Japanese Noh and Kyogen plays: staging dichotomy.

Publication: Comparative Drama

Publication Date: 22-SEP-05

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The Noh and Kyogen forms of Japanese theater were perfected during the Muromachi period (1336-1568) and (combined as Nogaku) they comprise the Japanese traditional aristocratic theater still being performed today. Although they evolved alongside each other, sharing various theatrical elements and being performed together on the same stage, they are separate forms. Their actors' training programs, which usually pass from generation to generation within a family, are different, and actors of one form do not perform the other. Noh (literally, "skill or ability"), the lyrical traditional Japanese theater, draws its material from many sources and its form from ritual and folk dances. It is essentially a poetic, quasi-religious musical drama, usually without dramatic conflict. Generally, only the main actor wears a mask. The performance is accompanied by a chorus (ji utai) of six to ten actors and a musical band (hayashi) comprised of a flautist and two or three drummers. The chorus plays a narrative role or may even chant the lines of the main character. The rhythm of the drums and the tension suggested by the flute add an important element of the performance. The play is acted with very few props, on a raised, resonant, and empty stage. The second form, Kyogen (literally, "ecstatic speech") comprises relatively short comic plays that serve as interludes between the serious Noh plays. The plots are based in the present, and the texts express a stylized form of the vernacular of the Muromachi period. Kyogen can evoke modes of farce, satire, tragicomedy, or various other genres that deal with the daily life of the lower and middle classes. Relationships between an ordinary man and his wife or lover, or between a master and his servant, are the most common themes in Kyogen, contrasting with the more serious appearances of ghosts, gods, and demons in Noh. An exploration of the full dramatic meaning and structure of Nogaku as the combination of Noh and Kyogen reveals these as two dichotomous forms that complement each other, with the various dramatic elements of each molded in a harmony of contrasts that create balance and dynamism.

This harmony of contrasts, which I consider as one of the most important concepts of the traditional Japanese theater, originated in Chinese philosophy, which teaches that change is the main factor in cosmic existence. This notion of change taking place between two poles led to the concept that seeks to fuse contradictory elements into a unified harmony. The Chinese philosophers termed the two poles of each contrast yin and yang (in and yo in Japanese). While yang represents activity, positivity, masculinity, heat, brightness, and so forth, yin represents the opposite--passivity, negativity, femininity, coldness, darkness, and so forth. Through the interaction of these opposing principles, all phenomena of the universe are produced. Each contrast possesses two contradictory states: static and dynamic. At all times there is a harmonic balance between the two poles of each contrast, which exist side by side, creating a dynamic interaction that replaces and regenerates the other; and each of them contains a minor manifestation of the other.

The Chinese concept of harmony of contrasts, adopted by the Japanese in the seventh century, was already well established by the eighth century. (1) The way of life derived from this concept is still evident today in many areas in Japan. As was the case in other areas of life, Japanese classical theater too was greatly influenced by this concept, employing not only one pair of Chinese philosophical contrasts but two. In addition to the contrast of in/yo that relates in particular to formative contrasts (dark/light, quiescence/movement, feminine/masculine, weak/strong, bent/straight, and so forth), there is the contrast of kyo (fiction, false, abstract, and empty) and jitsu (reality, real, concrete, and full). The kyo and jitsu relate to the essence of the material, and form the basis of the theatrical medium--the coexistence and dynamic interaction of two alternate worlds, fiction and reality.

The consolidators of Noh and Kyogen discuss the importance of this aspect in their art. In Fushi kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Forms), the first treatise by Zeami Motokiyo (c.1363-1443), this consolidator and most important master in Noh history, emphasizes the importance of the harmony between in and yo, and provides a concrete example in the contrasts that must be created between the mood of acting and the time of performance or the weather; for example, against the in atmosphere of nighttime or gloomy weather, the actor must play brightly, creating a yo feeling, whereas against the yo atmosphere of daytime or warm weather, the actor must play softly, creating an in feeling. (2) In Shugyoku tokka (To Pick up Gems and Obtain the Flower), he reiterates and strengthens this idea, (3) and in another chapter of Fushi kaden, he generalizes this concept for all aspects of Noh: "Sometimes when the artist is unable to perform a masterpiece, it can be assumed that the reason for it is the disharmony between in and yo." (4) The Kyogen master Okura Toraakira (1597-1662) includes in his book Waranbe-gusa ([To My] Young Followers), the first and maybe most important theoretical book in the history of the Kyogen, an entire chapter addressing the Chinese philosophy of harmony of contrasts, (5) throughout the book he discusses the possibilities and importance of application of this concept to the various theatrical elements in Kyogen, such as contrasting locations in the theatrical space (6) and contrasting forces in the stamping of feet. (7) In addition to the dichotomies within Kyogen itself, Okura Toraakira presents it as the dichotomous/complementary pole of Noh:

Noh turns fiction (kyo) into reality (jitsu). Kyogen turns reality into fiction. Noh is in front. Kyogen is backward. (8)

