What Is The Origin Of Noh Theatre

Dōjō-ji is one of the most popular plays performed in Noh theaters in Japan today. Noh is a popular form of theater that originated in the fourteenth century. It consists of many complex rituals as well as ornate costumes. Dōjō-ji is a popular show in this genre because of the challenges it poses to its main performer as well as its unique features not seen in other Noh productions. Noh theater is a very specific artform that originated in the latter half of the Kamakura period and early part of the Muromachi Period. It is said that Zeami popularized the Noh and made it into the style that is performed today. Zeami was born around 1363 to his father who was a part of the Sarugaku theater troupe. At the age of twelve, Zeami was noticed by
the third shogun of Japan and was asked to study theater in his courts. After his father’s death, Zeami took over his theater troupe and adapted his style into what is recognized as Noh theater today. There are two main genres of performances one would see at a Noh theater.
The first is Genzai Noh which involves stories centered around the present time. The other genre is Mugen Noh which is a fantastic style that involves dream states and visions. These productions are comprised of many different characters. The shite is the main performer in these plays. This character can be a god, warrior, living human, ghost, or any other being. In the first half of a Noh play, the main performer is the maeshite and in the second half is the nochishite. In Mugen Noh these could be different characters, but they are performed by the same person. The shite is often also the producer and director of the Noh production. The secondary role is called the waki. This person could also play a variety of roles but is always a living being in Mugen Noh. The shite tsur and waki tsur are the accompanying performers while the attendant to the shite in the play is called the tomo. Noh does not only consist of adult roles; however, kokata are roles always played by children. This tradition of theater is usually dominated by male performers. A full program of Noh would include one of each of the five types of Noh plays—god, man, woman, mad-woman, and demon. Noh themes and stories have roots in Buddhism as well as
Shinto. The costuming for Noh is very specific. Masks are used to hide the imperfections of performers’ faces to emphasize the beauty of Noh. There were originally about sixty basic types of masks, but now over two hundred kinds of masks are used. The shite generally chooses the masks that are used for a given performance. These masks are made in a contradicting manner—they are required to have neutral expressions, but a mask carver will try and instill the mask with a variety of emotions at the same time. The main categories of masks include old man, elder, woman, man, demon, and ghost/spirit. While the masks are generally simple, the costumes used in Noh theater are ornate and beautiful. The kahatsu and kaburi are both worn on the head. The former refers to headwear concerning the hair and the latter concerns hats and headdresses. There are three components to the overall kimono. The uwagi are garments worn over the kimono such as a festival cloak or dancing shawl, while the kitsuke is the short-sleeved kimono worn under the outer kimono. Of course, you also have the ornate kimono itself. Below the kimono, performers wear pleated, loose-fitting pants known as hakama. Originally Noh costumes were humble, but as the artform became more popularized, the costumes became more exquisite. While the costumes are very intricate, the props and set itself are usually more minimalistic. They are simply made and meant to be symbolic. A typical Noh play consists of music as well as dancing with little to no dialogue.
The music is made up of utai or vocals and hayashi or the instrumentation. The unique thing about the utai is that there is no set pitch. The music is thought of as elastic. The pitch is set by the shite and everyone else follows. Noh dance or mai is made to “encapsulate the comprehensive nature of Noh.” There are different types of dance depending on the character that is performing—medium tempo, slow tempo, man, god, enjoyment, and god enjoyment. The unique part of Noh theater is the way in which the actors move. Kata is the movement patterns associated with the traditions in Noh. Hakobi is the basic form of movement throughout this stage. This is executed by the movement of sliding feet that never lift off of the ground. Shiori is a popular kata that involves a head that is slightly bent with one or two hands covering the face. This movement is meant to express sorrow. Although these specific qualities seem as if they could restrict the artfulness of the performance, it is the beauty in these traditions that makes Noh a popular artform in
Japan. Dōjōji is one of the most popular plays performed in Noh theater. The play concerns the Buddhist rite for the hanging of a new bell at the Dōjōji Temple. For the ceremony the priest says that there are no women allowed in the temple, but there is no exact reason explaining why; however, a woman dancer disguised as a male, or shirabyōshi, claims she must perform a dance for the rite, and she enters into the temple. After a dance and a very technical leap, the shirabyōshi vanishes into the bell. The head priest hears of this and reveals the reason women are not allowed into the temple during the rite. He says there was a girl who was the daughter of a lord in Manago, a town within the Akita Perfecture. The girl believes to be double-crossed by a priest who traveled through the mountains and visited her every year. She then transformed into a poisonous serpent and chased him. The priest hid underneath the bell at the Dōjōji Temple. The woman burned him to death as she breathed “flames of resentment onto the bell.” After the monks lift the bell, they find the woman has transformed into the serpent. The monks and the snake battle until she burns herself with her own flames. This play is unique in Noh theater for a number of reasons. As previously mentioned, this tradition of theater uses simple, symbolic props; the one exception to this is the prop for the bell in Dōjō-ji. This bell requires at least a day of preparation because of its need to be sturdy for the production. Another interesting feature of this play is the difficulty og the dance performed by the shirabyōshi. This type of dance known as ranbyōshi involves only the shite and a player of a small drum. The dance ends with a large leap into the bell by the shite. Because of the bell’s size and weight, this is a dangerous maneuver that can injure or even kill the actor if not done correctly. This make the role of the shirabyōshi a true test of an experienced Noh performer. After jumping under the bell, the shite must change into the costume of the serpent all on his own. This is something that does not usually happens in Noh as the shite would usually be assisted by a kōken. These special features combined with the exciting plot makes Dōjō-ji one of the more popular pieces in Noh theater.