Noh theatre

I compare two of the most classical aesthetic expressions: Russian icons and Japanese Noh-plays. Though the former are pictorial and the latter theatrically enacted, both turn out to be highly compatible on several levels: both require a high degree of formalization and regulation; both maintain an interesting anti-relationship with realism; and their meditative characters make aesthetic experience the central theme of a religious art.

Il faut sauver la tragédie grecque de toute la gnose philosophique et tragique qui l'accable depuis près de trois siècles. Il faut la sauver de notre conception moderne de la littérature et du théâtre. Il faut la sauver de nous-mêmes pour la retrouver ailleurs, très loin, dans les lieux les plus improbables : le nô japonais, la messe catholique, la psychanalyse freudienne… À moins qu'elle ne soit déjà plus nulle part.
Car la tragédie est aussi introuvable que le tombeau d’Œdipe, ce tombeau que Sophocle prit pour thème de sa pièce ultime, laquelle est également la dernière tragédie grecque connue.
Avec Œdipe à Colone pour fil conducteur, ce livre raconte l’histoire édifiante d’une incompréhension à laquelle nous sommes voués. Il révèle les incroyables trahisons et mutilations dont ces chefs-d’oeuvre furent les victimes et propose en retour quelques thèses - ou hérésies – susceptibles de bouleverser non seulement notre vision de la tragédie, mais notre conception même de la littérature et de ses pouvoirs – sur les lieux, les corps et les dieux.
Nul détour n’est aujourd’hui si troublant ni si salutaire.

Note that these are page proofs, and my middle name (Blakeley) is misspelled!

In Michael K. Bourdaghs, Hoyt Long, and Reginald Jackson, ed., Performance and Japanese Literature (Vol. 15, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, 2014), pp. 49-57.

The paper examines how  Akira Kurosawa used Noh theater in his film Throne of Blood, via just one example: the opening and closing chanting sequence. The wider argument is that although there are studies that elucidate Kurosawa’s sources (especially his use of Noh masks, based on Kurosawa’s own comments) or that make generalized comments about Noh (often stereotypes) meant to clarify Kurosawa’s appropriations, because the scholars do not really understand Noh, or the Buddhist underpinnings of Noh, they do not see how Kurosawa has translated those literary and visual sources to achieve very different effects.

The Japanese medieval Nō 能 theatre – a poetic, song and dance performance, where demons, gods and ghosts dialog with humans on the border between the illusory and the real world – became an important source of inspiration for one of the greatest Japanese writers of the 20th century, Mishima Yukio　三島由紀夫 (1925–1970). In the years 1950–1962, on the basis of Nō plays, he wrote as much as nine dramas, altogether entitled “Modern Nō Plays” (kindai nōgaku近代能楽).  They are entitled as classical Nō plays, however, their action occurs in the 20th century, and the acting characters, contrarily to the archaic and often singing language of the Nō theatre, speak a common everyday language, fully comprehensible for the contemporary spectator. Those plays gained popularity quickly not only in Japan, but abroad as well: some of them, translated into English, German, Spanish and French, have been successfully staged in the West since the 1950s. Also Polish theatre directors couldn’t resist to the power of those short, one-act dramas and made Mishima’s plays appear and reappear on the stages of Polish theatres, just as ghosts in the classical Nō theatre. Already in 1965, Tadeusz Łomnicki staged three modern Nō plays of Mishima, and nearly 30 years later, in 1994, Andrzej Wajda directed four plays of the Japanese writer. The younger generation of directors became interested in Nō plays as well: in 2007, unexpectedly as much as two of them, Agnieszka Olsten and Natalia Sołtysik, presented their visions of Mishima’s Nō theatre.
It is quite surprising that plays written by a Japanese playwright using means of expression and poetics seemingly different from the Western ones, have been attracting the attention of Polish stage directors, beginning from such masters and classics of theatrical art as Andrzej Wajda, and ending on the youngest creatresses such as Natalia Sołtysik. Thanks to this fact, Mishima’s dialog with the classical Nō theatre had a chance to develop into a dialog of Polish directors and actors with Mishima, and through him – with the medieval Nō theatre itself.

