34 - Noh drama

Summary

This chapter focuses on the scripted elements of the noh plays. The plays of the time of the noted playwright Zeami and his pupils were more constrained in structure. The Okina sarugaku performance tradition shares some elements with that of noh plays, but there are fundamental differences between the two, for example in the structure of their masks and conventions of costume and dance. Sotoba Komachi and Jinen Koji by Kanami and Ukai by Saemon Goro of the Enami troupe may be taken as representative of the Heian period. Zeami's importance in the tradition of noh plays derives not so much from his fame as an actor in his lifetime, but rather from the fact that his style of play came to dominate the later repertoire. The content of his plays reflected the passion of Kyoto high society for the classical literature of the Heian court and the Heike monogatari.