Noh

I compare two of the most classical aesthetic expressions: Russian icons and Japanese Noh-plays. Though the former are pictorial and the latter theatrically enacted, both turn out to be highly compatible on several levels: both require a high degree of formalization and regulation; both maintain an interesting anti-relationship with realism; and their meditative characters make aesthetic experience the central theme of a religious art.

京都学派の哲学者たちは、後の現象学的身体論を先取りするような身体観を提示した。本稿は、こうした京都学派の身体論の生成と展開を西田幾多郎や田辺元のテキストに沿って内在的に読解しながら、その本来の近代認識論批判の立場（日本的「身体論」）が文化本質主義的イデオロギー（「日本的身体」論）へと転じる機制を明らかにした。そのうえで、20世紀後半になって古典芸能の身体性や世阿弥の能楽論を安易に「日本文化」に還元して解釈する「日本的身体」論が横行する言説状況が到来したことを批判した。
The Kyoto School philosophers, Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, etc., produced theoretical discourses of the body in 1930's, which foreran Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body. This paper reveals the process of their discussion and examines how those metaphysical debates on the body that appeared in modern Japan(日本的「身体論」) fell into cultural essentialism(「日本的身体」論).

Il faut sauver la tragédie grecque de toute la gnose philosophique et tragique qui l'accable depuis près de trois siècles. Il faut la sauver de notre conception moderne de la littérature et du théâtre. Il faut la sauver de nous-mêmes pour la retrouver ailleurs, très loin, dans les lieux les plus improbables : le nô japonais, la messe catholique, la psychanalyse freudienne… À moins qu'elle ne soit déjà plus nulle part.
Car la tragédie est aussi introuvable que le tombeau d’Œdipe, ce tombeau que Sophocle prit pour thème de sa pièce ultime, laquelle est également la dernière tragédie grecque connue.
Avec Œdipe à Colone pour fil conducteur, ce livre raconte l’histoire édifiante d’une incompréhension à laquelle nous sommes voués. Il révèle les incroyables trahisons et mutilations dont ces chefs-d’oeuvre furent les victimes et propose en retour quelques thèses - ou hérésies – susceptibles de bouleverser non seulement notre vision de la tragédie, mais notre conception même de la littérature et de ses pouvoirs – sur les lieux, les corps et les dieux.
Nul détour n’est aujourd’hui si troublant ni si salutaire.

It is well known that theatre on Christian themes was performed in the churches established across Kyūshū by Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, the only primary sources through which this performance tradition is known are the Jesuit Japan letters, and these have so far been read mostly not in the originals but rather in printed translations which were produced in Europe at the time for the purpose of soliciting donations to the mission effort, and which show significant alterations and deletions. Partly because of the vagueness created by this source problem, previous research has been distracted by issues of national and religious ideology which express themselves as the question of genre: was it noh, was it kabuki, etc., because if it was one of these genres with nationalist bona fides, then it proves that Christians can be authentic Japanese and vice versa. In each of the key passages traditionally cited on this topic, the original letters reveal new information. We see Japanese Christians’ accomplishments in translating a new body of religious legends into their own language, dividing it into parts for the theatre, and adding music, blocking, and stage effects, though not demonstrably those of any canonical genre of Japanese traditional theatre. On the part of the Jesuits we see ambivalence about theatre itself, eagerness to use it to please local magnates, anxiety over stage logistics, and other attitudes. Moreover, we catch glimpses of certain third parties who roamed from town to town in the Jesuits’ shadow, creating Christian performance traditions in Japanese perhaps for reasons of their own. Finally, I argue that Japanese Jesuit theatre as seen in the original letters already accomplishes the blending of traditional Japanese culture and Christianity, but so far as the sources reveal it does so by means of a nameless folk theatre and not any of the canonical national forms like noh, kyōgen, bunraku, or kabuki, which previous researchers have tried inconclusively to find there.