In my paper I pursue a comparative study of the Ancient Greek term mimesis (or mīmēsis) and the Japanese idea of monomane 物真似 in their theatrical context and use by Aristotle and Zeami. By comparing the Western idea of mimesis to the Japanese idea of monomane I aim to reach a better understanding of the vague Japanese distinction between reality and unreality, which is needed if we wish to understand the stylistic devices of traditional Japanese nō theatre and its ambivalent view of reality. I first analyze Aristotle’s Poetics and his views on imitation of plot briefly, followed by excerpts from Zeami’s Sandō, Shikadō, Kakyō and Fūshikaden with a focus on imitation of character. The detailed analysis of mimesis and monomane sheds light on the aspects of traditional Japanese theatre aesthetics which Western philosophy and theatre studies find difficult to define, making it possible to find common ground between these two very different theatre cultures.

Within the nō theatre repertoire, there exists a significant number of dramas concerning the nature and deeds of animals. Most of the nonhuman heroes are supernatural beings, the representative example might be the mythological lion shishi – the hero of the play
"Shakkyō" (The Stone Bridge) by an unknown author. While the shishi has some realistic counterpart in the body of an actual lion, some other beasts seem to be purely fantastic, the example might be the chimaera like a fearsome, creature called nue – the hero of the play "Nue" (Monster Nue) by Zeami (1363?-1443?). The author of the paper shall examine the anthrozoological discourse that exists within the nō theatre. A close look will be taken at the acting techniques (kata), costumes, masks and wigs used by the shite actors in the process of creating the animal heroes onstage. Part of the author’s insights into nō is his own performing activities and fieldwork conducted in cooperation with no actors and troupes, including Tessenkai Nō Theater.

Key words: nō theater, real animals, supernatural animals, anthrozoology, kata
論文概要
「能における実在のそして超自然の動物」
能において、自然や動物の行為を扱う曲目は非常に多く見られる。非人間のヒーロー達のほとんどは超自然的な存在であり、その代表的な例としては作者不詳の『石橋』の主人公である神話的な獅子が挙げられるだろう。獅子が実際のライオンの体を写実的に模倣している要素がある一方で、完全に空想上の動物のような、例えばキメラのような恐ろし
い姿の鵺 – 世阿弥(1363?-1443?) による『鵺』の主人公なども現れる。
筆者は能に見られる人類動物学的側面を調査する。特に役者の演ずる技術（型）やシテ方によって用いられる装束、能面、冠り物など、舞台上に動物のヒーロー達を創り出すプロセスに着目する。筆者の考察の一部は、実際に彼自身の上演活動や、能役者や銕仙会をはじめとする団体との協力による実地調査に基づいている。

キーワード：能、実在する動物、超自然的な動物、人類動物学、型

Six centuries after its emergence, Japanese Noh theater is still being performed. Mixtures of Japanese ideologies and arts can be found in this complicated and enigmatic play, and the influence of Zenism on the creation and enhancement of Noh theater can be investigated and contemplated upon. Despite the fact that some scholars questioned and challenged the significance of this influence, others argued that Noh theater is completely derived from Zenism in Buddhism. This paper aimed at revealing the profound and unbroken connection between Zenism and Noh theater by investigating some of the theoretical and practical principles of Noh theater, including the aesthetics, kinesthetic, mask features, the directing of actors, etc. Such a link was created largely because of the ingenuity and ideas of Zeami Motokiyo, an actor, playwright and theoretician of Noh theater. He has utilized Zen concepts in Buddhism directly and indirectly to compile the principles of Noh theater, that is why ideas of this Eastern theater master can themselves be regarded as the manifestation of Zenism's concepts in Noh theater.

This paper deals with the issue of aging as reflected in the Noh theatre repertory. It analyses plays about elderly women based on the aesthetic concept of the beauty of old age (rojaku) as one of the forms of the ephemeral. The paper also offers an insight into their staging  the beauty of an aging actors acting. The fact that there are three plays revolving around the character of an aged female poet is explained by the conceptual attitude of their author. As a side product, this paper reveals some morphological connections in the staging of the plays Sumidagawa and Sotoba Komachi, which could have an effect on the dating of the plays and the identification of their author.

