Eastern Theater Essay

Noh and Kyogen The earliest existing Kyogen scripts date from the 14th century. Kyogen was used as an intermission between Noh acts — it linked the theme of the Noh play with the modern world by means of farce and slapstick. The Noh was only performed to the high level class. Unlike Noh, the performers of Kyogen do not wear masks, unless their role calls for physical transformation. Both men and women were allowed to perform Kyogen until 1450. Kabuki The best known form of Japanese theatre is Kabuki. It was performed by Okunis. Perhaps its fame comes from the wild costumes and swordfights, which used real swords until the 1680s. Kabuki grew out of opposition to Noh — they wanted to shock the audience with more lively and timely stories. The first performance was in 1603. Like Noh, however, over time Kabuki became not just performing in a new way, but a stylized art to be performed only a certain way. As a matter of interest, the popular Gekidan Shinkansen, a theatrical troupe based in Tokyo today, insists it follows pure kabuki tradition by performing historical roles in a modern, noisy, and outlandish way — to shock the audience as kabuki intended, if you will. Whether or not they are kabuki, however, remains a matter of debate and personal opinion. Kabuki is a type of theatre that combines music, drama, and dance. Bunraku Puppets and Bunraku were used in Japanese theatre as early as the noh plays. Medieval records record the use of puppets actually in Noh plays. Puppets are 3- to 4-foot-tall (0.91 to 1.2 m) dolls that are manipulated by puppeteers in full view of the audience. The puppeteers controlling the legs and hands are dressed entirely in black, while the head puppeteer is wearing colorful clothing. Music and chanting is a popular convention of bunraku, and the shamisen player is usually considered to be the leader of the production. Modern theatre Japanese modern drama in the early 20th century, the 1910s, consisted of Shingeki (experimental Western-style theater), which employed naturalistic acting and contemporary themes in contrast to the stylized conventions of Kabuki and Noh. HÃ… getsu Shimamura and Kaoru Osanai were two figures influential in the development of shingeki. In the postwar period, there was a phenomenal growth in creative new dramatic works, which introduced fresh aesthetic concepts that revolutionized the orthodox modern theater. Challenging the realistic, psychological drama focused on â€Å"tragic historical progress† of the Western-derived shingeki, young playwrights broke with such accepted tenets as conventional stage space, placing their action in tents, streets, and open areas and, at the extreme, in scenes played out all over Tokyo. Plots became increasingly complex, with play-within-a-play sequences, moving rapidly back and forth in time, and intermingling reality with fantasy. Dramatic structure was fragmented, with the focus on the performer, who often used a variety of masks to reflect different personae. Playwrights returned to common stage devices perfected in Noh and Kabuki to project their ideas, such as employing a narrator, who could also use English for international audiences. Major playwrights in the 1980s were Kara Juro, Shimizu Kunio, and Betsuyaku Minoru, all closely connected to specific companies. In contrast, the fiercely independentMurai Shimako won awards throughout the world for her numerous works focusing on the Hiroshima bombing. ELEMENTS The Musician’s Stage (Yuka)This is the auxiliary stage upon which the gidayu-bushi is performed. It thrusts out into the audience area at the front right portion of the seats. Upon this auxiliary stage there is a special revolving platform. It is upon this revolving platform that the chanter and the shamisen player make their appearance, and, when they are finished, it turns once more, bringing them backstage and placing the next performers on the stage. The Partitions (Tesuri) and the Pit (Funazoko)Between extreme upstage and extreme downstage, there are three stage partitions, known as â€Å"railings† (tesuri). The area behind the second partition is called the pit (funazoko;lit., â€Å"ship bottom†), and it is where the manipulators stand. It is one step lower than the main stage. When the puppets move, their feet move along the railings, making it look as though they are actually walking upon the ground. The building (yatai) or painted backdrop (kakiwari) is attached to the partition farthest from the audience (main railing). Training to become a puppeteer begins with the feet, and then the left hand, and finally proceeds to the head and right hand. Such a long period of study was required those in olden times, it was said: â€Å"Ten years for the feet, ten years for the left.† In order to help the left-hand puppeteer maintain a more comfortable position, the head puppeteer wears some special footwear known as â€Å"stage clogs† or â€Å"elevated clogs.† A large doll can be as much as 1 m 50 cm tall, while a smaller one is about 1 m 30 cm, so the height of the elevated clogs to be used can vary from 20 cm to 50 cm, depending upon such conditions as the size of the doll. The heads of the dolls are carved of wood and are hollow, and they are placed atop a special head-grip stick (dogushi), which is placed through a hole in the shoulder board; it is with this stick that the main puppeteer manipulates the doll. There are lengths of fabric draped both in front of and in back of the shoulde r board, and they are attached to bamboo hoops. The puppet’s costumes consist of an under robe (juban), an inner kimono (kitsuke), an outer jacket (haori) or outer robe (uchikake), the collar (eri), and the belt-like sash (obi). In order to give the dolls’ bodies the sensation of softness, the robes are lightly stuffed with cotton. Further, there is a hole in the back of the robes to allow the puppeteer to manipulate the dolls. For each performance, the costume masters choose costumes out of many of the same types of robes of different colors and patterns, deciding which robes to use with which puppet. The complete set of robes that they have chosen is then sent to the puppeteers. The puppeteers then take part in what is called koshirae, or the dressing of the doll. Because they are used on the stage, the robes’ lose their bright colors, they become soiled, and in places they are even worn out. Therefore, they are in constant need of maintenance and repair. Furthermore, preparing new sets of costumes for the characters in a new play is another important task of the costume masters. The Nobori-hige mask is worn by the Ai-kyogen in a Noh drama in which he plays the role of the god of a