周知の通り、１６世紀のキリスト教会で、聖書などのキリスト教説話を題材とした演劇が上演された。先行研究では、これらが日本的なのか外国的なのかという点に滞り、「キリシタン能」など、日本伝統芸能に同定し、歌舞伎など後世のものへの影響を見出そうとする傾向もある。本稿ではこの宗教思想・国家思想という観点から一歩下がり、代表的なイエズス会報告の記録を原本から読み直す。すると、ヨーロッパのような舞台効果を使いながら、日本語によって台詞が交わされ、配役も歌い方も日本風である、とわかる。入場・門番など、劇場経営の問題にも言及している。なお、所作の伴わない問答や語り物があれば、派手な作り物を出す舞台劇もあるという風に、形式がそもそも一定しない。したがって、本稿ではこれらの「キリシタン劇」を国籍もジャンルも定めず、独自の芸能群と見なし、上演記録の内容を原報告に拠って読み解いていく。

True. At the core of Rashomon is the unreliability of the narrators. But the thing which is unreliable about them is how their tales differ upon fixed matters. One such issue is the dagger. The account of the dagger of which the four characters speak, varies to such an extent that one might presume that there are several daggers in the story. Indeed there might. This essay tries to explore the dagger in Rashomon not only as part of the narratives presented, but as an expression of the narrators' perspectives. The dagger seen in this changeable light, is somewhat similar to the fan used in the Japanese Noh theatre. For, in Noh theatres, the drama seems to revolve about the symbolic function the fan conjectures as an object of interaction between performer and audience; given that it is chiefly through the fan that most characters express thought and action. The implication of both these objects in their context can better be understood through Thing theory – a theory that suggests that the inanimate world has constantly helped form and transform mankind. So does the dagger transform the woodcutter, the samurai, his wife, her rapist? Perhaps.

能に独特の不動の身体性は、〈カマエ〉と呼ばれる姿勢構築技法によって実現される。これが成立したのは江戸初期と考えられる。本稿は、〈カマエ〉のなかった世阿弥時代から能の身体がいかにして変容してきたのかを検証した。とりわけ、世阿弥が近江猿楽から導入し、後に大和猿楽の舞の身体性を根本的に規定した「天女舞」を詳細に分析した。それを通じ、（1）「腰を据える」という技法が天女舞に特有のものであった、（2）腰を据えることは、現在のカマエのそれとは異なり、ダイナミックな身体運動を可能にする技法であった、（3）その後の技法内容の変化は同時代の兵法の技法変化と連動していた、等の事実を明らかにした。

The status of women performers in Noh has been a subject of debate before women's entry into the Nohgaku Kyokai (Nohgaku Performers' Association) in 1948. In 1948, just a few years after the Second World War, several women were allowed to apply for professional status as Noh performers. Before that, women were only permitted to practice Noh as a hobby. Even after women were recognized as Noh professionals, it was not until 2004 that certain female Noh performers were recognized as Intangible Cultural Properties and permitted to enter the Nihon Nohgakukai (Association for Japanese Noh Plays). It means that they were not recognised at the highest levels of professional performance of Noh, though some of them were as skilled as male professionals. After that, however, there still remains a considerable negative attitude to Noh performances by women or women Noh players among critics or audiences. In this presentation, we examine articles on women's Noh performance run in some Japanese general newspapers after the late 19th century to the present and discuss these articles quantitatively and qualitatively. In this way we will find and analyse some tendencies or characteristics in discourse about performance depending on differences in sex, their skill, or their status as the Noh performers. The paper will discuss socially-accepted ideas represented in these articles. This will make it clear that the logic of some negative attitudes to Noh performances by women or women Noh players is based on the tradition of Noh as well as their ability or technique.