Key words: Ono no Komachi, Noh theatre, beauty of acting, beauty of old age, an aging actor

Summary:
The presented text focuses on Georgieva, Bejanska, Slavov and their contribution to the reception of traditional Japanese theatre in Bulgaria. Georgieva was a professor in Puppet Theatre and Shadow Theatre at the NATFA, Sofia. The famous Bulgarian actress Bejanska is a performer of Noh in Bulgaria and a teacher of yang Bulgarian actors, performing Noh and Kyōgen. Slavov, PhD, is the Bulgarian leading specialist in Noh. An integral part of the reception processes is the creation and realization of original works inspired by (or in the field of) traditional Japanese theatre. The text also presents Georgieva’s original works, influenced by the Shadow Theatre and their reception in Japan, as well as the collaborations between Yamamoto, Slavov and Bejanska in creation and realisation of Shinsaku Noh in Bulgaria.

Keywords: Kage-e, Te kage-e, Noh, Kyōgen, Shinsaku Noh, “Puk Pupa Teatro”, “Yamamoto Nōgaku-dō

キーワード: ニコリーナ·ゲオルギェヴァ、マヤ·ベジャンスカ、ぺト コ·スラヴォフ、ー人形劇団プーク 、「山本能楽堂」

Ключови думи: Каге-е, Те каге-е, Нō, Кьōген, Шинсаку Нō, театър „Пук“, театър „Ямамото Нōгаку-дō“

Абстракт:
Представеният текст е фокусиран върху Георгиева, Бежанска, Славов и техния принос за рецепцията на японски традиционен театър в България. Проф. Георгиева е един от реформаторите на кукления театър и основоположник на театъра на сенките в НАТФИЗ, София. Известната българска актриса Бежанска е изпълнител на Нō в България и преподавател на млади български актьори, които изпълняват Нō и Кьōген. Д-р Славов е водещият български специалист по Нō. Неразделна част от процесите на рецепция е създаването и реализацията на оригинални творби, вдъхновени от (или в полето на) японски традиционен театър. Текстът също така представя оригинални творби на проф. Георгиева, повлияни от театъра на сенките, и тяхната рецепция в Япония, както и сътрудничеството между Ямамото, Славов и Бежанска при създаването и реа лизацията на Шинсаку Нō в България.

Traditional Theatre Training began in 1984, co-organized by Jonah Salz and Rebecca Teele (Ogamo) as an intensive summer program for foreign artists and researchers to study in Kyoto with masters of noh, kyogen, and nihonbuyo. This booklet, published to commemorate 30 years, was also a transition from Salz as program director to Matthew C. Shores. It contains a historic recounting of the transitions over the years, as when Japanese were admitted to the program, and as Kyoto Art Center, a Kyoto-city institution in the former Meirin Elementary School in downtown Kyoto, took over sponsorship. Many former T.T.T.ers who went on to be teachers at universities and professional performers contributed short reflections on the program's influence on their careers.

In Aristotle’s Poetics the Ancient Greek philosopher analyzes concepts like mimesis, plot and catharsis. The more than two thousand year old work was written in a critical and philosophical mode, and is also one of the few extant texts about Ancient Greek theatre. In my essay I compare this basic text with Sandō (三道, The Three Courses), a six hundred year old text written by the father of Classical Japanese Nō theatre, Zeami Motokiyo. Herein he summarizes his practical and theoretical insights about the dramaturgy of his theatre, and defines its structural elements and most important character types. Even though their two theatres are distant from each other in both space and time, Greek tragedy and Japanese Nō is regularly compared based on their ritualistic backgrounds and archaic dramaturgies to this day. Through a comparison of the Ancient Greek philosopher’s and the Japanese theatremaker’s texts my essay aims to better understand what one theatre teaches us about the other.

