Zeami Motokiyo
• The Noh 能 Drama
• Or No is a Classical Drama of Japan, developed under court
patronage in the 14th century. Typically, a Noh play
dramatizes the spiritual life of its central character,
employing speech, singing, instrumental music, dancing and
mime. The play is short but moves slowly in a highly ritualized
style. The performers are all male and use traditional
wooden mask. Noh gave rise to the more popular Kabuki
theatre.
• Its name came from the word no meaning talent or skill. The
word Noh may be used alone or with gaku meaning fun,
music to form the word nogaku. 能楽
Actors begin their training as
young children, traditionally at
the age of three. Noh
performers had been
exclusively male, but daughters
The Noh Masks are carved of established Noh actors have
from Japanese cypress and begun to perform
painted with natural professionally since 1940.
pigments on a neutral base
of glue and crunched
seashell.
The Noh Stage is made from hinoki or Japanese
Cypress it has complete openness, there are no
prosceniums or curtains to obstruct the view. The
stage has a roof even in indoor theaters, it is
supported by four columns. The back stage is the
kagami-ita, where it is usually painted with a pine
tree. It has also a bridge that is used as an
entrance or exit and even part of the play’s space.
• Noh Dramas were exclusively performed for samurais
because:
The balance between warrior and artist was important to
the samurai class as they were trained in painting,
calligraphy, poetry, flower arranging, the tea ceremony and
enjoyed the Noh theatre.
During the Tokugawa era Noh continued to be aristocratic
art form supported by the shogun, the feudal lords (daimyo),
as well as wealthy and sophisticated commoners.
Another theory by Shinhachiro Matsumoto suggests Noh
originated from outcastes struggling to claim higher social
status by catering to those in power, namely the new
ruling samurai class of the time.
• Zeami Motokiyo 世阿弥 元清
A Japanese Aesthetician, actor,
and playwright. His father Kan’ami
introduced him to Noh theater
performance at a young age and found
that he was a skilled actor. He performed
in front of some famous shoguns and they
were all awed with Zeami’s skill that he
was treated as their friend. He then wrote
several plays including Atsumori.
The Yugen
An important characteristic of Noh introduced by Zeami. Yugen means “half-
revealed” or “suggested beauty”. According to Zeami, the significance of the
action, the excellence of music and dancing are purposely designed to open
the ear of the mind while the mime and the dance are supposed to awaken the
emotions of the spectator and open his eyes to the supreme form of beauty.
Dramatic Poetry – a stage presentation or production
verse form. The artistic work is performed as an
objective occurrence witnessed by the audience. Since
the drama is performed objectively before an audience,
this literary genre involves the presence of an audience
and the work but the author is absent. The author is
concealed in the wings of the stage, until the final
applause tells him that his work has succeeded.
Atsumori
Zeami Motokiyo
By the end of the 12th century in feudal
Japan
• After killing the young warrior, Taira no Atsumori, during
the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani in the Genpei War, Kumagai no
Jiro Naozane renounced the world and took the name
Rensei or Rensho and became a monk realizing the
tragedy he caused. When Rensei went to the fields of Ichi-
no-Tani to pray for the reposed soul of Atsumori, two
reapers appeared with the music of the flute. When
Rensei speaks to them one of them tells him the story
associated with the flute. Rensei becomes suspicious and
the man responds that he has a connection with Atsumori
then asks Rensei to recite the prayer to Amitabha Buddha
ten times for the soul of Atsumori. After reciting the
prayers or sutra to Amitabha Tathagata, the young man
revealed that he is the ghost of Atsumori.
• In the night Atsumori’s ghost who looks as he was on his last
day, appears before Rensei who is praying for the
salvation of Atsumori’s soul, Atsumori was delighted to see
that Rensei, who was a foe, is now a friend praying and
mourning for him. Atsumori then starts to confess, first in the
kuse, he describes the Heike clan’s escape from Kyoto in
the autumn of 1183, their forlorn lives in Suma Bay, and
the decline of the entire clan. He shows the past battle
scene in the beach of Ichi-no-Tani, where Kumagai called
him to single combat. Atsumori leaves asking Rensei, whom
he feels now not as enemy but as a friend to pray for his
soul.
• Setting:
In the fields of Ichi-no-tani in the country of Tsu, Years
after the Genpei War.
• Characters:
A young reaper (Taira no Atsumori) – A young man who was
the spirit of Atsumori transformed as a disguise. Atsumori was a
young warrior killed by the warrior Kumagai during the Genpei
War.
The priest Rensei (Kumagai Jiro no Naozane) – his real name
was Kumagai, and was a former warrior who killed Atsumori
and now became a priest.
The Companion – he was also a young man and a reaper who
was with Atsumori as a young reaper.
The Chorus – Singers and Musicians of the play.
• Plot:
The monk Rensei asks forgiveness and prays for the soul of
Atsumori whom he killed in War and later on the ghost appears
before him, and on the end considers him as a friend rather than
a foe.
• Themes:
Forgiveness
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