrumentalists who play the four instruments used in Noh theater: the transverse flute (笛 fue), hip drum (大鼓 otsuzumi) or ōkawa (大皮), the shoulder-drum (小鼓 kotsuzumi), and the stick-drum (太鼓 taiko). The flute used for noh is specifically called nōkan or nohkan (能管).
Stage
Masks
Three pictures of the same female mask showing how the expression
changes with a tilting of the head. In these pictures, the mask was
affixed to a wall with constant lighting, and only the camera moved.
Noh masks (能面 nō-men or 面 omote)
all have names. They are carved from blocks of Japanese cypress (檜
"hinoki"), and painted with natural pigments on a neutral base of glue
and crunched seashell.
Usually only the shite, the main actor, wears a mask. However, in some cases, the tsure may also wear a mask, particularly in the case of female roles. 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 of emotionsfear 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. such as
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.
Chant and music
Noh theatre is accompanied by a chorus and a hayashi ensemble (Noh-bayashi 能囃子). 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. The
singing parts of Noh are called "Utai" and the speaking parts "Kataru".[7]
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-worldly feel of many Noh plays,
especially those characterized as mugen.
Noh hayashi ensemble consists of four musicians, also known as the "hayashi-kata". There are three drummers, which play the shime-daiko, ōtsuzumi (hip drum), and kotsuzumi (shoulder drum) respectively, and a shinobue flautist.
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