Yeats: prove di sistemazione e rilettura Perché tornare a Yeats? 1 Innanzitutto per tentare di sciogliere alcuni nodi più controversi e incandescenti della sua esperienza nel teatro e nella poesia. Una volta aperta la strada a un prospettiva non monodimensionale sulle pratiche del poeta irlandese, una volta sollevato il velo su quelle sottili e intricate vene di sotterranea comunicazione tra teoria del teatro, scrittura drammatica, scrittura poetica, ricerca folklorico-antropologica, pratica e sperimentazione teatrale, è un continuo affiorare di scoperte che chiedono di essere indagate.

Traditional Japanese Nō theatre is known for its beautiful masks, ornate costumes, archaic and somber chanting, and slow, measured dances. Far fewer Western viewers have heard about the rhythmic concept of jo-ha-kyū 序破急, which defines Nō’s choreography, theatre space, text and music, even the program structure of traditional, day-long Nō performances. The essence of jo-ha-kyū lies in a rising tempo in rhythm, which is slight at first, later becomes ever faster, and finally comes to an emphatic stop. This uniquely asymmetric rhythm seems to indicate a logic in Nō based on a contradiction between harmony and equilibrium. In my study by referring to texts written by Zeami Motokiyo, Kunio Komparu, Donald Keene, Leonard Koren and others I aim to better understand the nature of jo-ha-kyū, asking the question: can harmony exist in opposition to equilibrium?

Cet article analyse un nô souvent chanté lors des cérémonies de mariage au Japon, et tente d'y découvrir l'idéal amoureux que celui-ci propose aux jeunes mariés contemporains. Takasago est l'une des pièces de Nô les plus célèbres du répertoire. Sa notoriété pourrait suffire à expliquer qu'elle soit mobilisée lors d'une cérémonie dont les formes contemporaines réclament un certain décorum. Mais Takasago propose aussi un idéal amoureux original, qui entre en congruence avec le modèle familial qui se met en place dans le Japon de l'après-guerre : celui d'un couple éternellement fidèle dont chaque pôle reste bien distinct. On se demandera alors si cet idéal n'est que l'effet de la propagation de cet inquiétant individualisme dont on dit qu'il saborde les structures familiales traditionnelles et les rapports entre les sexes.

After the publication of Zeami’s critical writings in the late Meiji period, scholars of Noh adopted terms from previous debates about “authors” and “artists” to populate a nationally defined canon of literature. Concepts that often appeared in these debates, like “genius” (天才) and “natural tal- ent” (天稟), still appear in appraisals of Zeami and seem to fit cleanly with Zeami’s own reflections on artistic success. Among them is Nose Asaji 能勢 朝次 (1894–1955), compiler of the first annotated edition of Zeami’s secret texts. Meiji concepts of genius and natural talent at first excluded Zeami from the canon, but that changed with the publication of his previously secret writings. Subsequently, Nose identified natural talent and genius in his discussion of skin, flesh, and bone in his text “Attaining the Pursuit of the Flower” (Shikadō「至花道」). The present essay proposes an alterna- tive interpretation of “bone” not as talent but as a native capacity found in all sentient beings, analogous to the idea of Buddha nature. In conclusion, the impact of Nose’s reading on the reception of Japanese cultural tradi- tions is taken up. Keywords: Zeami—genius—Shikadō—foundation or substrate— skin, flesh, and bone—Nose Asaji—Meiji period—Noh Literature Research Society—myōsō

Zeami Motokiyo 世阿弥元清 (1363-1443) was not alone in seeing the potential of Heike monogatari 平家物語 to be translated into the media nō. Of the total canon of 250 currently performed plays, more than ten percent of them draw directly upon characters or incidents in the Heike.  But although he was far from the only one, Zeami might have held a special reverence for Heike among the Muromachi Period nō playwrights. This paper theorizes that his reason for particular affection for Heike characters may be specifically connected to the imperfect masculinity of the tragic Taira warriors, as they are presented in the original text.  Zeami does take great care to translate these characters faithfully, but he also makes subtle adjustments and fills in the unknown space of interiority left behind in the decidedly public-themed Heike.  The end result is that the characters are able to exceed the bounds of humanity to a transcendent state of spirituality, a dissonant and emotionally exquisite chord which is maintained precisely by their vulnerable and imperfect beauty, in other words, their yūgen 幽玄. To explore this phenomenon, this paper will examine three representative shura-nō 修羅能 (“warrior plays”) based on Heike characters: Sanemori, Kiyotsune  and Atsumori, with supporting evidence from Zeami’s treatises. These three characters share some points of similarity within the Heike text, but crucially, all three represent a faded, imperfect or unconventional masculinity, which is used and expanded upon by Zeami to make their deaths all the more poignant, even to a contemporary audience.

