Nōgaku is a traditional Japanese stage art combining poetic and dramatic texts, chant, music, dance and visual arts expressed by masks, costumes and stage design. “Masked dance-drama”, “total theatre”, “dramatized ritual” – defining what nōgaku is can be difficult, especially when one tries to do so using words such as theatre, dance, or play, which developed in a different cultural context. Today, the word nōgaku 能楽 refers to two “twin arts”: nō 能, based on chant and dance, and kyōgen 狂言, its comedic counterpart, based on dialogue. Despite its many writing and performance rules and restrictions, which have been transmitted since the 14th century, the diversity of the plays in the current repertoire (around 240 plays) makes it difficult to conceive of a single all-encompassing definition. Nō is minimal and at the same time impressionistic. In a nō play, time and space are fluid: memory emerges as reality, and the past slips into the present.
Nōgaku has been transmitted uninterruptedly for over 650 years. It emerged in the 14th century as the combination of various pre-existing arts. Playwright and performer Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) perfected the art, combining chanted poetry, dance, and mimetic acting techniques. The patronage of nōgaku by aristocrats began in Zeami’s time. From the early 17th century, nōgaku became the official art of the military government, undergoing a phase of canonization of the repertory and of performance techniques that have lasted up to 250 years. With the modernization of Japan in the late 19th century, nōgaku lost its aristocratic patronage and gained new sponsors from the new bourgeoisie. After the Second World War, nō troupes started performing abroad and interacting with performers of other arts.
Nō challenges genre categorization. Nō can be defined as “theatre” as its plays develop out of texts and feature characters who act within a defined narrative. However, many nō plays do not portray actions structured in logical cause-consequence order. Rather than staging a story, they depict a feeling. Rather than portraying chains of subordinated events, they appear as coordinations or associations of images. While these plays center on a single happening, others may portray various events happening in the span of several years. Moreover, large portions of nō plays are dedicated to re-telling a past story, often fusing narration of events with descriptions of a location, a character, or a state of mind.
Text is either recited or sung, never spoken. Performers interpret the small number of characters, exchanging lines or singing solo. In addition, a chorus sings lines that could be attributed to a character or could complement the narration, or comment on it. A small ensemble of instruments plays live on stage during most of the staging, sometimes becoming the main element of the performance. All that happens onstage is minutely choreographed. Performers embody characters that are enacted through extremely precise choreographies. Their gestures are timed to the lyrics, enhancing the images evoked by text and chant with kinetic depiction ranging from abstract to mimetic. A performer not only interprets a single character interacting with others, but can physically express anything that is described through song or recitation; for example, the performer may gesture to indicate a flock of birds crossing the evening sky, the battle cries of a ghost army, the delicate fragrance of plum blossoms, or the dark depth of the sea. Gestures also depict abstract ideas or feelings, such as the realization that past happiness will not return, resentment toward an unfaithful lover, or joy in reaching enlightenment. However, at the peak of emotion, gestures are released from words and become pure dance and music.
The stage is a raised square wooden platform with pillars at the corners holding up a heavy roof. It is connected to the backstage area with a passageway lined with three small pine trees. At the rear of the main stage is a large permanent painting of a pine tree, the only backdrop for the performance. Finally, one of the most striking features of nō is the richness of nō costumes and masks set against the minimal background. A typical nō play features only a few actors draped in lavish costumes. Some of them wear refined masks capable of producing a wide range of subtle expressions. Masks and costumes express the identity of a character.