I'm just a girl who can't say Noh . . . .

Sunday we went to a truncated Noh performance and demonstration of some of the preparation of a Noh performer. All this was arranged by my Ritsumeikan colleague, Shiro Okubo and his wife Mariko. We met them at a train station and walked to a small theater (in their neighborhood, I think). We took off our shoes and sat on cushions on the floor. The theater is owned and operated by a Noh actor, who explained many of the concepts before being dressed as the character Tenko on stage and performing Tenko's final dance.

A bit about Noh--it's classical Japanese musical drama, in which many of the characters wear traditional masks. Here's a few of them:

Noh performances usually take place in shrines and a performance often lasts all day (reminds me a bit of cricket--incomprehensible and long). The piece we saw came from a play called "Noh Tenko," an ancient Chinese story from the 14th century. It begins when the boy Tenko finds a drum (Heaven's Drum) that has fallen down from heaven. On it, he plays beautiful music. The emperor hears about the drum and summons Tenko to bring it to him, but instead of obeying, Tenko runs away into the forest. He is caught and drowned as punishment. Now the emperor has the drum, but no one is able to get a sound out of it. The emperor summons Tenko's father, who does go and is able to play on the drum. When he plays, the spirit of Tenko appears and dances, as he does for all eternity, on the waves.

On Sunday, the actor came on stage and proceeded through the stages of the elaborate dressing that is part of Noh. Here are the stages from several layers of costume (several "dressers" are required to pull it all together), to the wig (this one is the typical "boy" wig), and then the mask (again, a typical "boy" mask). I might not get the pictures in perfect order (I'm not very skilled at arranging a blog), but I think you can get the gist.

The very first picture at the top of the post is how he turned out. I couldn't take pictures during his dance, which was accompanied by drumming and guttural chanting. I have to say, it was quite beautiful and very spooky with that impassive mask that does seem to change expressions slightly as the actor moves.

Bill's reactions: it was very spooky partly because it was clearly so much about passion and yet there was so little to see that was human. The costume almost completely distorts the human shape, yet while this shape moves around in a kind of ritualized dance the mask remains utterly impassive. The music comes occasionally from a breathy flute along with two drums, each making its own sound in its own rhythm, while the drummers are shouting in guttural outbursts. These sounds were not like anything I've ever heard, and this dehumanized shape was hopping around in some kind of response. Yet it remained compelling.