Il y aurait deux façons de se demander ce que le comparatisme fait à l'Antiquité : l'une pleine de modestie, l'autre résolue et conquérante. La première consisterait à évaluer ce qu'une approche comparatiste peut éventuellement apporter à notre connaissance du monde classique ; la seconde, à démontrer pourquoi les études antiques ne peuvent absolument pas se passer de cette même démarche comparatiste. Il n'y a pas à hésiter : je choisis sans états d'âme la seconde option et l'illustrerai ici par l'exemple de la tragédie grecque.

Come l’architettura e la scultura, anche la letteratura ha le sue rovine. Rovine da interrogare, ma anche da preservare dalle invenzioni del regime dell’arte del linguaggio. A partire dall’Edipo a Colono, l’ultima delle tragedie attiche giunte fino a noi, è la concezione stessa della letteratura e dei suoi poteri ad essere messa in discussione. Quattro tesi, o “eresie”, invitano il lettore a riformulare, entro nuovi sentieri critici, la propria conoscenza della tragedia antica. Il luogo, l’idea, il corpo, il dio: quattro punti da cui misurare la distanza che intercorre tra noi e il mondo antico, per capire meglio la letteratura come arte autonoma a vocazione universale.

Paavo Heininen is the leading Finnish modernist of the generation that educated composers like Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg. He carried on the tradition of Aarre Merikanto who was a Max Reger student himself. In the opera Silkkirumpu (Damasc Drum) an old Noh-play is transformed into avantgarde music theater. Particularly the impact of the choir is amazing.

日本側に記録がなく、イエズス会日本報告にはあるものに、大坂城本丸の能舞台がある。天野文雄氏は以前、日本報告に基づくと思われる末代のイエズス会正史の明治時代の和訳を引き、この能舞台について論じている 。しかし、天野氏も指摘するように、この依拠資料は目撃者が記録した百年後、イエズス会の宣伝のための正史として編纂され、そのまた百年後、明治維新政府太政官がさらに和訳したものである。したがって、本稿では秀吉能楽愛好の代表とも言えるこの能舞台の様子を追究するとともに、イエズス会日本報告という未研究で厖大な資料群の性質を説明する。そのために、16世紀末の目撃者が記した原報告、それを編集・翻訳した17世紀の報告集、それを編纂・脚色した18世紀のイエズス会正史、そしてそれを改竄・和訳した太政官訳の各層を、遡るようにして紹介する。このようにして、転写・出版・翻訳の折節ごとにテキストが変わる様子を確認し、大坂城本丸の能舞台の様子を追究する。

Hideyoshi’s noh stage at Osaka Castle is one of many things of which no written record survives in Japan but on which the Jesuit Japan letters preserve valuable information. Osaka Castle was completely destroyed by the Tokugawa in 1615, and so one painting on a folding screen made some decades later is the only extant Japanese testimony to its appearance. This article introduces an eyewitness account by Luís Fróis, S.J., to uncover new information about the original design of this noh stage which may in turn rewrite the history of the Kōdaiji makie style of interior decoration favored by Hideyoshi. Previous research on this topic by Amano Fumio approached the Jesuit account through a nineteenth-century Japanese translation of the eighteenth-century French history of Jean Crasset, S.J., who seems in turn to have relied on a seventeenth-century Latin printed translation of a Portuguese scribal translation of Fróis’ 1596 letter, written in Spanish. Accordingly, this article also explores the rich transmission history of the Jesuit Japan letters by stepping back in time through the various layers of translation, misreading, novelization, and overcorrection, one by one, all the way to Fróis’ original.

