Noh theater developed in the 14th century from earlier sarugaku performances through the work of Kan'ami and his son Zeami, who introduced new musical and dance elements and refined the aesthetic principles of noh, establishing it as a major theatrical form centered around ritualistic and symbolic dramas performed through highly stylized gestures and choreographed movement.

1. The Noh Theater
and its Gestures

2. Noh
In the early fourteenth century, acting troupes in a variety of centuries-
old theatrical traditions were touring and performing at temples,
shrines and festivals, often with the patronage of the nobility. The
performing genre called sarugaku was one of these traditions.
Photo: Yoshimasa Kanse dancing "Hagoromo" as a Shite (a leading
character of a Noh play)

3. ROOTS OF NOH
The roots of noh go back around 1,300
years, when a performing art called
sangaku was brought over from China.
It merged with Japanese comic theater
and became a new form of
entertainment called sarugaku about a
thousand years ago. Sarugaku featured
short dances and skits, consisting of
impersonations and plays on words.

4. Noh and Kyogen
• Noh, which in its broadest sense includes the
comic theater kyogen, developed as a
distinctive theatrical form in the fourteenth
century, making it the oldest extant
professional theater in the world.
• Although noh and kyogen developed together
and are inseparable, they are in many ways
exact opposites. Noh is fundamentally a
symbolic theater with primary importance
attached to ritual and suggestion in a rarefied
aesthetic atmosphere. In kyogen, on the
other hand, primary importance is attached to

5. Kan’ami
• Kan'ami (1333–1384) transformed
sarugaku into noh basically in the same
way as it is still performed today.
Kan'ami introduced the music and
dance elements of the popular
entertainment kuse-mai into sarugaku,
and he attracted the attention and
patronage of Muromachi shogun
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408).

6. Zeami
• (1363–1443)
• Son of Kan’ami
• Continued his father’s work

7. Zeami
• After Kan'ami's death, Zeami became head of
the Kanze troupe. The continued patronage
of Yoshimitsu gave him the chance to further
refine the noh aesthetic principles of:
monomane (the imitation of things) and
yugen, a Zen-influenced aesthetic ideal
emphasizing the suggestion of mystery and depth.
 In addition to writing some of the best-known
plays in the noh repertoire, Zeami wrote a
series of essays which defined the standards
for noh performance in the centuries that
followed.

8. Noh
In the early fourteenth century, acting troupes in a variety of centuries-
old theatrical traditions were touring and performing at temples,
shrines and festivals, often with the patronage of the nobility. The
performing genre called sarugaku was one of these traditions.
Photo: Yoshimasa Kanse dancing "Hagoromo" as a Shite (a leading
character of a Noh play)

9. ROOTS OF NOH
The roots of noh go back around 1,300
years, when a performing art called
sangaku was brought over from China.
It merged with Japanese comic theater
and became a new form of
entertainment called sarugaku about a
thousand years ago. Sarugaku featured
short dances and skits, consisting of
impersonations and plays on words.

10. Noh and Kyogen
• Noh, which in its broadest sense includes the
comic theater kyogen, developed as a
distinctive theatrical form in the fourteenth
century, making it the oldest extant
professional theater in the world.
• Although noh and kyogen developed together
and are inseparable, they are in many ways
exact opposites. Noh is fundamentally a
symbolic theater with primary importance
attached to ritual and suggestion in a rarefied
aesthetic atmosphere. In kyogen, on the
other hand, primary importance is attached to

11. Kan’ami
• Kan'ami (1333–1384) transformed
sarugaku into noh basically in the same
way as it is still performed today.
Kan'ami introduced the music and
dance elements of the popular
entertainment kuse-mai into sarugaku,
and he attracted the attention and
patronage of Muromachi shogun
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408).

12. Zeami
• (1363–1443)
• Son of Kan’ami
• Continued his father’s work

13. Zeami
• After Kan'ami's death, Zeami became head of
the Kanze troupe. The continued patronage
of Yoshimitsu gave him the chance to further
refine the noh aesthetic principles of:
monomane (the imitation of things) and
yugen, a Zen-influenced aesthetic ideal
emphasizing the suggestion of mystery and depth.
 In addition to writing some of the best-known
plays in the noh repertoire, Zeami wrote a
series of essays which defined the standards
for noh performance in the centuries that
followed.

