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Zeami on Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Tatsuro Ishii
Tatsuro Ishii
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of English at Keio University, Japan.
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Extract

Since the survival of Noh theatre at the time of Zeami (1363–1443) and Kanami depended entirely upon the support of its audience, which consisted mainly of laymen, warriors and nobles, it was essential that each presentation had its own unique beauty and power enabling each performance to become an unrepeatable idiosyncratic event. In particular, Zeami demands that each performance will attain the goals of hana (the flower, i.e. a strangeness and novelty in beauty that will attract the audience) and yūgen (a mystic quality of beauty and elegance) on stage. In order to achieve these goals, he provides us with a great deal of suggestive and analytical ideas from various points of view, ranging from precise technical comments to pure metaphysical concepts.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1983 , pp. 190 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1983

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References

Notes

1. Seami Jūroku Bushu, I. Kadensho, tr. Shidehara, Michitaro and Whitehouse, Wilfrid, Monumenta Nipponica, V, 1942, Sophia University, Tokyo, pp. 499–500.Google Scholar

2. Seami, p. 478.Google Scholar

3. The Nātyaśāstra, Vol. I, tr. Ghosh, Manomohan, Granthalaya Private Ltd., Calcutta, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

4. The Nātyaśāstra, pp. 105–6.Google Scholar

5. Seami, p. 476.Google Scholar

6. Seami, p. 556.Google Scholar

7. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. I, comp. Tsunoda, Ryosaku and Keene, Donald, p. 295, Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar