In the No

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In the No

• No, also spelled Noh, is a major form of
  classic Japanese musical drama that has been
  performed since the 14th century.

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An Invitation to No
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The History of No

• In the 14th century in Japan, there were a number
  of roving troupes of actors who performed in a
  variety of stylessome popular and even vulgar
  but others having genuine artistic merit.
• One artistic troupe was directed by Kwanami
  Kiyotsugo, whose son Zeami Motokiyo was one of
  the finest child actors in Japan.
• A performance by the troupe was seen by Ashikaga
  Yoshimitsu, the shogun of Japan. Fascinated by
  what he saw, he arranged for Zeami to have a
  court education to develop his art.

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The History of No (Contd)

• When Zeami succeeded his father as head of the
  troupe, it remained attached to the shogun's
  court in Kyoto. With a patron of this caliber,
  Zeami was able to devote himself to all aspects
  of theater composing plays, training actors
  (there were no actresses in Zeami's theater), and
  constantly refining his own acting style.
• Under Zeami's direction, No became the dominant
  form of serious theatre in Japan. The elegance,
  mystery and beauty of No have continued to
  fascinate the Japanese today.

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Major Character Roles

• Shite the doer or protagonist
• Waki the sideman or foil of the shite
• Kyogen also called the fool performs the
  aikyogen interludes during plays Kyogen actors
  also perform in separate plays between individual
  No plays.
• Jiutai the chorus
• Hayashi the instrumentalists who play the four
  instruments used in No theater the transverse
  flute (fue), hip drum (okawa or otsuzumi), the
  shoulder-drum (kotsuzumi), and the stick-drum
  (taiko)

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5 Categories of Plays

• Kami mono, or waki no, 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.
• Shura mono, or asura no, 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.

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5 Categories of Plays (Contd)

• Katsura mono, or onna mono, depict the shite in a
  female role and feature some of the most refined
  songs and dances in all of Noh.
• There are about 94 miscellaneous plays, including
  kyoran mono (madness plays), onryo mono (vengeful
  ghost plays), and genzai mono (plays which depict
  the present time), and which do not fit into the
  other categories.

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5 Categories of Plays (Contd)

• Kiri no, or oni mono, 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.

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2 Moods of No Plays

• Mugen no 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 no depicts normal events of the everyday
  world. The term encompasses a broad range of
  plays.

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2 Styles of No Plays

• Geki no, or drama plays, are based around the
  advancement of plot and the narration of action.
• Furyu no, or dance plays, focus rather on the
  aesthetic qualities of the dances and songs which
  are performed.

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The No Stage
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Parts of the Stage

• Bashira The main stage has four columns, the
  sumi-bashira, waki-bashira, shite-bashira, and
  fue-bashira.
• Kagami-ita the back board, on which is a
  painting of "oi-matsu (an old pine tree). This
  is the Pine of Advent, taken from the Kasuga
  Taisha Shrine in Nara.
• Jiutai-za the seating area for the chorus.
• Ato-za the seating area for the hayashi-kata
  (instruments players) and koken (stage managers)

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Parts of the Stage (Contd)

• Hashigakari the gangway bridge
• Agemaku the five-colored curtain
• Kiritoguchi the entrance to the stage
• Kagami-no-ma the anteroom for performers
• Kensho the house. The seats located at the front
  of the main stage are called shomen. The seats
  located at the left are called waki shomen, where
  the audience watches the performance from the
  side but can easily view the performance on the
  gangway. The space between shomen and waki shomen
  is called naka shomen.

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Features of the Stage

• The floor is polished to enable the actors to
  move in a gliding fashion
• Beneath the floor are bowl-shaped concrete
  structures to enhance the resonance when the
  actors stomp heavily on the floor.
• The stage is elevated approximately three feet
  above the ground level of the audience.

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Other Features of the Stage

• All stages which are solely dedicated to No
  performances also have a hook or loop in ceiling,
  which exists only to lift and drop the bell for
  the play Dojoji. When that play is being
  performed in another location, the loop or hook
  will be added as a temporary fixture.

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• Below is the bell from the play Dojoji.

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No Costumes

• No costumes are refered to as No shozoku
• A No costume does not present the reality of the
  character. No dramas stylize and symbolically
  express the character through the costume.
• There are longstanding traditions and rules
  regarding the meanings of colors and patterns
  used in the costumes.

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Seven Elements of Costumes

• Kazura the wig
• Kaburi-mono the headdress
• Uwagi traditional Japanese tops
• Kitsuke the robe
• Karaori or Atsuita outer robes
• Hakama pleated loose-fitting trousers
• Accessories kazura-obi, koshi-obi, koshimino,
  etc.

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Masks (a.k.a. Omote)
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The Role of the Omote

• No performance values subtleness and
  profoundness, and in order to strongly express
  such beauty, the actors needed to conceal the
  change of their facial expression as well as
  their aging.
• It is said that a No mask has more power than
  just a tool of disguise it has an element of
  spell, which provides spiritual power to the No
  actor.

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The Expression of Omote

• The expression of No mask is called "medium
  expression," because it is difficult to determine
  the emotion.
• The skills of No actors give facial expression to
  the No masks.
• The gesture of raising the face slightly upward
  is called terasu, which makes the No mask appear
  to be smiling.
• The gesture of tilting the face slightly downward
  is called kumorasu, which makes the mask appear
  to be also weeping.

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A Few Types of No Masks

• Okina The oldest most traditional of all
  masks.
• Jo This is the mask of the elders. These masks
  are often donned when shite performs a
  personification of a ghost.
• Onna-men The most popular and memorable masks of
  No. The beautiful womans mask.
• Ohmionna The young but more touchable woman.
• Otoko-men Male masks of varied social status.
• Kijin The demon mask.

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Props

• No employs symbolic, large-scale props called
  tsukurimono, such as a spider web, or a house
  frame.

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Aesthetics
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Aesthetic Terminology

• Hana (flower) the true No performer seeks to
  cultivate a rarefied relationship with his
  audience similar to the way that one cultivates
  flowers.
• Yugen an aesthetic term used to describe much of
  the art of the 13th and 14th centuries in Japan,
  but used specifically in relation to No to mean
  the profound beauty of the transcendental world,
  including mournful beauty involved in sadness and
  loss.

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Aesthetic Terminology (Contd)

• Kokoro Defined as "heart," "mind," or both. The
  kokoro of no is that which Zeami speaks of in his
  teachings, and is more easily defined as "mind."
  To develop hana the actor must enter a state of
  no-mind, or mushin.
• Rojaku the final stage of development for No
  actor, in which he eliminates all unnecessary
  action or sound in his performance, leaving only
  the true essence of the scene or action being
  imitated.
• Myo the "charm" of an actor who performs
  flawlessly and without any sense of imitation.

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Aesthetic Terminology (Contd)

• Monomane the intent of a No actor to accurately
  depict the motions of his role, as opposed to
  purely aesthetic reasons for abstraction or
  embellishment.
• Kabu-isshin the theory that song/poetry and
  dance are two halves of the same whole, and that
  the No actor strives to perform both with total
  unity of heart and mind.

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