| As you
read the four Noh
plays that we will discuss on Wednesday evening, consider the questions
below.
You don't have to write out answers to turn in, but it will be helpful
to print these questions out and jot down your
responses. Or,
you might
copy and paste these questions on your own computer and type in
answers.
When it comes time to prepare for the midterm, your responses will be a
handy study guide. Reading "Elements of Performance," pps. 115-125 in TJT, will
give you a good background to the Noh theater. In class, we will see
video excerpts
of actual performances and discuss the religious context for these
plays.
Atsumori, a
warrior
play by Zeami (1363-1443)
Characters:
What has
brought Naozane
to this famous battle site?
How does he
feel upon his
arrival at Ichinotani?
What does he
wish to do?
Atsumori
appears first in
one guise, and then again, as the ghost of a dead warrior.
What draws him
to Ichinotani?
What does his
bamboo flute
say about his class, sensibilities, and character as a young warrior?
How does his
mask communicate
his character?
(see p. 142)
How are the
two men intertwined
by fate and what kind of relationship to they share at the end of the
play?
What role
does the chorus
have?
How do their
lines connect
with those of the shite and waki?
Themes:
Every section
of this Noh
play contain Buddhist messages. What ideas do you get about Buddhism from reading
Atsumori?
Structure:
How does the aikyougen,
the short play within this play, affect your idea of the mood and plot
of
the larger play?
Izutsu, a
woman play by Zeami (1363-1443)
Characters:
The well
itself becomes
a kind of character in this play. In what ways does it draw connections
between Ariwara no Narihira, the famous poet and lover, and one of his
wives, Aritsune's daughter?
What draws
the ghost of the
woman back to the well?
How are
love, memory and
longing connected to the poetry of Japan and China (see footnotes)?
If the woman's
love is embedded
in the past of her lived life, and in the past of poetry and lore, then
in what time does her appearance on stage take place?
What do you
think happens
when she has her final vision of the well? (p. 156)
Miidera,
a crazed-person play (author unknown)
Characters:
What causes
the woman's
derangement and how do other characters react to it?
According
to medieval Japanese
Buddhism, what are the five limitations that a woman bears?
How can
this main character
be "cleared of them" and still be a woman?
It's
interesting to consider
here that all these roles were written for male actors.
How many
layers of gender
might be active in this character?!
Themes:
The sorrow of
parting is
one of the most poignant and frequently appearing emotions in classical
Japanese literature. Reading the shite/chorus song about parting on
pps.
174-175. What does this communicate about separation?
<>Shunkan,
a play about human emotions
(author
unknown)
Props:
This play
always makes use
of a boat. Sometimes the boat has a large rope attached.
You can see
examples of
two Noh boat props on p. 122. Neither boat will work as
a real boat, that' s clear. What does this say about props in Noh?
How do the
actors in Shunkan
use this boat?
Would a
real boat or a more
realistic looking boat affect our reaction to Shunkan's pain?
For a much
different set
design and script for Shunkan, see the Kabuki images on
pps.420-441.
In Kabuki, the
Devil Island
becomes the scene of a murder and a love affair, though poor Shunkan is
still left to die alone.
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