Noh Theatre: Past Plays PDF

# Noh Plays The Japanese method of expanding a five-line poem into a long treatise in order to make it intelligible to us is one which obliterates the structure of the original design. Explanations have been given in footnotes. The "mood" of Komachi is different from the "mood" of Kumasaka. Such...

# Noh Plays The Japanese method of expanding a five-line poem into a long treatise in order to make it intelligible to us is one which obliterates the structure of the original design. Explanations have been given in footnotes. The "mood" of Komachi is different from the "mood" of Kumasaka. Such differences will be fully apparent to the American reader, who would not be the better off for knowing the technical name of each *kurai* or class of Nō. Surely the Japanese student of Shakespeare does not need to be told that the *kurai* of "Hamlet" is different from that of "Measure for Measure"? It would be possible to burden a book of this kind with as great a mass of unnecessary technicality as irritates us in a smart sale-catalogue of Japanese Prints. I have avoided such terms to a considerable extent, treating the plays as literature, not as some kind of Delphic mystery. In this short introduction I shall not have space to give a complete description of modern Nō, nor a full history of its origins. But the reader of the translations will find that he needs some information on these points. I have tried to supply it as concisely as possible, sometimes in a schematic rather than a literary form. ## The No Stage The actual stage is about 18 feet square. On the boards of the back wall is painted a pine-tree; the other sides are open. A gallery (called *hashigakari*) leads to the green-room, from which it is separated by a curtain which is raised to admit the actor when he makes his entry. The audience sits either on two or three sides of the stage. The chorus, generally in two rows, sit (or rather squat) in the recess. The musicians sit in the recess at the back of the stage, the stick-drum nearest the “gallery” then the two hand-drums and the flute. A railing runs round the musician's recess, as also along the gallery. To the latter railing are attached three real pine-branches. The stage is covered by a roof of its own, imitating in form the roof of a Shinto temple. ## The Performers ### The Actors The first actor who comes on to the stage (approaching from the gallery) is the *waki* or assistant. His primary business is to explain the circumstances under which the principal actor (called *shite* or “doer”) came to dance the central dance of the play. Each of these main actors (*waki* and *shite*) has “adjuncts” or “companions." Some plays need only the two main actors. Others use as many as ten or even twelve. The female rôles are of course taken by men. The *waki* is always a male rôle. ### The Chorus This consists of from eight to twelve persons in ordinary native dress seated in two rows at the side of the stage. Their sole function is to sing an actor's words for him when his dance-movements prevent him from singing comfortably. They enter by a side-door before the play begins and remain seated till it is over. ### The Musicians Nearest to the gallery sits the "big-drum,” whose instrument rests on the ground and is played with a stick. This stick-drum is not used in all plays. Next comes a hand-drummer who plays with thimbled finger; next a second who plays with the bare hand. Finally, the flute. It intervenes only at stated intervals, particularly at the beginning, climax and end of plays. ## Costume Though almost wholly banishing other extrinsic aids, the Nō relies enormously for its effects on gorgeous and elaborate costume. Masks are worn only by the *shite* (principal actor) and his subordinates. The *shite* always wears a mask if playing the part of a woman or very old man. Young men, particularly warriors, are usually unmasked. In child-parts (played by boy-actors) masks are not worn. The reproduction of a female mask will be found on Plate I. The masks are of wood. Many of those still in use are of great antiquity and rank as important specimens of Japanese sculpture. ## Properties The properties of the Nō stage are of a highly conventionalized kind. An open frame-work represents a boat; another differing little from it denotes a chariot. Palace, house, cottage, hovel are all represented by four posts covered with a roof. The fan which the actor usually carries often does duty as a knife, brush or the like. Weapons are more realistically represented. The short-sword, belt-sword, pike, spear and Chinese broad-sword are carried; also bows and arrows. ## Dancing and Acting Every Nō play (with, I think, the sole exception of Hachi no Ki) includes a *mai* or dance, consisting usually of slow steps and solemn gestures, often bearing little resemblance to what is in America associated with the word "dance.” When the *shite* dances, his dance consists of five “movements” or parts; a “subordinates” dance consists of three. Both in the actors' miming and in the dancing an important element is the stamping of beats with the shoeless foot. ## The Plays The plays are written partly in prose, partly in verse. The prose portions serve much the same purpose as the iambics in a Greek play. They are in the Court or upper-class colloquial of the 14th century, a language not wholly dead to-day, as it is still the language in which people write formal letters. The chanting of these portions is far removed from singing; yet they are not "spoken.” The voice falls at the end of each sentence in a monotonous cadence. A prose passage often gradually heightens into verse. The chanting, which has hitherto resembled the intoning of a Roman Catholic priest, takes on more of the character of “recitativo” in opera, occasionally attaining to actual song. The verse of these portions is sometimes irregular, but on the whole tends to an alternation of lines of five and seven syllables. The verse of the lyric portions is marked by frequent use of pivot-words and puns, particularly puns on place-names. The 14th century Nō-writer, Seami, insists that pivot-words should be used sparingly and with discretion. Many Nō-writers did not follow this advice; but the use of pivot-words is not in itself a decoration more artificial than rhyme, and I cannot agree with those European writers to whom this device appears puerile and degraded. Each language must use such embellishments as suit its genius. Another characteristic of the texts is the use of earlier literary material. Many of the plays were adapted from dance-ballads already existing and even new plays made use of such poems as were associated in the minds of the audience with the places or persons named in the play. Often a play is written round a poem or series of poems, as will be seen in the course of this book. This use of existing material exceeds the practice of Western dramatists; but it must be remembered that if we were to read Webster, for example, in editions annotated as minutely as the Nō-plays, we should discover that he was far more addicted to borrowing than we had been aware. It seems to me that in the finest plays this use of existing material is made with magnificent effect and fully justifies itself. The reference which I have just made to dance-ballads brings us to another question. What did the Nō-plays grow out of? ## Origins Nō as we have it to-day dates from about the middle of the 14th century. It was a combination of many elements. These were: - Sarugaku, a masquerade which relieved the solemnity of Shintō ceremonies. What we call Nō was at first called *Sarugaku no Nō*. - Dengaku, at first a rustic exhibition of acrobatics and jugglery; later, a kind of opera in which performers alternately danced and recited. - Various sorts of recitation, ballad-singing, etc. - The Chinese dances practised at the Japanese Court.