I. Okina: A Ritualistic Prelude

The concept of harmony of in and yo and of kyo and jitsu between Noh and Kyogen and within each of them is represented in the unique piece called Okina (The Old Man) or Shiki sanban, the most ancient work in the Nogaku repertoire. Differing completely from any other Noh or Kyogen play in its lack of narrative, identifiable characters, and setting, Okina also features Nogaku's most essential dichotomies--the human/superhuman, blessing/threat and fiction/reality. Called "Noh which is not Noh;' the piece originated in an ancient ritual called Shiki sanban and retains religious and ritualistic characteristics intended to win the help of the gods in obtaining peace and prosperity. All its performers must undergo rituals of purification before the performance, and the role of Okina is usually performed by a Noh iemoto (family head), the leader of one of the five existing Noh schools of performers of main characters. In the old days this piece opened each section of Nogaku performance; it is still performed today in celebration of the New Year or at the inauguration of a new Noh stage. (9)

Okina is divided into two acts, with each act subdivided into two sections. The first act is performed by two Noh actors and the second act by a single Kyogen actor. An unmasked actor performs the first section of each act: a Noh actor performs the dance of a character called Senzai in the first act, and a Kyogen actor performs a dance called momi no dan in the second act. These are the "human" sections. In the second section of each act an actor affixes a mask to his face on the stage, dances, takes off the mask, and leaves the stage: the Noh actor performs the ceremonial chant and dance of Okina and the Kyogen actor performs the suzu no dan dance of Sanbaso. These represent the metamorphosis of a human being into a god on the stage in front of the audience.

The masks and their use in Okina are based upon the dichotomies of face and mask and between contradictory masks. The two masks used are hakushikijo (white-style old man), the mask of Okina (fig. 1), worn by a Noh actor; and kokushikijo (black-style old man), the mask of Sanbaso (fig. 2), worn by a Kyogen actor. Both are almost identically carved and more stylized than any other Noh mask, with the facial wrinkles symmetrically arranged around the entire face. The lower part of the mask (the jaw and lower lip) is connected to the upper part by strings; all other Noh masks are made of one piece. Differences between the two masks of Sanbaso and Okina include contrasts in color--black and white, which are the symbols of in/yo; contrasts in the eyebrows--Okina's are like two small balls of soft artificial material, and Sanbaso's are made of fiber and resemble real hair; and contrasts in mustaches--Okina's mustache is painted on, while Sanbaso's is made of fiber. These differences are an expression of kyo/jitsu, making Okina's mask understood as that of a god while Sanbaso's looks more human.

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0kura Toraakira notes in Waranbe-gusa the symbolic value of the colors of masks--gods of Heaven are white and gods of Earth are black, also representing in and yo, and noon and night. (10) The Kyogen actor Nomura Manzo VI, also a carver of Noh masks, follows this interpretation, (11) whereas Gunji Masakatsu sees the colors as representing the dichotomy of a god and a human being; the white mask of Okina has sacred connotations while the black mask of Sanbaso has earthly ones. Gunji questions whether one of the masks alone would be able to create this meaning without the other. (12) Thus we can either perceive Okina as representing both the metamorphosis of a human being into a heavenly god or of a human being into an earthly god--a demon; or if the two masks in themselves represent the dichotomies of the god and the human being, we can grasp the entire first act (Senzai and Okina) as the part of the god, and the second act (the two dances of Sanbaso: momi no dan without mask and suzu no dan with the black mask) as the human part. The masks and the faces of Okina thus manifest god and human, Heaven and Earth, black and white, in and yo and kyo andjitsu, reflecting the dichotomies of Noh and Kyogen as well as the dichotomies within each of them.

II. Structures and Styles

The most important literary edition of the Noh plays in the second half of the twentieth century, edited by Yokomichi Mario and Omote Akira, (13) classifies them mainly according to three criteria: 1) the level of reality of the play and its structure; 2) the identity of the main character; and 3) the location of the play in a five-play cycle of a Noh performance. The first and essential classification divides the plays into Phantasmal Noh (mugen no) or Actual Noh (genzai no), expressing their level of reality. (14) In Phantasmal Noh, the flow of time is usually reversed, the main part takes place in the form of a dream, and the main character is a ghost or superhuman being. In Actual Noh, the action moves in a natural sequence and the main character is generally a real person. (15)

Phantasmal Noh is usually divided into a two-act form (fukushiki), recalling the two-act division and subdivision of Okina. In the first act, mae-ba, the waki ("side"--deuteragonist, secondary), usually a traveler, visits a famous place where he encounters a local inhabitant, the shire ("doer"--protagonist), and asks to be told the story associated with the place. At the end of the tale the storyteller declares that he is in fact the incarnation of the hero of the tale, upon which he disappears. His disappearance is called naka iri, exiting the stage. After a short interlude, ai kyogen, in which another local inhabitant performed by a Kyogen actor retells the story of the play in more colloquial language, the second act (nochi-ba) begins. The main actor, who played the shite in the first act, now returns as the hero in his past form, and recounts his experience through singing and dancing. At dawn, he disappears. The appearance of the shite in the second act is presented as a dream of the waki, and this is the origin of the category's name. The shite character can be either male or female, young or old, of any social level, and human or superhuman. The meaning of shite, "doer," set against waki, "side" opposes action to inaction, and foreground to background. In most of the second half of Phantasmal Noh plays, the waki is completely passive, but remains onstage beside the very active shite, thereby embodying in/yo in terms of inactive/active.

