Organizer and Chair: Arthur Thornhill, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
Discussant: Susan Matisoff, Stanford University
Due to the unbroken continuity of a performance tradition from medieval times down to the present, observers have tended to characterize Japanese noh drama as a static classical theater, dominated by the artistic genius of Zeami-by any measure its major playwright and theorist. Thus it is commonplace for contemporary actors to cite Zeami's writings in explaining their own performance styles, and for scholars to laud Zeami's masterpieces in the "spirit-noh" format as timeless vehicles of poetic and psychological profundity.
This attitude, however, obscures the variety, vitality, and complexity of the noh tradition through the centuries. Accordingly, the panel presents four views of noh that move away from this monolithic view. First, Arthur Thornhill uses the perspective of Komparu Zenchiku's critical writings to define a distinct "dialectical" style in Zenchiku's plays that is not merely second-rate Zeami, but a unique expression of the cultural and political trends of his age. Next, Mae Smethurst continues her comparative study of noh and Greek drama, showing that genzaimono (plays featuring living characters only)-so often overlooked, despite their great popularity-exhibit features of dramatic structure and plot described by Aristotle. Moving ahead to issues of contemporary performance, Thomas Rimer utilizes a semiotic analysis of kata ("patterns") to question whether modern audiences respond to noh as did those of Zeami's day. And finally Gerry Yokota-Murakami recounts how present-day actors are actively rebelling against the constraints of the tradition, reviving old plays in imaginative new productions.
The Wildwood Gate: Dialectical Style in Nonomiya
Arthur Thornhill, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
In recent years, significant advances have been made by Japanese scholars in establishing the authorship of noh plays. Of particular interest is an increase in plays attributed to Komparu Zenchiku. As such masterpieces as Obasute, Kakitsubata, and Nonomiya are (at least potentially) moved from the Zeami to the Zenchiku column, one outcome is that the overt concerns of Zenchiku's critical writings-for example, poetic theory and the polemics of Buddhist-Shinto syncretism-may be read into these plays.
Nonomiya is a woman play based upon Genji's visit to Lady Rokujo during her stay at a temporary "shrine-in-the-fields," en route to Ise. In the standard view, the waki's identity as a traveling priest is mere dramatic convention, allowing the playwright to place the ghostly protagonist on stage to recite her tale of the past. However, a major theme of this play is the tension generated by the defiling presence of a Buddhist priest at a Shinto shrine. Furthermore, although the shite attempts to purify herself of bitter memories through retreat within her sacred sanctuary, at the climax of the play the shrine is transformed into an emotional prison from which she escapes via a Buddhist-inspired vehicle of salvation. A pattern of dialectical exposition is perceived throughout Nonomiya, both thematically and in its poetic language, culminating in the radical negation of Buddhist-Shinto duality. Zenchiku's dialectical style is contrasted with Zeami's characteristically unified patterns of resonant imagery, utilized to explore psychological depth.
The Symbiosis of Plot and Performance in Genzaimono
Mae J. Smethurst, University of Pittsburgh
Genzaimono (noh featuring living characters only) contain many of the components of an Aristotelian plot, and like their Greek counterparts display a symbiotic relationship between performance and content that is based not only on rhythmic, poetic, and musical structure, as in mugenno, but also on the structure of the plot. That is, the critical moments in the play are drawn to the attention of the spectators by the performance of one of the actors or the chorus. These critical moments, the most highly charged emotionally because they involve people who are bound together in a close relationship, are turning points, the points that lead to recognitions, sudden reversals, and painful or fatal acts, which in turn result in separations or reunions of these loved ones. In genzaimono, at these moments the actor steps out of character and thus out of the ensemble of actors; in tragedy, the third actor steps into the dialogue, and thus into the ensemble of actors. The mode of performance at these critical moments is different in the two countries-in the Japanese drama the actor engages himself with the audience and invites them to participate in the action; in the Greek drama the actor engages himself with the other actors and brings the audience along into the action. This difference is a not insignificant cultural indicator of the perception of self and others in Greece and Japan.
Noh: Recapturing the Language of Order
J. Thomas Rimer, University of Pittsburgh
Recent studies of the semiotics of text and performance focused on the Western theater have convincingly explicated the importance of the sign in performance. In this context, the effectiveness of a theatrical presentation relies to a significant extent on the crucial act of recognition on the part of the audience, which has learned to interpret the varying significance of the signs witnessed during the course of the performance.
The basic function of traditional kata or "patterns" in the noh theater suggests just such an articulated semiotic device; indeed, Zeami in his treatises speaks of that necessary and crucial act of recognition which must take place at a central juncture in performance in order to move the audience. In Zeami's terms, the audience's sense of discovery, followed by some form of recognition in the midst of that discovery, becomes for him a basic principle of artistic accomplishment.
E.H. Gombrich, the great scholar of European art, points out the need for repetition in human psychology, and attributes human aesthetic response to what he terms the "hierarchical structure of interacting forces" of nature which provides a sense of beauty to the eye. Using certain of Gombrich's conceptions, my paper will examine the function of kata in determining meaning and significance in the noh theater. I will suggest as well some of the difficulties, from the point of view of the audience, in maintaining such semiotic connections today.
Recent Revivals of Noncanonical Plays on the Noh Stage
Gerry Yokota-Murakami, Osaka University
The canon of noh plays in the active repertoires of the five schools comprises some two hundred and forty plays. In this commercial age of the twentieth century, most schools have divided their repertoires into "inner" and "outer" canons, the inner canon usually a standard collection of the one hundred most popular plays. Other factors limit the repertoire of commonly performed and anthologized plays even further: these include seasonal favorites, esoteric plays marking significant rites of passage in the artist's career, and the amateur tutoring system.
Some noh artists, dissatisfied with the constraints of this commercialized "packaging," have found the revival of noncanonical plays a healthy outlet for their creative energy, forming working groups in cooperation with leading noh scholars to reconstruct performances from often limited texts. The National Noh Theatre has also initiated an annual series of revivals of selected plays.
I have had the privilege of working with the Kanze artists Kanze Hideo and Otsuki Bunzo on some of these revivals, and have also had the opportunity to view several of the National Noh Theatre projects. In this paper, I will discuss the significance of the selection of plays for revival, the process of reconstruction, differences in themes, characterization and structure from canonical standards, debates about fidelity (especially when the work is by Zeami), and the significance of this movement for the art as a whole, particularly for the common perception of the classical canon as a timeless, universal monolith to greatness.