Noh Theater is considered the heart of Japanese culture because it combines a collection of Japanese rituals, ideas and arts; on the other hand,  Noh is one of the highest peaks in the history of world theater and has been repeatedly compared to Greek tragedies. So it is not surprising that almost all the leading theatrical currents in the last century have reacted to and been influenced by the Noh. (Excerpt from the translator's introduction)

Erraid Sound - Floating Worlds combines an artist book, play script and short film by Scottish theatre director Graham Eatough and Dutch visual artist Andre Dekker.
92 pages, 55 illustrations, 14.8 x 21 cm, hardcover, english, design: Charlotte de Goey
https://www.japsambooks.nl/products/erraid-sound

communication (texte), 2018                                                                                                   

Résumé: En partant du livre "la tragédie chorale" de Claude Calame, nous comparons le nō à la tragédie attique. Alors que les choreutes grecs sont des personnages qui participent à l'action tragique, les chanteurs de nô produisent la voix impersonnelle de récitants.

In this paper I wade tangentially into the on-going debate as to whether, in global productions of Shakespeare, Shakespeare acts as a vehicle of reciprocal cultural exchange or of continuing Western cultural hegemony.  I emphasize what Li Lan Yong likes to refer to as the positionality of the audience member—specifically, how familiar the individual is with the language of the source play—and from there focus on two film adaptations of Shakespeare that are self-consciously intermedial in nature: Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) and a Korean film that is a very loose adaptation of Hamlet, The King and the Clown (Lee Joon-ik, dir., 2005).  I explore in particular how the directors draw upon the liveness of theatre to transform famous metaphors of theatricality in the source texts for moral and political commentary, while indirectly intervening in the question of Shakespeare’s status in the global cultural market place.

Winner of the John N. Serio Award for best 2022 essay in The Wallace Stevens Journal.

Wallace Stevens wrote three plays for the theatrical stage between 1916 and 1917: "Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise", "Carlos Among the Candles", and "Bowl, Cat and Broomstick". None of these plays achieved any critical or commercial success in performance, and Stevens would quickly abandon his attempts to write for the stage. Nevertheless, examining Stevens’s early engagement with the theater medium throws new light not only on his later resistance to public performance, but also on Stevens’s careful distancing of larger international “worlds” from his work, and the question of the ideal relation between reality and the imagination that recurs across his subsequent writing.
Here, I trace first the vexed question of the lines of international influence that shaped Stevens’s plays—with particular attention to Japanese noh and French symbolist theater—and, second, how the crowded material world of the theater medium troubled Stevens’s vision of his work. In both instances, the concept of distance is a crucial defining element. As we will see, Stevens self-consciously distanced himself (geographically and otherwise) from the international theater movements and models that seemed to influence his own playscripts. In turn, Stevens’s unhappy experience of the theater medium—specifically, the inflexible material reality of the stage space itself, and the too-close presence of the audience in the auditorium—would reinforce his sense of the necessity of imaginative distance between the individual and material reality, and of a more literal distance between artist and public. This idea of a necessary distance would crucially inform his conception of the relationship between self and surrounding environment in his later poetry and prose.

We can learn much about the nature of time on the theatrical stage if we study classical Japanese Nō theatre, an extremely slow, measured genre which radically manipulates the audience's perception of time. Why do so many members of the audience feel that a nō performance is infinitely long while watching it but, at the end of the performance, feel as if only a few minutes had passed? In my study I aim to explain this phenomenon with the help of the nō play Tenko 天鼓 (“The Heavenly Drum”) which is attributed by some to Zeami Motokiyo himself, and tells of a boy endowed with divine talent and a unique drum. I will also briefly analyze the Zen philosophical text Uji 有時 (“Being-Time”), written by Dōgen Zenji 道元禅師 (1200–1253), the founder of the Sōtō School of Zen Buddhism. Together these two texts will help us better understand the importance of the theatrical moment – the importance of the beats of «now».

Noh has been considered an essential preparation for political and other leadership since its full development in the thirteenth century. I introduce some important events from the political history of noh while providing an introduction to the format of the noh theatre and introducing ways you can learn to sing and dance the noh yourself for purposes of self-cultivation and social networking in Japan and abroad. We learn basic noh rhythm and practice a few passages which are good for singing at social gatherings.

