Art and Religious Practice in the Noh Theater

The Noh theater is an art form that started in approximately 1375, based in Buddhism during the Medieval period in Japan. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had been the shogun during this time that enjoyed the art form and promoted it. Kanami Kiyotsugu and his son Zeami Motokiyo are the original performers of the first Noh plays. Kanami and Zeami created many of the plays.

Zeami wrote a paper on the qualities required of actors that is used today and is considered a treatise on Buddhism during his time by scholars. However, there is debate as to exactly how Buddhism is shown through this vehicle. The theater is likened to Shakespeare. Although, there are ten times more Noh plays then there are Shakespearean plays. The actors in the Noh theater use masks that give the appearance of a change in expression as the angle is tilted.

These masks are used by the main character and his companions unless the main character is an adult male. Young boy actors and secondary actors do not use masks. There is a chorus of eight to twelve people in two rows that chant, narrate the story and say the lines of the main character during their dance parts. There is a group of musicians that perform the music and the eerie sounds.

The stage is open on three sides and set in the outdoors. There is a pine tree in the background and three pine trees on the steps up to the stage from the right. A fan is one of only a few props that are used. Only men played the parts until recently in the nineteenth century. Now, females play roles.

The costumes and masks are from the the Muromachi period. The lines spoken are in the language of the upper classes during that time. The plays typically are set to look back to the Heian period. Dancing is in a Noh style considered slow by ballet standards and having less importance on the leg movements as the actors are in robe type costumes that cover their legs. This form of theater based in Buddhism began two hundred years before Shakespeare, has lasted 600 years and is still played now to a large audience (*2.Noh theater).

Buddhism's concepts on reincarnation, karma, transmigration consequences and a form of salvation are portrayed through the Noh structure and the plays themselves. The plays start in the morning on dramas between the Gods and go down the hierarchy of beings in Buddhism until the end of the day. In between plays there are playful, comedy skits. At the end of the day, there is a play on beings in Hell. There is a difference in conflict resolution in Noh plays compared to Western style plays in that the conflict in a Noh play is based on the tension between differing beliefs rather than conflicts in life situations between the characters themselves in the play.

The plays begin by having the narrator recite the person the main character use to be in a previous life and the reason that the main character is going to experience reincarnation into a different status than before. This story line is depicted in the play in a conflict creating manner showing the goodness of the character and the circumstances involved in the decisions they made towards the immoral behavior that requires karmic judgment.

The conflict arises as the goodness in other contexts such as samurai honor codes or loyalty are pitted against Buddhist moral codes. The sense through the play's climax in the judgment of the character is a calmness and resolute manner, yugen. This feeling produces an understanding from the audience that although the character faced judgment for their behavior they gained a peace in their existence at the same time. This is a concept that is difficult to translate.

However, the plays implications through the day culminates in the characters in the middle hierarchy realizing that there is an interdependence, interconnectedness,and feeling of peace in being part of the rokudo despite downward reincarnations. In a sense, the characters are shown to have achieved nirvana during their changes through the rokudo. This is similar to the idea of playing through the rokudo by ludization of transmigration (*1.pp.49, 54, 56-8). A feeling of relief from the stress of karmic retribution is achieved through the underlying meanings in the play that show a basis in the concepts of salvation in the Mahayana school and other schools of Buddhist philosophy that have salvation messages.

This art form is an outgrowth of and part of Buddhist religious practice. The Noh plays use dancing that monks developed in monasteries. The story lines are based in Buddhist concepts. The plays depicting middle of the hierarchy characters start after a narration of the main character's previous reincarnation and future reincarnation to a lower status. The culmination of the sense of peace during reincarnation in the rokudo cycles is an aspect of achieving nirvana or a form of salvation that appears in the Mahayana school. The performances are likened to ritual or religious practice.

The characters and chorus chant lines through the plays as is believed in Buddhism to be a vehicle for attaining enlightenment and nirvana. In my opinion, they are a teaching tool, and a form of ministry in Buddhism to the populace that attend them. Like going to church and viewing a skit on proper Christian behavior or seeing a video about Christian living only more profound, the plays depict Buddhist life in the parameters of karmic judgment, the proper feelings and an achievement of peace. They continue to be performed in the period costumes, language, and settings of the fourteenth century that makes them a bit less salient for the current times. However, the human and middle hierarchy conflicts are still relevant to the human condition (*1.pp.116-132).
References
*1.LaFleur, William R. The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
(ISBN 0-520-05622-1).
*2.Noh Theater,http://www.artelino.com/aes/noh_theater.asp