Phantasmal Noh is not always divided into two acts, and a few plays are structured similarly to a single-act Actual Noh. For example, the Phantasmal Noh play Kiyotsune comprises only one act, and the shite's single appearance as the ghost functions as its second act. In the play, the wife of the defeated warrior Taira no Kiyotsune, who had drowned himself by jumping from his ship, yearns to encounter him, and indeed his ghost appears beside her bed. She is aware that this might be only a dream but is grateful for the possibility of "seeing" him again. He had sent a lock of his hair to her as a memento before his death, but the wife has refused to accept either this memento or his "wilful death" as she calls it. Kiyotsune's ghost complains about her rejection and describes his feelings, telling his wife in dance and song about the final moments of his life, which constitutes the end of the play. (16) In another example of a single-act Phantasmal Noh--Matsukaze (Pining Wind)--the two main characters are the ghosts of two young fisherwomen, Matsukaze and Murasame, and the whole play is structured like the second act of the two-act pattern. They meet a traveling priest, and cry when they hear him reciting a poem written by Yukihira, a poet who had loved them. They reveal their identity and proceed to tell the priest about their former happiness with their beloved Yukihira. Yet here too there is a suggestion of reincarnation: Matsukaze wears the hat and robe of the poet and dances; she is a ghost manifesting another dead character onstage. (17)

The category of Phantasmal Noh consists of several harmonic contrasts. Life and death are often both presented on the stage, with the shire as a dead character and the waki, as always, as a live one. Human and superhuman are contrasted when the shite is a god or a demon and the waki is a human being. Contrast between reality and fiction is created between the part of the play that occurs in reality and that which occurs in a dream or the imagination of the waki. The appearance of the main character can create a dichotomy of real and unreal: the main character in the first act maybe a real one, jitsu, and unreal, kyo, in the second act, as a manifestation of a dream or imagination. Ochiai Kiyohiko argues, however, that the dead character in the second act can be perceived as having been disguised as alive in the first act. (18) According to this perception the main character in the first act is the unreal, while the character in the second act is the real one.

In one quite rare example a complex network of these sorts of dichotomies is featured simultaneously. In the play Futari Shizuka (The Two Shizukas), a village woman is sent by a priest to pick herbs for a ceremony at the shrine. She meets another woman who asks the villager's help to bring rest to her soul. She is to do so by getting the priest to make copies of sutras, but without telling him what the stranger has said, otherwise she, the stranger, will take possession of the villager's soul. The village woman nonetheless tells the priest and becomes possessed by the spirit of Shizuka Gozen, sweetheart of the famous warrior Yoshitsune. The priest realizes this and asks the spirit to perform the dance once danced by this historical character, and the possessed village woman dances. At this moment, the ghost of Shizuka Gozen herself enters the stage and dances along with the woman who is possessed by her spirit. (19) The spirit of the "real" dead and its mode of incarnation thus appear simultaneously on the stage.

Actual Noh deals with the world of those who inhabit reality. These plays are generally not divided into two acts, and the main theme presents a mundane situation, such as a confrontation between characters, as in the play Ataka, in which Benkei confronts the officers at the barrier in Ataka while trying to pass and save the life of his master, Minamoto no Yoshitsune; or Jinen Koji, in which Jinen Koji, a priest, confronts slave traders in order to free a girl who has sold herself into slavery. These plays culminate in fulfillment of the main character's mission. Other plays of this category present a character who goes insane, such as Sumidagawa (The Sumida River), in which a mother loses her stolen child (fig. 3). The contrasts between Actual Noh and Phantasmal Noh can occur on several levels: the whole play occurs in reality, against partial reality as in a dream; all the characters are live people, as opposed to some supernatural characters (dead spirits, gods, and demonic creatures); time advances consistently, rather than moving from present to past and back; or the play has no division as opposed to having two acts.

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These two categories feature reciprocal elements that create a dynamic state of harmony and a discernible dramatic tension. Yokomichi and Omote include this aspect in their definition of the plays, outlining two additional subcategories. Some plays blend these two patterns equally and are classified by them as Actual/Phantasmal Noh (genzai/mugen no). In these, the shite in the first act is a live person as in Actual Noh, while in the second act he returns to the stage as a ghost--a Phantasmal Noh. This is exemplified in the Noh Kinuta (The Fulling Block), (20) in which a woman whose husband has spent three years in the capital hears that he will return at the end of the year, but is later informed that he is unable to return, leading to her insanity from disappointment, loneliness, and hatred, and eventually to her death. The husband, upon learning of this, returns and ritually summons her ghost, which appears in an embittered mood and expresses resentment for having...

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