The ama are women who dive for pearls. This bilingual paper renders the ancient Japanese folktale "Ama" into English, investigates its origins, and attempts to interpret its timeless significance. From a prehistoric oral tradition it evolved into the temple chronicle of Shidoji in Kagawa Prefecture and a Noh play with its setting there. Beneath the Buddhism and Sophoclean drama of an ideal woman making the ultimate sacrifice for her husband, it is to raise the future status of her son. 日本語によるノートや概要も付いている。

"世阿弥伝書の範例的な注釈書となった『世阿弥十六部集評釈』（1940-1944年）は、『能楽源流考』によって知られる能勢朝次の、いま一つの主著である。この『評釈』や、それと密接な関係にある彼の理論的論著は、質量共に近代日本における思想的な世阿弥受容の一つの極点をなすものであり、今日に至る世阿弥伝書の理解やそれに基づく日本文化論のあり方を、暗黙裡に規定してきたと言える。本稿は、こうした能勢による世阿弥解釈の分析を通じて、それが身体表現をめぐる〈近代の超克〉と言うべき思想的関心に根ざすものであったこと、さらにそこには西田幾多郎の哲学の影響が見られることを明らかにした。
Nose Asaji, a scholar of Japanese literature and theatre, wrote "Commentary on Zeami's Sixteen Treatises“ in early 1940's, which  guided the reception of Zeami ever since. I reveal that Nose's commentary reflects his concern for overcoming mind-body dualism by showing traditional corporeal wisdom, and that he developed the idea under the influence of Nishida Kitaro's philosophy."

This paper deals with the issue of aging as reflected in the Noh theatre repertory. It analyses plays about elderly women based on the aesthetic concept of the beauty of old age (rojaku) as one of the forms of the ephemeral. The paper also offers an insight into their staging  the beauty of an aging actors acting. The fact that there are three plays revolving around the character of an aged female poet is explained by the conceptual attitude of their author. As a side product, this paper reveals some morphological connections in the staging of the plays Sumidagawa and Sotoba Komachi, which could have an effect on the dating of the plays and the identification of their author.

Key words: Ono no Komachi, Noh theatre, beauty of acting, beauty of old age, an aging actor

Suzuki Daisetsu interprets the Noh play Yamamba to be about the Buddhist principles of compassion. However, the play, through its narrative and use of multiple identities does not represent these principles in an ‘artistic’ way but transcends art to create a new reality. I point out that this perspective of Suzuki is very much grounded in a modern romanticist view of art.
鈴木大拙は能『山姥』を仏教の枠組みで解釈する必要を述べ、この能の主題は仏教の慈悲の教えであると解釈している。この能の独特な語りと多様なアイデンティティーから、『山姥』は慈悲の教えを単に「芸術的」に表象しているのではなく、芸術の枠組みを超え新たな現実を創造すると鈴木は分析する。この点から鈴木の見解が近代のロマンティストの芸術の見方に傾向していることを論証。

The classical canon of noh is a corpus of over two hundred plays divided into five categories for the purpose of programming; these categories are largely determined by the nature of the main character. How might this classification system affect the cognitive perception of the spectator, especially in crucial areas such as gender and cultural politics? This question becomes particularly important in intercultural situations. People around the world are often drawn to traditional performing arts such as noh in their quest to experience and know a different culture. While a system of categorization can serve as a useful heuristic to help the viewer process a large volume of unfamiliar data, it also runs the risk of functioning as a filter and blurring cultural messages, whether used independently as a navigation tool by the newcomer or as a reference guide by a local interpreter. Following , the premise of this study is that awareness of the potential subliminal effects of this sort of introductory classification system is an effective way to minimize such interference and enable freer engagement with the art.

In medieval Japanese noh theater, narration is chanted on stage and often fuses with characters’ speeches. This paper aims to examine how this fusion affects the stage–audience relationship, first by applying theater semiotics and narratology, and then by analyzing specific cases in Zeami’s warrior plays and god plays. In god plays, the ambiguity of the addresser tends to be sustained, and the praise of the god’s benevolence is directly delivered to the audience by a voice that bears the authority of narration, while human-centered warrior plays usually minimize the intervention of the narrator. The study thus reveals Zeami’s careful handling of the narrative style in accordance with the plays’ socio-religious purposes.

