Theatre Noh from Japan
performs Kayoi Komachi and Atsumori
(Mahayna Buddhism)
Noh drama is the oldest surviving form of Japanese theater. It is considered the essence of Japanese art and the heart of Japanese culture. According to Motokiyo Zeami, a 14th-century Noh performer, reformer and theoretician, Noh has several roots including Chinese court dance, traveling shows, Kowaka (Samurai danced story-telling) and Shinto Kagura. Through Zeami’s efforts and the influence of the court life of Shogun Yoshimitsu, Noh took on a distinct Buddhist metaphysic and incorporated Japanese poetry and other forms of aesthetic.
Through music, dance and acting, Noh communicates Buddhist themes through a retelling of famous scenes from literature or Buddhist stories. The Buddhism of Noh is Mahayana Buddhism, a salvationist Buddhism with strong belief in Amida Buddha. Noh itself admits elements of Shinto, Zen and esoteric Buddhism as well. The goal of a Noh performance is the experience of “hana”, or flower, which is an aesthetic name for the Buddhist experience of emptiness created through the integrated arts. Most Noh dramas today are austere yet atmospheric performances.
The Many Faces of Buddhism brought one of Japan’s finest Noh actors, Shizuka Mikata of Kyoto, and his 16-member Theatre Noh, to perform two plays. Theatre Noh is an ensemble of main actors, secondary actors, musicians, a chorus and comics. The ensemble is led by Shizuka Mikata, heir to a hereditary line of Buddhist priests who became Noh actors. He is trained as a live-in disciple of Kanze Kuroemon, head of the Kanze School of Noh and lineage holder of an unbroken transmission of Noh actors dating to the14th century, and successor of Zeami.
Atsumori is the tale of a young warrior defeated by a great samurai, who in turn so loathes his duty of honor to slay the youth that he dedicates the rest of his life to becoming a monk and praying for the boy’s soul. In this play, the samurai-turned-monk encounters the ghost of Atsumori.
