No clue what Japanese Noh theater is about? Use Kyogen to make sense of it
Noh is traditional Japanese drama established in 14th – 15th century, and is the oldest major theater art that is still performed. Noh masks, especially the eerie and scary ones, are a lot more popular than Noh itself. You might have seen them even if you don’t know what Noh is.
There is a reason why Noh masks are more popular than Noh itself: Noh is very different from other performing arts and is difficult to understand. We can still understand Shakespeare, but you can’t understand Noh in the same way. Noh is not just classic. It almost doesn’t belong to our world.
Then how do you appreciate Noh?
One way is to start it from 狂言 (Kyogen). Noh and Kyogen are typically played during the same event, and are a pair: Noh is drama. Kyogen is comedy. Kyogen also involves more moves, actions, and dances. It’s a lot more intuitive, especially dance. Here is “三番叟(Sanbaso)” by 野村萬斎 (Mansai Nomura). “Sanbaso” is a popular celebratory dance, usually performed on special, formal occasions such as new year, or religions events at Shinto shrines.
The dance moves are still restricted compared to other types of dances but are much more explicit compared to Noh. You might have realized that the kind of restrictions on body movements you saw in the video made the dancer look as if he wasn’t a human being. Indeed, “Sanbaso” is part of the series called “okina (old man).” The okina is a deity that brings about peace and harvest. Indeed, in Noh and Kyogen, many characters are not human – they are often ghosts, spirits and deities. Old people play a significant role also as a catalyst to connect our world with the “other world.”
It would be safe to say that one of the critical elements that make Noh (and Kyogen) unique is the fact that they are often about “the other world,” not our world only inhibited by living people.
In an interview, Mansai Nomura talked about performing “Sanbaso:” “It is a special moment because you feel that you are channeling deities. You feel that you are re-born from death. You are connected with the “other world.” Ecstasy to step out of this world and get into the ‘zone.’”
If you think about Noh as a vehicle to visit the “other world” and meet ghosts and spirits (but not in the way you watch horror movies), it will start making more sense. For example, the kind music that accompanies Noh also sounds like the one for the “other world.” This is a play with a traditional Japanese flute. Three minutes trip to a complete different universe.
Then you can try pieces that have more actions or distinct character. “Shari” features two no-human characters and there are more actions. (you could enjoy even without knowing the story somewhere from 20 min and 40 min)
My take is that Noh was the SF (science fiction) for Japanese in the Middle Ages. Instead of somewhere far in the galaxy, they made a trip to the world of dead people – the “other world.”