In their introduction to Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm, Mark Teeuwen and Fabio Rambelli observe that, while ‘Japanese religion is often categorised under the twin headings Buddhism and Shinto,’ the latter ‘hardly existed as an autonomous cultic system’ because Shinto kami were defined as ‘traces (suijaku) or local emanations of Buddhist divinities,’ the ‘“original ground” (honji) from which the powers of the kami derived’ (1 and 15). As they explain, this paradigm was ‘refined into a key analytical tool by the Tiantai patriarch Zhiyi (538-97)’ (15). Tiantai Buddhism was then introduced to Japan via Saichō (767-822) and the honji suijaku paradigm became the dominant ‘cultic system’ in Japan (5). In describing this system, Teeuwen and Rambelli prefer the term ‘combinatory’ to ‘syncretic,’ associating the latter with interaction between two or more ‘pure’ religious traditions. This is not, however, an association inherent in the term ‘syncretic.’ Following the precedent of studies that discuss honji suijaku such as that of Yeonjoo Park, this article interprets ‘syncretism’ as encompassing the possibility that each of the interacting ‘entities’ already consists of a complex network of beliefs and practices from multiple cultural sources.

In its wide-ranging examination of texts evidencing the usage of the honji suijaku paradigm in Japanese culture, Teeuwen and Rambelli’s edited collection only briefly touches on nō theater, with three passing references in Irit Averbruch’s discussion of kagura, a performance tradition said to have inspired nō. Previous studies of religious elements in nō have tended to focus on its relation to particular religious or philosophical traditions such as Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism, rather than examining it primarily as an important expression of the syncretic honji suijaku paradigm (Tyler 1987; Thornhill; Mathews). Tyler cautions against using nō to understand the honji suijaku paradigm: nō libretti are, he claims, not reliable for understanding ‘religious and ritual experience’ because they ‘display a great deal of artifice’ (1987:139). That may reflect a too schematic idea of ‘artifice.’ Dunja Jelesijevic, in contrast, sees in nō a ‘particularly appropriate’ expression of ‘interaction between buddhas, bodhisattvas and the kami’ (151). Here I shall explore in more detail the role of honji suijaku in the treatises and plays of the greatest nō playwright, Zeami Motokiyo.

Mae Smethurst’s work has largely aimed to articulate Noh (nō) theater in Western terms from their very roots, for example through Aristotle’s On Tragedy. Her detailed examination of the shared structure of the content of these superficially quite divergent arts demonstrates how two initially foreign arts can be made mutually intelligible and effective through the underlying universals they share. In this spirit, I aim to articulate how Zeami answers Plato’s challenge to artistic performance, as expressed in Ion and The Republic. In Ion, Plato argues that rhapsody is not an art because it requires no mastery. Rhapsodes are mere vehicles of the divine.  In The Republic, Plato argues that tragedy ought to be banned as a public menace because the mimicry in which tragedians excel is far removed from truth.  These two specific challenges to poetic performing arts, i.e. to their claim to be arts or to have any value, determine criteria by which we may judge any putative art, including sarugaku.  Though Zeami clearly did not address his Fushikaden to Plato, he nevertheless answers Plato’s challenge. I outline in this paper how he does so, by explaining mastery, mimicry (monomane), and the workings of the divine in sarugaku.  The way in which Zeami’s work satisfies these three criteria of art illustrates how universal norms of art articulated in the West take a distinctive yet recognizable shape in the East.

Il y aurait deux façons de se demander ce que le comparatisme fait à l'Antiquité : l'une pleine de modestie, l'autre résolue et conquérante. La première consisterait à évaluer ce qu'une approche comparatiste peut éventuellement apporter à notre connaissance du monde classique ; la seconde, à démontrer pourquoi les études antiques ne peuvent absolument pas se passer de cette même démarche comparatiste. Il n'y a pas à hésiter : je choisis sans états d'âme la seconde option et l'illustrerai ici par l'exemple de la tragédie grecque.