subsidiary shrine. The smiling expression of its open, toothless mouth gives a better hint of human goodness than of sacredness. The Oto mask is often used to portray ugly women, but it is also used by characters who disguise themselves as the deity Jizo. The Buaku mask is like a Kyogen version of the Noh Beshimi, and although it is a demon mask, its humorous expression is not frightening. TheKentoku mask is used for the spirits of non-human beings, such as horses, cows, dogs, and crabs. TheUsofuki mask looks like it is whistling, and is used for the spirits of mosquitoes and mushrooms. TheKitsune mask is used for the old fox in Fox Trapping, the highest-ranking Kyogen play. In the Edo period, it seems that there were many realistic animal masks use, but today only the fox (Kitsune), monkey (Saru), and badger (Tanuki) remain. The daimyo (feudal lords) that appear in Kyogen usually wear a dan-noshime as an under robe, a suosuit as trousers and vest / jacket, and a special cap (hora-eboshi). Taro Kaja, who might be said to be representative of Kyogen, usually wears a stripednoshime as an under robe, a kataginu as a kind of vest / jacket, and a pair of han-bakama (shorthakama) as trousers. One special characteristic of akataginu is that it is usually decorated with a free design of an animal, plant, or utensil that graphically depicts some theme from the character’s daily life. On the half-hakama as well, pestles, sailboats, and giant radishes are often dyed in circular motifs, and on characters such as travelers, warrior priests, con-men, salesmen, and the spirits of plants or animals,kyakuhan (loose trousers that are tight fitting on the lower leg) are used, in order to indicate that they are very active. Almost all female characters wearnuihaku as under robes, and a special hat calledbinan-boshi. This is actually a 5-meter piece of white linen that is wrapped around the head, in such a way that long sections fall from the head down, like braids; the ends of these sections are tucked into the waist band. Unlike the white tabi (split-toed socks) worn by Noh actors, all Kyogen actors, even those taking the part of the ai-kyogen in a Noh play, wear yellow or brown tabi. The heads (kashira) of the Bunraku puppets are divided into male and female, and then classified into categories according to the age, rank (social class), and distinguishing personality traits of the role they portray, and all of them have special names reflecting their special characteristics. If the play is different but the type of character is the same, the same head might be used for different characters in different plays. Sometimes, in order to match the character more closely, they are even repainted to give the right skin tone, or the wig might be changed, as the heads as used for one role after another. The wigs in Bunraku as called kazura, and there are a number of fundamental styles, depending upon the type of character being portrayed. It is the job of the wig masters (called tokoyama), to sew and create an appropriate hairstyle (keppatsu) for every role, based upon these fundamental styles. Also, the tokoyama does not just style the wigs; he also makes them by attaching hair to copper plates. The type of hair used is mostly human hair, but sometimes, in order to create the illusion of volume, the hair of a yak’s tail is also used. The finished wig is then carefully placed upon, and then securely attached to, the head. When creating a special hairstyle, no oil is used, in order to prevent soiling the face, so the styling must be done only with water and beeswax (bintsuke). The small hand props of Bunraku include things that are carried in the hand or attached to bodies, such as swords or handkerchief-like tenugui, as well as larger items such as chests of drawers or lighting fixtures. There are also a number of disposable items, such as letters that get torn up and thrown away, along with numerous others. All the hand props are small in size, in order to match the size of the puppets. Yet the types of fans used are the same size as those used by humans, which strangely enough does not seem to appear incongruous. The prop masters prepare all of the small props that are needed for each performance. THEMES 1. Classification by work content Jidaimono Jidaimono means the Kabuki works describing the world of samurai and kuge (court nobles) in periods earlier than the Edo period, including works such as â€Å"Kanadehon chushingura† based on incidents that occurred in the Edo period, but were rewritten as if they occurred before the Edo period. This alteration of historical era was made because the Tokugawa Shognate prohibited the dramatization of historical acts that occurred in and after the late Sengoku period (the age of civil wars in old Japan). Kabuki works based on stories from the Heian period or earlier are called Ochomono or Odaimono (tales of royalty/tales of the imperial era) . Sewamono are Kabuki works based on the lives of tradesmen in the Edo period. These were the modern plays of that era. Works focusing on the lives of common people of low social position are called Kizewa. The Kizewa works by Tsuruya Namboku 4th who was active in the Bunka/Bunsei period [1804 – 1830] are famous. Shosagoto means Buyo (Kabuki dance). At first, Shosagoto were considered to be the speciality of Onnagata, but from the latter half of the 18th century, tachiyaku also started to dance. Later, in the Bunka/Bunsei period, works called Hengebuyo (transformation dances) in which a single actor alone portrays multiple different characters became popular. Shosagoto can be classified by subject into groups of works such as Shishimono, Matsubamemono and Dojojimono. Gidayu-kyogen are also called Maruhonmono, meaning works which were initially performed in Ningyo-joruri (puppet play) and later dramatized for Kabuki. The story is advanced by the reciting of Takemoto (narrative recitation and music). Much of the action, production techniques and movements are stylized and are synchronized with the narration and musical accompaniment. References: http://www.arlymasks.com/japanese_history_timeline.htm http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/whats/stage.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/noh/en/kg_mask/kg_mask.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/operator.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/dolls/kashira.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/wig.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/cloth.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/prop.html http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/kabuki/en/5/5_03.html