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Exhibition: Miracles And Mischief: Noh And Kyogen Theatre In Japan
by:
Sharon Sadako Takeda
Noh is Japan's oldest continuing professional theatre. A form of musical dance-drama originating in the fourteenth century, noh evolved out of street entertainment, seasonal agricultural festivals, and religious rituals.
With aristocratic patronage and the rise of powerful military-elite sponsorship in the Muromachi period (1392-1568), noh developed into a highly sophisticated art form. Silk garments were lavished upon actors, and talented artisans carved captivating masks and lacquered musical instruments. Playwrights incorporated themes from classical poems and novels into a repertoire of stories based on folk tales and myths. Many of the narratives combined real time with remembered time or dream time. Actors performing in real time generally appear unmasked, while those who are either from the distant past or from the realm of the supernatural are typically masked.
Kyogen is a form of comedic drama that developed in tandem with noh, but its historical roots may go back further to the eighth century. While it is an independent theatrical form, kyogen is usually performed between two noh plays and is therefore often considered to be a part of noh in its broadest sense. In contrast with the masked noh drama, where music and dance form the basis of the performance, kyogen is primarily a theatre of speech and mime. While much of noh is about transcendence of the ordinary and evoking memories, kyogen deals with everyday life and is set in the here and timeless now. The farces are filled with humour, providing the perfect antidote to the solemn elegance of noh.
In the exhibition Miracles and Mischief: Noh and Kyogen Theatre in Japan, on view until 2 February 2003 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), more than 200 objects representing six centuries of traditional art forms from the world of noh and kyogen are featured. Organised by LACMA and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, a majority of the art was gathered from some of the most important museum, shrine, temple, theatre, and daimyo collections in Japan.
More than 100 fascinating costumes in the exhibition represent the variety of forms used in noh and kyogen repertories. Two main categories of costumes differentiated by tailoring are introduced: osode, outer garments with broad sleeves with large wrist openings, and kosode, kimono-style robes with sleeves that have small wrist openings.
Outstanding examples of osode include Kariginu with Herons and Reeds from Neo Kasuga Shrine in Gifu Prefecture for noh and Suo with Pine, Bamboo Curtains, Plum Blossoms, Poem Cards, Roundels, and Seashore Landscape Picture Cards belonging to the Hayashibara Museum of Art in Okayama Prefecture for kyogen.
Kosode-style noh robes are organised according to decorative technique. Those made from soft, pliant textiles are usually worn as undergarments. The surihaku are decorated with stencilled patterns of metallic leaf, such as the Surihaku with picture cards and grapevines and Nuihaku with lilies and oxcarts, embellished with silk embroidery and metallic leaf. Both robes belong to the Tokyo National Museum. Another type of kosode-style robe is the noshime, a plain-weave silk of solid colours or bands of colours like Noshime with horizontal bands belonging to Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Woven pictorial weft patterning kosode-style robes (karaori, atsuita, and atsuita-karaori) are distinguished from each other by ground-weave structure, design, and use. LACMA's recently acquired eighteenth century Karaori with snow-laden camellias and genji clouds, made of twill-weave silk with silk and gold-leaf paper supplementary weft patterning, would have been an appropriate robe for an actor playing a young woman's role. An illustration of a karaori with the same design motifs can be found in a volume of Ken'eiro gaso, a set of Edo-period (1615-1868) pattern books belonging to the Tokyo National Museum.
Noh costumes had come to be made from luxurious and expensive textiles as a result of a long tradition in Japan of presenting cloth and clothing as tribute. An unusual custom that had audience members spontaneously tossing garments onto the stage to actors out of admiration or as a reward for an excellent performance began as early as the late Heian period (794-1185) and reached tremendous proportions in the noh's classical period. One fifteenth century document notes that, over the course of three days of outdoor performances along the Tadasu River in Kyoto, enthusiastic audience members stripped off more than 200 pieces of clothing and bestowed them on the actors. As powerful feudal lords, or daimyo, came into power and began to patronise actors and troupes, they lavished the actors with gifts, including imported exotic textiles and costumes. In this way a variety of clothing, from simple hemp garments to elegant silk robes, fell into the hands of performers.
The history of kyogen costume parallels the development of the relationship between noh and kyogen. In earlier times the comic actor, like the noh actor, typically dressed for the stage in street clothes rather than formal costumes. Costumes made specifically for kyogen did not emerge until early in the Edo period (1615-1868), and even then they were probably very much like everyday wear of the period. In the seventeenth century kyogen actors formed schools, recorded their texts, and formalised their acting technique. It evolved from a theatre of improvisation into a self-conscious acting form. The formalisation of kyogen theatre as a whole was accompanied by the development of distinctive costume forms, textiles, and patterns. Kyogen costumes are made primarily of plain-weave hemp fabric and decorated with paste-resist dyeing techniques. The charm of kyogen costume ultimately lies in the kataginu vest with its typically large and whimsical motifs of radishes, rabbits, insects, household tools, and other everyday objects.
In addition to costumes, Miracles and Mischief includes more than 30 masks dating from the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries. The masks represent those worn for male and female roles, including the 1369 Jo (old man) mask, an Important Cultural Property on loan from Nagataki Hakusan Shrine, and the sixteenth century Omi-onna mask from the Tokyo National Museum.
The carved wooden masks worn on the noh stage evolved from earlier forms of Japanese masks - prehistoric shell, clay, or cloth masks that were probably created for magical, spiritual purposes - to masks made of wood for ceremonial dance and religious rituals. In the oldest noh masks an unfinished simplicity and strength are combined in a way that projects a primitive folk energy. The mature form of noh masks developed out of this older form, transcending aristocratic refinement and incorporating both dramatic and dance aspects, embodying a delicate harmony of the realistic and the abstract. Animated by the actor's subtle, stylised, and highly controlled movements, masks and costumes help transport the audience to an illusionary world that transcends time and space.
Many traditional arts come together to give form to noh and kyogen. The play texts draw on classical literature and influence subsequent theatrical and literary forms such as kabuki. The costumes evolved from aristocratic, samurai, and commoner clothing and preserve colours, motifs, weaving techniques, and tailoring styles from previous centuries. Masks belong to a long tradition of festivals, rituals, and drama but must be studied within the larger context of Japanese sculpture. Production of musical instruments combines the talents of bamboo, wood, lacquer, and leather artisans. Although the styles and method of playing the flute and drums is particular to noh, the combination of these instruments is fundamental to many Japanese performing arts. Each of these traditional art forms contributes to the creation of the world that is noh and kyogen. |
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