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Japan No
The oldest dramatic form preserved in Japan is No
theater,
which attained its contemporary form at the
fourteenth-century
Ashikaga court. In the 1980s, there were five major No
groups and
a few notable regional troupes performing several hundred
plays
from a medieval repertoire for a popular audience, not
just for an
elite. A No play unfolds around the recitation and dancing
of a
principal and secondary figure, while a seated chorus
chants a
story, accentuated by solemn drum and flute music. The
dramatic
action is mimed in highly stylized gestures symbolizing
intense
emotions, which are also evoked by terse lyrical prose and
dance.
Standardized masks and brilliant costumes stand out
starkly against
the austere, empty stage with its symbolic pine tree
backdrop.
No stories depict legendary or historical events of a
tragic
cast, infused with Buddhist ideas. The foreboding
atmosphere is
relieved by comic interludes (kyogen) played during
the
intermission. A few experimental plays have been developed
by
authors such as Mishima Yukio (1925-70), and in the 1980s
a
Christian No play was written by a Sophia University
philosophy
professor and daringly performed at the Vatican for Pope
John Paul
II. The National No Theater has revived popular interest
in this
ancient art form by supporting experimental No plays in
the late
1980s.
Data as of January 1994
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