14. • Muromachi period 1336-1568
• Nohgaku = Noh + Kyogen
= accomplished entertainment
• Vocal music = utai
• Instrumental music = hayashi (1 flute + 3
drums)
• Acting technique = kata (dance poses +
action)
• Dance elements = mai (dance + utai +
hayashi)
• Fine arts, crafts = masks, robes, instruments
• Architecture = Noh stage

15. • Art of time-space continuum,
perfection —> stylization/formalization
• Comparable to avant-garde music
including improvisation and chance
• Utai-bon (= chant book) contains
script, score, rules for performance
=> conductor superfluous
• Architectural space concept is
- modular
- universal/multi-purpose
• Negative space = ma = stillness/emptyness
before and after performance
• Positive space = stage properties and
dramatic activities
• These spaces are connected by time, no

16. Types of time and space:
• Condensed time
• Slippage of time
• Vanishing time
• Reversed time
• Split time
• Shift of space
• Oscillating space
• Floating space
• Expanding and contracting space
• Space that brings the audience „onstage―

17. Noh = experience, responsibility,
not appreciation!
Like tea ceremony,
unique in lifetime,
not reproducible!
There are no Noh stars...
„Never forget the beginner‘s mind!“
A Noh program lasts whole day
5 Noh plays + Kyogen are performed

18. There are five Noh principles:
1. Sancticity & magic
2. Stages of beauty
3. Actor and audience
4. Aesthetic of discord
5. Five element theory

19. 1. Sancticity & magic
Sancticity of space:
Space of „sacred dialog with the
gods“
Magic in technique (from mimes):
Acrobatics, mystical forces
will power, autosuggestion:
Merging self and other
mask + mirror
„...the mind‘s eye is opened and the soul grasped;
the true Noh, hithertoo invisible, comes alive...“

20. 2. Three stages of beauty
• Hana = appearant beauty: blossom/flower
• Yugen = invisible beauty: performed
sublimity
• Rojaku(old quiet) = quiet beauty

21. 3. Actor and audience
• Self and other, active fusion

22. 1.Curtain 2.Third Pine 3.Bridge 4.Second Pine 5.First Pine 6.Shite pillar
7.Eye-fixing pillar 8.Flute pillar 9.Waki pillar 10.Cut-through door
11.Back panel 12.Main Stage 13.Moat Steps 14.Pebble Moat 15.Side Stage
16.Rear Stage 17.Mirror Room

24. 4. Aesthetic of discord
• Odd number important in Japan; against
symmetry
• Center of shape ≠ center of space:
Dynamic balance
Jo-Ha-Kyu = most important aesthetic
principle:
Jo = „beginning― position = spatial element
Ha = „break/ruin― = destruction, disorder
Kyu = „rapid― speed, time element
Production principle for Noh program:
Everything is dominated by Jo-Ha-Kyu.

25. 5. Five element theory
(odd number!)
Elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water
~ 5 breaths, 5 tones, 5 organs, etc.
Five Noh play categories:
god, warrior, woman, madness, demon
Have two time categories:
present time
dream time
=> 10 categories in plays:
two time categories x five play categories

26. Masks:
woman demon mad god warrior
Clothes &
Craft:

27. demon god woman
warrior

28. Every Noh play is one cross section of The waki is a
the life of one person, the shite. kind of co-sub-
ject and mirror
The shite has an appearance (demon, etc.)
person to the
and subject = one of the five elements shite.

29. Instruments of hayashi

34. Utai‘s fushi units

35. kata: movement patterns

36. Why are gestures dominant in Noh?
Have three languages of human expression:
• Vocal
• Facial
• Gestural
• Facial is impossible because of masks
• Vocal is ambiguous in Japanese, bad for expressio
of will, reserved to lyrical evocation
Noh is dance drama, no opera or ballet
All characters are choreographed
All movements consist of
units of movement = kata (patterns)
chant unit = phrase (12-syllabe line)
music unit = melodic + rhythmic units
space unit = za (hierarchy of places!)

37. Noh gestures are reduced to unit patterns (kat
and made symbolic.
This enables much richer communication
to audience than by eveyday gestures.
Very important for us:
• „Shite waves a web of fantasy in curves.
• „Waki draws reality in straight lines.“

38. Classification of katas
Three types:
• Realistic, e.g., hold a book in your hand,
jump into bell
• Symbolic, e.g., weep = hand to face and
• Abstract, e.g., zig-zag = beginning of end of
many dances, or
extended fan
Three categories:
• Pure dance
• Descriptive
• Dramatic

39. Have the gliding walk,
transports characters horizontally through space
—> white socks!
One could understand Noh by observing feet!
Interesting performance
only in upper
half of body!

40. katachi = more than kata:
chi = deity, i.e., katachi = form/shape =
exterior form of kata +
characteristic usage
(mask, clothes, character)
Dance = „text― built from kata-units
by enchaînment
plus syntactical rules
mai = performed kata „text― plus music
Classification of mai according to elements
(music, dance etc.)
Noh = enchaînment of 100 types of shodan segments
basically 4 types: spoken/chant/instrumental/silen