A scene from the play ‘Aoi no Ue’
As one of the highlight events of the Japan-India Friendship
Year 2007, the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation
New Delhi, in association with the National School of Drama
and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, presented a
performance of Noh, one of the major traditional masked
theatres of Japan, by Japan’s Living National Treasure, Grand
Master Kiyokazu Kanze of the Kanze School of Noh, on the 3rd
of March 2007, at Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi.
Noh, the world’s oldest extant professional theatre, was
created in the Muromachi period by the father and son team of
Kan’ami (1332-1384) and Zeami (1363-1443). Zeami wrote
many plays, some of which are performed even today. He also
wrote many works which explain the aesthetic principles
governing Noh and gave details as to how the art should be
composed, acted, directed, taught and produced.
The masks and costumes used in Noh plays are several
hundred year old and Noh players in their artistic costumes
always try to create a stage filled with magnificent physical and
spiritual atmosphere. The efforts to create such an atmosphere
are compared to the process of the blooming of “a flower” as
termed by Zeami. The essence of the efforts has been passed on
to successive generations by Kan’ami and Zeami, and at
present, it is Kiyokazu Kanze (26th generation), who has been
honoured with the title of a Living National Treasure by the
Japanese Government.
Grand Master Kanze was born in 1959 and has acted in over
200 plays until now. The Kanze School of Noh has given
performances at many famous/historic cities in Japan and
abroad, including a performance at the last year’s mega event
‘Aichi Expo’. Grand Master Kiyokazu Kanze, together with
Grand Master Motomasa Kanze (25th generation) also performed
Noh at the opening ceremony of the ‘Japan Month’ in
1987, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The Program on 3rd March 2007 at the Siri Fort Auditorium
consisted of three short plays:
The first piece, Hagoromo (The Feather Robe) was based on
the Hagoromo Legend, according to which, one spring morning, a fisherman comes to the pine grove at Miho, a sandbar
jutting into Suruga Bay. He hears lovely music and smells
perfume in the air. He then finds a robe of feathers (hagoromo) hanging from the branch of a nearby pine tree. About to return
home with the robe, he is stopped by the sorrowful voice of a
heavenly being who laments that she has lost her feathered
costume. Overcome with remorse, the fisherman returns the
robe. In gratitude, the spirit dances and rising upward into the
sky, disappears in the morning mist.
The second play was Shimizu (A Demon for Better Working
Conditions). In this story, a master calls his assistant and orders
him to go to Shimizu to draw water in a special pail, which he
values very highly, for tea. Reluctant to do such an errand, the
assistant puts on a mask, dresses up like a demon and goes to
his master to demand better working conditions for his staff.
But the master discovers his trickery and sends him packing.
The final performance was Aoi no Ue (Lady Aoi), based on
the Tale of Genji, the long novel written by Murasaki Shikibu (980 – 1014), who was a court-lady. Lady Aoi, wife of Prince
Genji, has a mysterious illness, so a medium is summoned. As
she begins to divine the source of illness by plucking her
catalpa bow, the ghost of Genji’s former love, Lady Rokujo,
appears. The ghost bewails the loss of Genji’s love and attacks
his stricken wife. A Buddhist mountain ascetic priest is sent for
and struggles with the enraged ghost, which later takes the form
of a female demon. The ghost fades away as the prayers of the
priest begin to take effect.
All the plays were performed to the accompaniment of
music played on Japanese musical instruments, Nohkan (flute),
Kotsuzumi (small drum), Otsuzumi (drum) and Taiko (big
drum), and the magnificent dresses and masks created the
perfect atmosphere for the plays. In between the three plays,
there were comic interludes called Kyogen, which are an
integral part of a Noh performance.
The auditorium was packed to capacity and the Noh performance
evoked warm appreciation from the audience.
Grand Master Kanze performing in ‘Hagoromo’
