"Since the inception of the noh drama six centuries ago, actors have resisted the notion that noh rests on natural talent alone. Correct performance, they claim, demands adherence to traditions. Yet what constitutes noh’s traditions and who can claim authority over them have been in dispute throughout its history. This book traces how definitions of noh, both as an art and as a profession, have changed over time. The author seeks to show that the definition of noh as an art is inseparable from its definition as a profession.The aim of this book is to describe how memories of the past become traditions, as well as the role of these traditions in the institutional development of the noh theater from its beginnings in the fourteenth century through the late twentieth century. It focuses on the development of the key traditions that constitute the ""ethos of noh,"" the ideology that empowered certain groups of actors at the expense of others, and how this ethos fostered noh’s professionalization--its growth from a loose occupation into a closed, regulated vocation. The author argues that the traditions that form the ethos of noh, such as those surrounding masks and manuscripts, are the key traits that define it as an art. "

Since the inception of the noh drama six centuries ago, actors have resisted the notion that noh rests on natural talent alone. Correct performance, they claim, demands adherence to traditions. Yet what constitutes noh's traditions and who can claim authority over them have been in dispute throughout its history. This book traces how definitions of noh, both as an art and as a profession, have changed over time. The author seeks to show that the definition of noh as an art is inseparable from its definition as a profession. The aim of this book is to describe how memories of the past become traditions, as well as the role of these traditions in the institutional development of the noh theater from its beginnings in the fourteenth century through the late twentieth century. It focuses on the development of the key traditions that constitute the "ethos of noh," the ideology that empowered certain groups of actors at the expense of others, and how this ethos fostered noh's professionalization--its growth from a loose occupation into a closed, regulated vocation. The author argues that the traditions that form the ethos of noh, such as those surrounding masks and manuscripts, are the key traits that define it as an art.

First Published in 1998. This is the second volume of Mask: A Release if Acting Resources, and David Griffiths provides a detailed and sensitive view of the Japanese Noh theatre: historically, philosophically (with an evaluation of Zeami's treatises) and in respect of the rigorous practicalities of Noh training. The latter is given particular authority and insight because of the access Griffiths had to Noh actors in training and performance. Greatly enhanced with the author's illustrations, this volume gives one of the most accessible introductions to Noh that is available in English. Appended to the descriptive and analytic material is a short play, The Dove, written by Griffiths (and subsequently professionally performed) described as 'unashamedly' acknowledging its Noh influence. This one-woman price is a sensitive and evocative drama with subtle references to its cultural source. Is potential as an exercise in mask work is excellent.

Centered on questions of identity formation, selfhood, and the body, this ethnography examines the experiences of later life learners in Japan. The women profiled are amateur practitioners of Noh theater, learning the dance and chant essential to this classic art form. Using a combination of observational, interview, and experiential data, Katrina L. Moore discusses the relevance of these practices to the women's everyday lives. Later life learning activities have been heavily promoted in Japan as a means for an aging population to remain healthy. However, many Noh practitioners experience their practice as a means of self-actualization beyond the goal of healthy aging. Looking at daily experiences of training for and staging theatrical performances, Moore analyzes the way the body becomes the medium through which amateurs explore new states of self. The work provides a view of contemporary Noh that highlights the rarely acknowledged role of amateur performers.

A wide-ranging set of essays that explain what theatre history is and why we need to engage with it.

In Hakata: The Cultural Worlds of Northern Kyushu, experts in various fields have collaborated to produce an interdisciplinary collection offering diverse insights on a region yet to be fully addressed in English. A historic port situated in a strategically vital region as the closest point of contact with the Asian continent, Hakata has long served as a key hub in the transcultural networks linking Japan with the outside world. This volume explores the rich legacy of these wider interactions, in particular the cosmopolitan, international dimension deeply embedded in Hakata's urban culture. With an identity all its own and quite distinct from other regions in Japan, it is a culture once again increasingly relevant in today's world of borderless communications.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This provoking new study of the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu) examines the ideological foundation of its place in history and the broader context of Japanese cultural values where it has emerged as a so called ‘quintessential’ component of the culture. It was in fact, Sen Soshitsu Xl, grandmaster of Urasenke, today the most globally prominent tea school, who argued in 1872 that tea should be viewed as the expression of the moral universe of the nation. A practising teamaster himself, the author argues, however, that tea was many other things: it was privilege, politics, power and the lever for passion and commitment in the theatre of war. Through a methodological framework rooted in current approaches, he demonstrates how the iconic images as supposedly timeless examples of Japanese tradition have been the subject of manipulation as ideological tools and speaks to presentations of cultural identity in Japanese society today.

Contemporary theatrical productions as diverse in form as experimental performance, new writing, West End drama, musicals and live art demonstrate a recurring fascination with adapting existing works by other artists, writers, filmmakers and stage practitioners. Featuring seventeen interviews with internationally-renowned theatre and performance artists, Theatre and Adaptation provides an exceptionally rich study of the variety of work developed in recent years. First-hand accounts illuminate a diverse range of approaches to stage adaptation, ranging from playwriting to directing, Javanese puppetry to British children's theatre, and feminist performance to Japanese Noh. The transition of an existing source to the stage is not a smooth one: this collection examines the practices and the complex set of negotiations each work of transition and appropriation involves. Including interviews with Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, Handspring Puppet Company, Katie Mitchell, Rimini Protokoll, Elevator Repair Service, Simon Stephens, Ong Keng Sen and Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the volume reveals performance's enduring desire to return, rewrite and repeat.