Noh is the name of the oldest form of traditional Japanese drama. The name is sometimes spelled no. The majority of plays in the noh repertoire developed during the late 1300’s and early 1400’s. They are based on Buddhist and Shinto scriptures, and on Chinese and Japanese mythology, history, and literature. Because the stories are already familiar to the audience, the plays focus on the emotional climax of the story. A noh drama is accompanied by music, dance, and choral speaking.
A full noh program features five types of plays. The main characters in these plays are (1) deities, (2) warriors, (3) women, (4) spirits or insane people, and (5) demons and other supernatural beings. A noh performance includes five plays, with comic plays called kyogen between them, and may last for up to 12 hours. Since the mid-1900’s, a performance typically consists of two or three main plays and one or two kyogen.
Traditionally, noh plays were performed by only by men. The acting is highly stylized rather than realistic. There are two principal actors, known as shite (the main character) and waki (“person at the side”). The shite and some other actors often wear painted wooden masks and dress in a beautiful silk costume. The waki does not wear a mask because he represents a living person—or even a member of the audience—while the shite is often a spirit or god. Typically there are eight members of the chorus, four musicians, and two stage assistants, who are treated as invisible by the audience and the other actors. Noh plays are performed on a raised stage with a square roof supported by pillars. A bridge, called hashigakari, leads off stage. The plays do not have scenery, except for an ancient pine tree painted on the back wall of the stage and three small pines lining the hashigakari. The few props are highly stylized.
The noh performance is probably the most carefully controlled in the world, each element following a rule. That includes every detail of the stage and props, every movement of the actors, every vocal intonation and musical note, and every detail of costume.
The noh style was created by Kanami Kiyotsugu in the 1300’s. He combined dances first done at religious shrines with tumbling and acrobatics into a type of performance called sarugaku-noh (monkey music). The name was eventually shortened to noh. The noh theater was further developed by Kanami’s son Zeami Motokiyo, who wrote many of the plays still performed. He also wrote essays that established the artistic standards under which noh plays were performed. The noh theater reached its present form in the 1600’s, and it has remained practically unchanged since then.