Come l’architettura e la scultura, anche la letteratura ha le sue rovine. Rovine da interrogare, ma anche da preservare dalle invenzioni del regime dell’arte del linguaggio. A partire dall’Edipo a Colono, l’ultima delle tragedie attiche giunte fino a noi, è la concezione stessa della letteratura e dei suoi poteri ad essere messa in discussione. Quattro tesi, o “eresie”, invitano il lettore a riformulare, entro nuovi sentieri critici, la propria conoscenza della tragedia antica. Il luogo, l’idea, il corpo, il dio: quattro punti da cui misurare la distanza che intercorre tra noi e il mondo antico, per capire meglio la letteratura come arte autonoma a vocazione universale.

日本側に記録がなく、イエズス会日本報告にはあるものに、大坂城本丸の能舞台がある。天野文雄氏は以前、日本報告に基づくと思われる末代のイエズス会正史の明治時代の和訳を引き、この能舞台について論じている 。しかし、天野氏も指摘するように、この依拠資料は目撃者が記録した百年後、イエズス会の宣伝のための正史として編纂され、そのまた百年後、明治維新政府太政官がさらに和訳したものである。したがって、本稿では秀吉能楽愛好の代表とも言えるこの能舞台の様子を追究するとともに、イエズス会日本報告という未研究で厖大な資料群の性質を説明する。そのために、16世紀末の目撃者が記した原報告、それを編集・翻訳した17世紀の報告集、それを編纂・脚色した18世紀のイエズス会正史、そしてそれを改竄・和訳した太政官訳の各層を、遡るようにして紹介する。このようにして、転写・出版・翻訳の折節ごとにテキストが変わる様子を確認し、大坂城本丸の能舞台の様子を追究する。

Hideyoshi’s noh stage at Osaka Castle is one of many things of which no written record survives in Japan but on which the Jesuit Japan letters preserve valuable information. Osaka Castle was completely destroyed by the Tokugawa in 1615, and so one painting on a folding screen made some decades later is the only extant Japanese testimony to its appearance. This article introduces an eyewitness account by Luís Fróis, S.J., to uncover new information about the original design of this noh stage which may in turn rewrite the history of the Kōdaiji makie style of interior decoration favored by Hideyoshi. Previous research on this topic by Amano Fumio approached the Jesuit account through a nineteenth-century Japanese translation of the eighteenth-century French history of Jean Crasset, S.J., who seems in turn to have relied on a seventeenth-century Latin printed translation of a Portuguese scribal translation of Fróis’ 1596 letter, written in Spanish. Accordingly, this article also explores the rich transmission history of the Jesuit Japan letters by stepping back in time through the various layers of translation, misreading, novelization, and overcorrection, one by one, all the way to Fróis’ original.

This book is the first to deal with the subject of Ezra Pound’s relationships with Japanese literature as a whole. It provides a wealth of new scholarship on this subject, including on the nineteenth-century Japanese contexts that led to Pound’s interest in ‘hokku’ and Fenollosa’s nō translations on which Pound based his own; significant original research on Pound’s Japanese friendships that enriched his understanding of Japanese literature; and an examination of all the explicit references to nō in The Cantos in unprecedented depth. Finally, it proposes that his nō translations function as a transition point from his Imagist and Vorticist aesthetics to his later embrace of totalitarian politics.

For more information, and to purchase the book (available in both hardback and paperback), please follow this link:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ezra-pounds-japan-9781350174306/

For a selection of the book's contents, please follow this link:

https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Ezra_Pound_s_Japan/LKIPEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=ezra+pound%27s+japan&printsec=frontcover

In this paper, I demonstrate how I blend theoretical concepts from six fields—CLIL, rhetoric, cognitive linguistics, psychology, cultural studies, and gender studies—to inform my teaching practice in three areas: English academic writing for Japanese undergraduates, classical Japanese literature and Japanese popular culture for undergraduate international students majoring in Japan Studies (the G30 program), and gender studies for graduate students in my master's and doctoral seminars. I use the term rhetorical literacy to refer to an essential communication skill, the competency to consciously recognize the abuse of rhetoric as well as the ability to use it responsibly. Like media literacy, rhetorical literacy refers not only to the development of defense skills to protect the consumer from manipulation, but also the development of a sense of responsibility as a producer and sender of messages. Generically speaking, my primary textual field for most of my career has been Japanese noh drama both in the original and in English translation, and I include a case study of a noh play to test the effectiveness of employing the above methods. But the basic approach is also largely applicable to other literary genres, as my primary objective has always been to affirm the value of art as a medium for intercultural communication, with a strong awareness of the need for vigilance regarding the problems of cultural imperialism, the invention of tradition, and the representation of gender.

1. Rhetorical Literacy in Translation This essay is the third in a series of studies on Rhetorical Literacy. Throughout this series, I argue that awareness of the linguistic choices involved in rhetoric empower us as communicators in both transmission and reception, enabling us to make better choices of rhetoric in self-expression as well as more mindful interpretations of received messages, so as to formulate more thoughtful, effective responses. Through a detailed examination of the history of rhetorical practice, grounded in primary texts, I especially seek to elucidate the role that literary translation has played in Western perceptions of Japan and the Japanese, and thus in cross-cultural communication between Japan and the English-speaking world. For the first two years of this four-year project, I focused on translations of Noh produced in the early formative period of contact between Japan and the West. For the last two years, I will expand my corpus to include more contemporary translations. My themes for the first two years were pride and shame, followed by praise and blame, all of which were chosen because of their particular significance in the rhetorical construction and perpetuation of gendered cultural stereotypes. My theme for this year is the rhetoric of conflict, crisis and fear, with a particular focus on the function of topoi and toponyms. As a specific case study, I will here take up the topos of michinoku in Noh, examining its function as a shared mental space both in plays which are physically set in the Michinoku region and in plays where it is only poetically invoked. Toponyms, or place names – which commonly function as topoi in Noh – present a particularly vexing issue for a translator from any minor source language into a major target one. If they are only transliterated, they can rarely be expected to convey the connotations they bear in the original culture, or accomplish their function of commemoration. Translated, they can rarely be expected to have the same synaesthetic effect, and are often awkward if not incongruous. Through this exploration of how the specific topos of michinoku functions at two levels, in the larger classical canon as a whole and in the smaller corpus of published English translations, I aim to elucidate the general technical issue of the translation of toponyms in Noh as well as the cultural issue of the rhetoric of tradition and commemoration and its relevance to contemporary society, as Japan continues to come to terms with its deep fears after the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that struck the Michinoku region on March 11, 2011. I seek to explore not only how traditional drama may function to commemorate disaster, but also to explore how disaster may reciprocally effect change in tradition.

The Anime Paradox: Patterns and Practices through the Lens of Traditional Japanese Theater is an examination of the form of Anime—the repeated visual, aural, and narrative conventions performed in Anime texts—exposed through a comparison with the viewing modes and formal conventions of Asian theaters, primarily Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki. This is not to push for a “cultural” reading of Anime, to construct a “Japanese” lineage between Anime and Japanese traditional theater. Rather, it is an attempt to consider different means of approaching Anime, providing ways yet unexplored of how Anime create meaning in their texts, and how they (consciously and unconsciously) distance themselves from other types of animation, even in Japan (e.g. Sazae-san versus Evangelion), through the repeated performance of Anime’s established conventions. Instead of looking to Manga or film or other mass-produced texts, this project looks to the theater, often overlooked multi-media productions that possess viewing modes and reading styles that can provide alternative methods for readings of Anime. Anime has become a site of various significant discourses (locally and globally), but before we determine what this performance is saying, we need to consider, on a very basic level, how it is saying it and explore various means of examining it; we need to reflect on the means of expression in the performance of the Anime form, often a crucial point of aesthetic attraction itself: Anime sells locally and globally because it exhibits itself as distinctly “Anime.” The Anime Paradox is thus an effort to provide an accessible discussion on Anime form and the mechanics of the type beauty represented through it from the standpoint of a critic and long-time viewer of Anime. This examination through comparison also works in the other direction, further endeavoring to enrich our understanding of theater through Anime.

Noh has been considered an essential preparation for political and other leadership since its full development in the thirteenth century. I introduce some important events from the political history of noh while providing an introduction to the format of the noh theatre and introducing ways you can learn to sing and dance the noh yourself for purposes of self-cultivation and social networking in Japan and abroad. We learn basic noh rhythm and practice a few passages which are good for singing at social gatherings.

The present text focuses on the performances of Shinsaku Noh (新作能) plays in Bulgaria. Performances such as The Circle of Water and Orpheus by Akihiro Yamamoto and performed by Yamamoto Nogaku-do Theatre with the special participation of Bulgarian performers, have taken place in Bulgaria since 2011, therefore they are relatively new phenomenon in our country. The present paper will also explore the contribution of the performances of Shinsaku Noh plays to the multifaceted process of reception of Japanese traditional theatre in Bulgaria. The text is based on: publications, archives, correspondence; interviews taken by the author with Japanese and Bulgarian members of the creative crew. The author will also present her own thoughts and insights, based on the rehearsal process of Shinsaku Noh plays.
Keywords: The Circle of Water, Orpheus, Akihiro Yamamoto, Yamamoto Nogaku-doTheatre, reception of Noh theatre in Bulgaria, Bulgarian actress Maya Bejanska
キーワード: 新作能「水の輪」ブルガリア公演, 新作能「オルフェウス」ブルガリア公演, 山本章弘、「山本能楽堂」、女優のマヤ・ベジャンスカ

Представления на Шинсаку Но (新作能) като Феята на водата и Орфей от Ямамото, представяни с участието на български изпълнители, се осъществяват от 2011 и са сравнително ново явление у нас. Изследването осмисля приноса им за по-обхватния и многопластов процес на рецепция на японския традиционен театър у нас. Текстът е изграден с опора върху публикации, архиви, разговори с японци и българи от творческите екипи на представленията; представя впечатления от репетиции и изпълнения на Шинсаку Но у нас.
Ключови думи: Феята на водата, Орфей, Акихиро Ямамото, театър Но в България, Мая Бежанска

This intervention will comment upon a duo performance combining gestures and movements of Nō theatre and of sigillography (seal carving) by Monique Arnaud and Lia Wei on April 17th, 2018, in the occasion of the « Ink Riders » exhibit opening. The correspondance is made between the structure of the stage – a magic  space composed of 9 squares- and the inscribed face of nine assembled seals, which provide a temporal and spatial frame for the performance. Moreover, the distribution of roles in Nō, between the shite and the waki will be recreated according to the structure of Nō pieces as a dialogue between the actress and the carver, with the carver (waki) as a receptive presence or medium who first activates the shite, then enters in a non-verbal dialog with him. Finally, the action of “grinding” the ground, produced by the Nō actress’ gliding footsteps resonates with the sound of stone as it is being carved. The performance concludes on memories of an ephemeral movement confronted to chiselmarks from nine sealstones printed in cinnabar red sealpaste on paper. The fragmentary nature of relationships between disciplines, the way they point at commonalities in gesture, composition, rhythm, as well as the novel eye such experiments bring for the practitioners will be discussed.

Recent research has begun to explore the ways in which early-modern missionaries met the challenges of adapting Latin Christian doctrinal works in the Japanese language, but the missions also produced a great volume of narrative literature: gospels, saints’ lives, passion stories. This material allows us to read Christian legends in the precise form in which Masamune or Tsunenaga would have done, and it also teaches us new things about Japanese literature in this poorly-documented period. In particular, the Jesuits’ use of the kowaka ballad as a stylistic model lends new weight to the growing consensus that although that genre declined during the transition to the Tokugawa peace, it occupied a central place on the literary scene of Japan’s age of civil war.