ENGLISH 2: JAPANESE DRAMA

Prepared by:

MS. JENIFER B. MARIGZA

Philippine Science High School

CAR Campus

Noh (能 Nō?), or Nogaku (能楽 Nōgaku?)—the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent"—is a major form of classical Japanese musical dramathat has been performed since the 14th century.

The power of Noh, with its emphasis on the spiritual, lies in its ability to convey emotions subtly and create a mood of otherwordly silence.

“Noh does not make a frontal attack on the emotions, but creeps upon its subjects warily.” -Waley

Noh plays have religious sources. They are strongly influenced by Zen, the meditative

Buddhist religion.

Noh plays are performed on a small stage, about eighteen square feet. The stage is bare, save for a symbolic pine tree and

pillars.

ACTORS-must be talented mimes-must be talented dancers-must be skilled interpreters of character-must be able to convey a mood or feeling with a single gesture

The actors are few, and they are always male. Most of them wear heavy robesand hand-painted wooden masks that represent a particular character or emotion: a vengeful ghost, a holy man, a beautiful girl, a warrior, a wrathful serpent-woman.

TWO MAJOR CHARACTERS IN NOH THEATER

shite – a restless spirit who has assumed the form of an ordinary person. waki- a bystander, often a wandering priest

The waki poses some questions to the spirit, who is typically plagued by disturbing memories of passion or injustice from his or her past life.

The waki’s questions inspire the shite to unburden his soul and reveal his true identity. One of the most common themes in Noh drama involves the shite’s release from the suffering he or she is feeling in death.

THE CHORUS

The chorus consists of eight to ten singers who never take part in the action of the play. Instead, they echo a principal actor’s

words or speak for him as he dances or mimes an action.

POSITIONS OF CHARACTERS ON STAGE

SEAMI MOTOKIYO1363-1443

-had acting in his blood. His father, Kanami, a priest, was one of the finest performers of his day. At the time of Seami’s birth in 1363, Noh was an unrefined art – more chants and dances than true drama. -Under the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, this began to change. Ashikaga, a Zen convert and passionate devotee of the arts, brought various performers, including Seami’s father, to live at his place in Kyoto. He was particularly fond of young Seami and personally supervised the boy’s education.

SEAMI MOTOKIYO1363-1443

-Seami’s training in Noh began probably around the time he was seven years old. Five years later (at twelve), he was performing at court. At the age of twenty, not too long after his father’s death, he took over his father’s acting school and began to write plays. At least two dozen of the best Noh dramas are attributed to Seami.

SEAMI MOTOKIYO1363-1443

By all accounts, Seami, like his father, was a brilliant actor. His performances were said to be graceful, restrained, and mysterious. He strove to invest in his students the same qualities, encouraging them to act purely for the fun of it.

Like the practice of Zen, mastery of Noh was a lifelong task requiring immense discipline.

ATSUMORIAtsumori is one of Seami’s most

famous plays. It is drawn from an episode of The Tale of Heiki, a medieval Japanese epic based on historical fact that tells the story of the rise and fall of the Taira family, otherwise known as the Heike. The epic describes how the Taira are vanquished by a rival clan, the Minamoto (or Genji) family, the same Genji family of Lady Murasaki’sThe Tale of Genji.

ATSUMORIThe Heike suffered one of their most

terrible defeats at a place by the sea called Ichi no tani. The play takes place many years after this battle. A priest named Rensei, who was once a warrior with the Genji clan, has decided to return to the scene of the battle to pray for a sixteen-year-old named Atsumori, whom he killed on the beach that terrible day.

ATSUMORIRensei had taken pity on Atsumori and

had almost refrained from killing him. He realized, though, that if he did not kill the boy, his fellow warriors would. He explained to Atsumori that he must kill him, and promised to pray for his soul.

ATSUMORIWhen Rensei reaches Ichi no tani years

later, he meets two peasants or reapers who are returning home from their fields. It is dusk, and one of them is playing a flute. This reminds the priest of Atsumori, who was carrying a flute when he died. Renseisoon makes an astonishing discovery about one of the peasants.

REFERENCEWorld Literature

by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston