JAPANESE DRAMA
PUPPET THEATRE - Bunraku
In the 16th and early 17th centuries two new
popular forms appeared; they were the puppet theater, jôruri, also
called bunraku, and a form known as kabuki. The puppet theater combines
three elements: the puppets; the chanters who sing and speak for the puppets;
and the players of a three-stringed instrument, who provide the musial
accompaniment.The puppet theater is less popular than the kabuki .
The puppets are one-half to full life-size. Each
major character is worked by three puppeteers, who appear on stage in full
view of the audience. The main puppeteer generally appears without a mask,
while the others are "invisible" in black hoods. The main puppeteer works
the eyelids, eyeballs, eyebrows, mouth, and the right arm. A first assistant
operates the left arm only, and a second assistant the legs.
Puppet heads and costumes represent character types
rather than individual characters.
Sitting to the right of the stage on a slightly
elevated platform are a chanter (tayu) who is the voice of all the puppets
- men, women, and children - and a shamisen(3stringed instrument) player,
who provides music for the drama. The art of bunraku is in achieving perfect
timing of these three elements - puppets, chanter and shamisen - for intense
dramatic effect. There is much to interest the audience in a bunraku play
- not just the action on stage, but also the masterful performances of
the chanter and the shamisen player.
KABUKI THEATRE
Kabuki is the most popular form of traditional Japanese
theater. It began in the early 1600s when a young woman named Okuni
organized a group of dancers to perform outdoors in the city of Kyoto.
Their performances combined parts of Noh plays and the latests songs
and dances. They attracted large crowds. Kabuki tends to be spectacle rather
than drama, with its brightly colored sets, exaggerated acting, and lively
and emotional music and dance. Kabuki plays are performed in large theaters,
with a hanamichi, or raised platform, extending from the back of the theater
to the stage.
A kabuki play opens to the rapid clapping of wooden
clappers as the stage curtain, in black, green, and persimmon vertical
stripes, is drawn open. Plays are performed using a combination of
dialogue and dance, and accompanied by drums, flutes, stringed instuments,
and chanting. The kind of musical accompaniment changes according to the
play.
The actors wear dramatic costumes, whose style depends
on the type of play - historical play (jidaimono), or the dramatization
of a topical event (sewamono).
No women take part in traditional kabuki. Women
were banned at an early stage of kabuki's development because an important
side business of the women's kabuki troupes was prostitution, so men assumed
the female roles. Acting the part of a female (onnagata) required years
of training. Kabuki plays involve revenge and justice, the temporary
nature of all things, family honor, and the conflict between love and duty
.
Kabuki began in the early 17th century and became
most popular in the late 17th century . Half the plays performed today
are versions of plays for the puppet(bunraku) theater.
Kabuki is mainly carried on by families of actors,
but the National Theater in Tokyo also has a school for training young
performers . There is a new generation of actors attempting to update plays
and to attract modern audiences with exciting stage techniques.
The average length of a performance is five hours,
including intermissions. The larger theaters such as the Kabukiza and National
Theater in Tokyo provide earphone guides in English.
KABUKI PICTURES
Click on the picture to see it larger
NOH THEATRE
Inspired by Zen Buddhism, perhaps a Buddhist priest,
the Japanese noh theater dates from the 14th century and has remained virtually
unchanged since then.There are about 260 noh plays dating from the 15th
century. It is a blend of drama, dance, music, mime, and poetry. The stories
are for and about the upper classes of Japanese society.Noh drama uses
music and dance, subjects, settings, costumes, and acting styles,
with little desire for realism. The number and type of plays are
often many centuries old and include solemn dances intended to suggest
the deepest emotions of the main character and written in poetic
language .
An entire program of noh drama usually has five plays including those
in poetry with music and comedies in everyday language without music.In
the comedies the actors wear neither masks nor makeup.Many of the comedies
poke good-humored fun at samurai lords. Noh plays concern the worlds of
the living and the dead. The principal types of noh plays are those dealing
with gods, the ghosts of warriors, women with tragic destinies, mad persons,
and devils or festive spirits. The actors, who often wear masks, are richly
and elaborately costumed.
