Let’s go to see Noh

Have you ever seen “Noh”? If you are an experienced person, you are deeply familiar with Japan. If you are familiar with Japanese movies even though you haven’t seen Noh, you always know the shadow of Noh without recognition.

Akira Kurosawa was a renowned film director, his films are loved by a lot of foreigners and have influenced many other film directors. His films have many breathtaking unstable acting and many beautiful slow scenes. Each of these scenes is able to be independent from the films’ stories. These scenes, especially his latter films, “Kagemusha”, “Ran” and “Dream”, took in methods of Noh. Incidentally, the picture above is one cut of “Ran” of Akira Kurosawa.

What is Noh?

Noh is traditional theatre in Japan. Noh is musical theatre with dance and music. Noh is moving art. Noh was constructed by Kan-ami and his father Ze-ami approximately 650 years ago. Noh has no director of theatre. And Kabuki theatre stems from Noh. Moreover, it is one of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.

Noh doesn’t have easy approachability, of course for me and for current Japanese people. However when I saw many foreigners who had a good time in Koya-san, I had an idea that it was easy for foreigners without previous knowledge or study to catch some significant essences.

Masako Shirasu, a Japanese essayist (1910-1998), wrote her idea for seeing Noh in her book “How to see Noh” as follows.

“Noh has beauty transcending any knowledge. To encounter the beauty of Noh you only have to see Noh, I think. How to enjoy Noh is not only the enjoyment of seeing dance or beautiful costumes on stage of Noh but also to subconsciously simulate with acting on stage with your eyes, ears and body. Once you sympathize your feelings with Noh, you are in the world of Noh.”

My recommendation on how to enjoy Noh

Firstly, my recommendation is that Noh music which is formed with three Japanese drums and a Noh flute. Noh music is very different from western music. In my own opinion the function of Noh music is to transcend audiences to another world. Strongly instantaneous and very high tone made by Japanese hand drums shreds the real current time. And the mysterious melody with an unstable pitch by the Noh flute makes you roam in the air unconsciously.

Secondly, the Noh costume of a hero or a heroine is more gorgeous than whichever you have ever seen. Thirdly, the Noh mask of a hero or a heroine is very symbolic of a Noh program on stage.

These aspects bring you to the world of phantasmagoric dreams.

How to see Noh(1)

If you are a western person, you may have common sense to see theatre or movies. Aristotle who was great Greek philosopher said mythos is the most important concept for the theatre. However to see Noh, you should set aside this traditional idea of theatre.

If you have the experience of seeing Kurosawa’s movies I want you to remember the mythos or the stream of his movies. You will be able to remember the basic construction of the movies and the dynamic or beautiful scenes, but it may be difficult to talk about the mythos. That is not due to you but due to the movies. I mentioned Kurosawa’s movies were influenced by Noh, as a result, his movies didn’t have much mythos. Kurosawa’s movies have the transcending strength, but they are due not to the mythos but due to the dynamic scenes. It is like Noh. Simply speaking, the transcending strength of Kurosawa’s films is not dependent on the stories of the movies but dependent on the method of filming the dynamics of feelings. Then, once people sympathize with any feelings in a Kurosawa’s movie, they are in his movie. Similarly, once you sympathize with any feelings in a Noh you are seeing, you are in the Noh.

How to see Noh(2)

The Noh theatre has over 200 traditional stories. Many origins of the stories come from Japanese famous old stories, like “Genji stories”, and these add a complexity to Noh. However it is not necessary to know these.

Because there are few basic constructions in Noh. Firstly, a sub hero, “Waki” in Japanese, is almost always a wandering monk. And a hero or a heroine, “Shite” in Japanese, is almost always a dead person.

Secondly, the basic structure of a story is simple, but each characteristic and situation of “Shite” is complicated. A wandering monk stays for a while at a place where a small historical event happened. He sees a person with mysterious air, often with transcending beauty, often with transcending thinking. While communicating with him, the monk senses an idea that he (her) might not be a current person. And suddenly “Shite” disappears (the end of the first stage). “Shite” appears with a transformed aspect in front of the monk again. Shite talks about the event he encountered and the feelings he owned through the event, often strong attachment to his lover, often strong grudges against his opponent, often strong regrets about this world. Shite dances often silently often strongly and often passionately but very slowly throughout. After the release of the strong passion which shite owned for a long time, shite disappears (the end of the last stage).

A person becomes human when he recognizes that “he is here”. Though I am lacking confidence in this sentence, it seems that Noh has the context of this sentence, so that a transcending shite who is recognized by a waki disappears as a human soul.

To put it another way, Noh is the artistic theatre of shite’s voice from the deep bottom of his heart.

Where can you see Noh?

Thank you for your attention. Finally, I want those of you are interested in Noh to know where you can see Noh.

There are many Noh theaters, “Noh-gaku-do” in Japanese, in old cities except for Hokkaido and Okinawa. However these aren’t held everyday. Check the days of Noh theatre. For example, Kanazawa which is my home-town often has theatres of Noh.