The present text focuses on the performances of Shinsaku Noh (新作能) plays in Bulgaria. Performances such as The Circle of Water and Orpheus by Akihiro Yamamoto and performed by Yamamoto Nogaku-do Theatre with the special participation of Bulgarian performers, have taken place in Bulgaria since 2011, therefore they are relatively new phenomenon in our country. The present paper will also explore the contribution of the performances of Shinsaku Noh plays to the multifaceted process of reception of Japanese traditional theatre in Bulgaria. The text is based on: publications, archives, correspondence; interviews taken by the author with Japanese and Bulgarian members of the creative crew. The author will also present her own thoughts and insights, based on the rehearsal process of Shinsaku Noh plays.
Keywords: The Circle of Water, Orpheus, Akihiro Yamamoto, Yamamoto Nogaku-doTheatre, reception of Noh theatre in Bulgaria, Bulgarian actress Maya Bejanska
キーワード: 新作能「水の輪」ブルガリア公演, 新作能「オルフェウス」ブルガリア公演, 山本章弘、「山本能楽堂」、女優のマヤ・ベジャンスカ

Представления на Шинсаку Но (新作能) като Феята на водата и Орфей от Ямамото, представяни с участието на български изпълнители, се осъществяват от 2011 и са сравнително ново явление у нас. Изследването осмисля приноса им за по-обхватния и многопластов процес на рецепция на японския традиционен театър у нас. Текстът е изграден с опора върху публикации, архиви, разговори с японци и българи от творческите екипи на представленията; представя впечатления от репетиции и изпълнения на Шинсаку Но у нас.
Ключови думи: Феята на водата, Орфей, Акихиро Ямамото, театър Но в България, Мая Бежанска

The introduction discusses the noh play Hakurakuten in relation to the earlier introduction to and translation of the play by Arthur Waley, the reading of the play by Leo Shingchi Yip, and the concepts of allusion and allusive space advanced by Joseph Pucci. Using Pucci's concepts, I discuss the allusions to literary texts, cultural practices, and historical events and persons in Hakurakuten in a new manner as well as assess the aspects of the play both Waley and Yip overlook and how Waley and Yip's readings fit into an allusive space reading of the play. The translation is based on the version of the play appearing in Itō Masayoshi's annotated volume and incorporates as much as possible the information Itō gives. It contains a translation of the kyōgen interlude , which is important to appreciating the central theme of the play and was left out of the Waley translation. It also contains more footnotes than the earlier Waley translation, notes that point out matters such as puns in language and source material for lines.

This intervention will comment upon a duo performance combining gestures and movements of Nō theatre and of sigillography (seal carving) by Monique Arnaud and Lia Wei on April 17th, 2018, in the occasion of the « Ink Riders » exhibit opening. The correspondance is made between the structure of the stage – a magic  space composed of 9 squares- and the inscribed face of nine assembled seals, which provide a temporal and spatial frame for the performance. Moreover, the distribution of roles in Nō, between the shite and the waki will be recreated according to the structure of Nō pieces as a dialogue between the actress and the carver, with the carver (waki) as a receptive presence or medium who first activates the shite, then enters in a non-verbal dialog with him. Finally, the action of “grinding” the ground, produced by the Nō actress’ gliding footsteps resonates with the sound of stone as it is being carved. The performance concludes on memories of an ephemeral movement confronted to chiselmarks from nine sealstones printed in cinnabar red sealpaste on paper. The fragmentary nature of relationships between disciplines, the way they point at commonalities in gesture, composition, rhythm, as well as the novel eye such experiments bring for the practitioners will be discussed.