The noh drama is performed in a theater with a roofed stage. The
noh stage is a wooden structure; the roof is a Shinto shrine-style curved
roof covered in cypress bark tiles. The actors reach the stage by a passageway,
called the bridge, which is marked by three pine trees. The only backdrop
is a large painted pine. There is no stage curtain.The audience is seated
on two or, sometimes, three sides of the stage. The scenery consists
entirely of outlines of a objects such as a building, a boat, or any other
object of importance to the play. Onto this undecorated stage come
the musicians (three or four players of drums and flutes) who seat themselves
on stools at the rear of the stage. They are followed by a chorus of six
to eight chanters who sit at the right of the stage. They recite for the
actors when they dance. Music, vocals, and action are combined
in these productions. For example, the groans or grunts made by the drummers
serve to mark time as well as to create a mood or atmosphere for the play.Stage
properties and movements are minimal. A few steps may indicate a journey
of a hundred miles; a folding fan may symbolize anything from a dagger
to the moon. Noh is based on Zen ideas of restraint and the idea that simpler
is better and a mysterious expression of beauty
"Zo"
is the mask of a beautiful young woman
whose teeth are stained black,
eyebrows plucked and redrawn high up the forehead
"Kantan-Otoko"
is a main character in a play named for him
"Fukai"
is a middle aged woman
"Kokoshiki"
is a mask used in a dance celebrating successful harvests
"Kojo"
is the mask of an old man who is noble and godlike
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Only male actors perform in noh dramas. When they play the roles of women
or of men whose age is greatly different from their own, they wear masks,
many of which are exceptionally beautiful. There are generally no more
than two or three actors in an entire noh play. First the supporting actor
(waki) - often a priest - enters and explains the circumstances that have
brought him to this place. Then the curtain at the end of the long passageway
is lifted inwards on bamboo poles and the principal actor (shite) enters
to the sound of drums and flutes. Robed in a beautiful costume and usually
wearing a mask, he enters and tells the priest his story.
The
main character may be a man or woman, human or superhuman, alive or dead,
but the most common plot is for the character to seek help from the priest
to be freed of his or her karma (cycle of birth/death/rebirth). The character
may be a woman who died in the midst of unreturned love, or a warrior who
died too young. In most cases the main character is tormented by his or
her desire to return to the physical world. The priest helps to free the
being, and it returns into the darkness. Rather than seeking to entertain,
the significance of a noh play is that it helps the audience to accept
life and death.
Full programs of 5 plays are seldom presented any
longer, but the comedies continues to be an important part of the entire
performance, for they present the funnier parts of life while noh presents
the serious parts.
The Kyogen (Noh comedy) Play Busu
In their master's absence, the comical characters Taro-kaja
and Jiro-kaja devour a delicacy that they have found out is sugar, although
their master, to prevent them from eating it, had told them it was a poison
known as busu. They then deliberately break a household treasure belonging
to their master, and when he returns they explain that they ate the busu
intending to die in order to pay for what they had done.
This scene shows them eating the sugar.
In this scene, they are destroying their master's household treasure.
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"When a Noh player puts on a mask, he does so with
reverence,something like prayer. Preparing to perform on stage requires
intense spiritual concentration, because I must assume the personality
of the character represented by the mask." Kanze Kiyokazu,
plays leading roles in classical Noh dramas . He is the 26th grand masterof
the Kanze school of Noh, a classical theatrical form more than 600 years
old."When I'm on stage in front of a young or foreigner audience, my aim
is to create the best possible dramatic experience for them, showing them
the true essence of Noh. That is why we try out new ideas, like explaining
the dialogue through earphones. If we don't experiment with new ways ,
we'll never attract larger audiences." I have to give my whole self to
the role, questioning myself constantly. The more I strive to preserve
tradition, the more I feel a force within me, trying to go beyond traditional
form. From this inner struggle comes my creativity on stage." "Each Noh
drama takes up a theme -love,passion, or anguish in war. Of course, these
themes are common to mankind, so the feelings brought out in Noh drama
are very much alive for audiences today."
The themes of noh are generally Buddhist, and the
main message is that man should not become attached to the world, for it
is a world of illusion.
The
main character may be a man or woman, human or superhuman, alive or dead,
but the most common plot is for the character to seek help from the priest
to be freed of his or her karma (cycle of birth/death/rebirth). The character
may be a woman who died in the midst of unreturned love, or a warrior who
died too young. In most cases the main character is tormented by his or
her desire to return to the physical world. The priest helps to free the
being, and it returns into the darkness. Rather than seeking to entertain,
the significance of a noh play is that it helps the audience to accept
life and death.
