Seeing Noh performance at Kongo Nohgakudo theater was one of the main highlights of my stay in Kyoto. Images above show the theater building and the stage. Photography during the performance was prohibited. Getting tickets was easy. The programme was in Japanese, so I asked the box office lady to write down the play name in romaji. This allowed me to google it. The name of the Noh play was Ataka, and to my surprise, I was familiar with the story and its background. The play was about one of the incidents in a tragic conflict between two brothers Yoshitsune and Yoritomo in the 12th century Japan. One thing about the performance surprised me. The part of Yoshitsune, a seasoned military commander and an accomplished swordsman, was played by a boy of about thirteen. I knew that Noh can be a bit abstract, but didn’t expect adult parts to be played by children. The Noh performance was preceded by a Kyogen skit titled Inaba-do, which was truly funny. I immensely enjoyed both Noh and Kyogen.
One evening the hotel where I stayed in Tokyo organised a Kamishibai performance. It was performed by two university students. I was really impressed with the show and could draw parallels between Kamishibai and other traditional performing arts. Instead of Kabuki’s actors and Bunraku’s puppets Kamishibai has a series of pictures displayed on a small stage. The sound effects are reduced to percussion of wooden clappers. However, the role of narrator/actor is as important as in Kabuki and Bunraku. They reduced everything to basics, but did not compromise on good storytelling!
P. S. For
stories on other Japanese performing arts see the following blog posts: Bunraku
(http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/bunraku.html),
Kabuki (http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/kabuki-za.html),
Noh and Kyogen (http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/noh-and-kyogen-at-kongo-nohgakudo.html).
Today I went to Kokufitsu Gekijo (National Theater of Japan, image above) to see a Bunraku performance. The name of the play was Daikyoji Mukashi Goyomi by Chikamatsu Mozaemon. I think, it is the bunraku play which features in Takeshi Kitano's film 'Dolls'. It is a very sad love story and some of people in the audience had tears in their eyes. The skill of the puppeteers was amazing, but the narrators were absolutely outstanding. Below are photographs of two scenes from the performance.
Today I went to see a hitomakumi (single show) at Kabuki-za, the largest Kabuki theater in Japan (image above). The hitomakumi consisted of two short plays. The first one is a dance drama called Tsumeo (top image below) and the second is a drama called Shunkan (bottom image below). Splendid costumes, outstanding performances by actors, narrators, musicians and singers. You don’t have to know Kabuki well to enjoy it. It reminded me of classical Indian dance, ballet, theatric drama and opera at the same time.