Drawing on religious, ritual, and literary origins, the Noh theatre developed as a unique performance art and literary genre, incorporating Shintō-related mythology and Buddhist spirituality. In this paper two Noh plays, Yamamba and Nonomiya, are analyzed as case studies for how performative, literary, geographical, and ritual space overlap in mutual re-inscriptions of Buddhist and Shintō cosmologies. These two plays are particularly useful for such inquiry as they exemplify, respectively, two most prominent ways in which Shintō space is materialized: a distinguished shrine and its surroundings, and an open natural space (a mountain) understood to be residence of kami, while their shite (the leading protagonists) are an extension and embodiment of this space, eventually themselves becoming sites for the religious interplay taking place.

El oscuro y expresionista largometraje Onibaba (1964) de Kaneto Shindo, se presenta como un modelo cinematográfico de una generación de artistas japoneses que compartieron todos el sufrimiento, miseria, miedo y desolación de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Además de dicha película comprende aspectos del teatro Noh y de la mitología fantástica de su país, como es el oni -demonio- en distintos contextos.

Kaneto Shindo's dark and expressionist feature film Onibaba (1964) is presented as a model of a generation of Japanese artists who shared all the suffering, misery, fear and desolation of the Second World War. In addition to this film includes aspects of the Noh Theater and the fantastic mythology of his country, as is the oni -demon- in different contexts.

In this paper the author compares the concept of a Noh play, Matsukaze, with a Slovak altar painting from Košice Cathedral. The article uses Japanese Noh, where stage continuity has been preserved up until the present day, to reconstruct European medieval stage practices reflected in 15th century painting. Referring to the platonic tradition, the second speech represents a corrective to the first, thus legitimizing a sense of passion in the process leading to catharsis, or enlightenment.
Key words: mise-en-scène; medieval; gesture; passion; enlightenment.

Several studies in Nigerian and in Japanese theatrical traditions have centred on various elements of either of the two dramatic and theatrical traditions. None so far has comparatively examined the two traditions with the intent of establishing distinct national identities ,which are concealed in the theatres of peoples, neither has there been an attempt to comparatively institute universality, conformity or unorthodoxy or lack of it in both theatrical traditions. The interests and explorations, by critics of other far more developed national literatures into Japanese dramatic and theatrical tradition, is an indication that this research effort is pertinent. Most transnational and transcontinental comparative studies on Japanese literary traditions have also not ventured beyond the Western world. This pretermits, in the usual manner, the depth and value of African and indeed Nigerian theatrical traditions which are arguably and inextricably rich in comparatives such as trends, forms which have also been globally acclaimed in the international communities. This paper is a comparative examination of Alarinjo and Nōh the operatic theatres of Nigeria and Japan. This analogy is carried out by contrasts; distinguishing the specific features of the forms by comparing differences and is essentially written in counterpoint. This study of the oldest documented professional forms of theatre Nigeria and Japan seeks to fill the yawing gaps of scholarship in Comparative literature, and engage the age long theory of Comparative literature as a suitable hypothesis and approach for establishing taxonomies in carrying out this study and other similar studies. It examines how national theatres reflect social, cultural and political issues and also explore the ancient operatic forms to highlight the value of evolving from cultural platforms that are supported by practices that preserve cultural and national identity. This analogy examines movements and trends, motif-types and themes and genre and forms in the operatic theatre of Nigeria and Japan.

In the past decades research done into the aesthetics of classical Japanese nō theatre has mainly focused on Flower or hana 花, a concept coined by Zeami pertaining to the work done by the nō actor, and yūgen 幽玄, the aesthetic principle of graceful, mysterious beauty. Not as much research has been done into monomane 物真似, which can be translated as mimicry or dramatic imitation. In my study I focus on this concept in order to better understand the reasons for the high degree of stylization in nō theatre, something which has made it inherently difficult to grasp for Western audiences and modern Japanese audiences alike.

Using concrete examples I plan to illustrate how monomane functions in nō – and have chosen to base my study on Shunkan 俊寛, one of the well-known genzai 現在 (realistic or real-time) nō plays. I will analyse the methods this symbolic theatre form uses to depict reality, and will make a case for why for all its abstract beauty, nō remains firmly rooted in reality. At the same time I will be searching for the answer to why despite the difficulties of understanding nō we Westerners can still empathize with Shunkan – why do we feel his painful hope? And why can his symbolic, masked form become so very real on the nō stage?