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Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
NOH
能
Noh drama
Noh is a style of Japanese dance drama that developed during the fourteenth century. The plotlines of Noh dramas are taken from religious stories and traditional folktales. Compared to other forms of Japanese drama, Noh is distinguished for its simplicity and extensive use of symbolism.
Noh theater uses very basic sets. There are no curtains to separate the audience from the actors. The chief actor in a Noh drama is called the shite. His fellows actors are the shite-zure. During the drama, all Noh actors wear the Noh-men (能面) or Noh mask. Noh dramas traditionally deal with very solemn themes, but they are interspersed with one-act comic routines called kyōgen / 狂言. Kyōgen literally means “crazy words” in Japanese, and their purpose to provide the audience with comic relief.
Noh was originally patronized by the samurai class, while other forms of Japanese drama, namely kabuki (歌舞伎) and bunraku (文楽), were patronized by commoners. Noh therefore has a reputation as being the most sophisticated of Japanese dramatic forms.
The pioneers of Noh drama were the actor Kan’ami (1333-84), and his son Zenami (1363-1443). These two men more or less created the Noh style. They also penned Noh plays and treatises on the nature of Noh. More than ninety plays are attributed to Zenami alone.
Around two thousand Noh plays have been written since the form was developed. However, the scripts for fewer than half of these survive today, and only about 300 Noh plays are still performed in Japan.