Japanese Traditional Performing Arts: Discovering with New Eyes

2023年01月06日

"日本の伝統芸能 - 新たな視点で発見する" 日本は長い歴史の中で、さまざまな舞台芸術を生み出してきました。そして、その伝統を受け継ぐ者たちは、常に美意識と伝統の技を磨き続けなければなりません。伝統芸能は過去の遺物ではなく、現代人の心に響くようなメッセージを鮮明に伝え、現代人の心に響くものを常に探し求めているのです。今回は、各ジャンルの一部を取り上げ、その独自の世界観や歴史を探るとともに、現代の著名な演奏家を取り上げ、その芸風や声や身体の使い方が、生きた人間やその芸をどのように形作っているのかを見ていきます。そして、それが現代の日本や世界の文化にどのような意味を持つのかを明らかにします。(English) Japanese Traditional Performing Arts: Discovering with New Eyes. In its long history, Japan has created a wide variety of performing arts. Many continue to be performed today, and the heirs to these traditions must constantly hone their aesthetic sense and the traditional techniques of their art forms. However, these traditional performing arts are not a dead part of the past; they work to clearly and vividly convey their message to move people of the present and constantly search for what in their art form will appeal to today. Each part of this series will concentrate on a particular piece of each genre to explore its unique worldview and history and, by examining notable contemporary performers, look at how the art form and the techniques for the use of the voice and body shape these living human beings and the art that they perform. It will then show how this is meant for Japan today and for world culture.

Japanese Traditional Performing Arts: Discovering with New Eyes

Japan's classical theater is one of the treasures of world culture.

Why have these traditions attracted people over history?

I am Sisyu, a calligrapher working in Japan.

Today, I will introduce four forms of classical theater.

I will write the Japanese characters for each genre.

Each genre will have its form and color.

Noh is one of the oldest forms of theater in the world.

When you oversee Noh, you might be surprised at how little movement there is.

But this sharpens our senses toward a deeper understanding.

Noh reveals a mysterious world while simultaneously being a form of high culture.

As purple is considered a noble color in Japan, I've used it to represent Noh.

A highly simplified space characterizes Noh.

The main character, called shite, appears from the curtain on the left side of the stage.

Many mystical beings, such as gods or ghosts, are invisible.

"Without the heart that yearns for the gods, the relationship between gods and men would cease."

The goddess in this performance is the goddess of autumn.

She is the goddess who loves the reddish autumn leaves.

At the climax of the story, she appears from the shrine.

"The goddess appears."

When the goddess of autumn descends

This piece centers around a goddess named Princess Tatsuta.

This piece expresses the world of Shin'yin (a very excellent and profound taste that is hard to describe), which is said to be the abode of the goddess.

*Shin-in Hyou-byou =神韻縹渺＝しんいんひょうびょう

It means a very outstanding taste and refers to the state where a work of art is exceptional. "Shinrhyme" refers to the excellent flavor that can only be considered the work of the gods.

It is also written as "縹緲," which means faint and indistinct.

This is a dance in which the god dances with his feelings because Princess Tatsuta is in love with autumn leaves.

We hope you can feel with your body that there is such a performing art in Japan and this world.

Kyogen is a theater of laughter.

But it's not like the kind of comic theater we usually experience today.

It affectionately shows all of the imperfections of people.

When I watch Kyogen, I feel a sense of hope.

Whether successful in life or not, everyone has something to hope for. So with this square at the bottom of the second character in "Kyogen," an element showing a mouth, I used yellow, representing hope.

Kyogen, like Noh, is a performing art that originated in the 14th century.

In contrast to the mystical dances, Kyogen comically depicts the daily lives of ordinary people.

10)

In Kyogen, gestures and emotions are expressed in a fixed pattern.

Anger

Sadness

Joy

In this performance, the wife is angry with her lazy husband, who neglects his work.

She says, "Oh, yes, I'm angry, I'm mad, I'll shoot him dead with this stick."

"Stop it, stop it, stop it."

"I'll beat you to death!"

11)

All women in Kyogen are portrayed as brutal.

She may be very strict with a lazy or hopeless husband, but she does this out of love.

Praise or support for a weak person also stands out in Kyogen.

People can be attractive, annoying, and even hateful.

Kyogen shows the good and the bad but doesn't condemn them.

Let's open our hearts, tolerate that, and perhaps laugh it away.

I think that is quite wonderful about Kyogen.

12)

In Bunraku, three people make one puppet come to life.

The strokes of the character for Bunraku are like the fingers of puppeteers working delicately together.

Then, the power of Bunraku is created with the Tayu voice artist, shamisen player, and puppeteer.

These three art forms have to combine as one.

All three arts must harmonize perfectly, all equally important.

So I've added a gentle circle of green within the characters for Bunraku.

13)

Bunraku is a form of puppet theater that originated in the 17th century.

It was popular among the ordinary people in the merchant town of Osaka.

Several plays dramatize actual events in the city of Osaka, some of them written within a month after the incident.

People liked plays about incidents that happened in their town.

So the ordinary people loved Bunraku.

14)

People might call it singing, but Taku says that they are telling or narrating a story.

It's most important to convey the feelings of all the people in the play.

That's why we use "narrate" instead of "sing."

15)

No other theater digs as deeply into people's true feelings.

"This is what I said, but this is what I think."

Bunraku says what people want to say.

16)

Puppets do what would be called "pantomime" if they were people.

Emotion is expressed using the puppet's entire body.

People anywhere can understand the puppets' movements even if they don't understand the language.

That's the power of the puppets.

Samurai goes seeking revenge.

17)

Among traditional genres, Kabuki is relatively new.

It continually incorporates new elements.

But that doesn't mean overlaying tradition with new values and rewriting it.

No matter how an individual wants to change things, tradition maintains its values.

18)

Kabuki comes from a word meaning "outlandish" and is colorful and spectacular.

I tried to express that feeling with red by making the strokes fade.

19)

Kabuki is a performing art of ordinary people born in the 17th century.

Kabuki always was at the forefront of its times.

Because it was initially popular entertainment.

It's a performing art that concentrates all the exciting elements of life within it.

20)

Kabuki is characterized by its striking appearance.

The "Mie," a pose that captivates the audience

Female roles played by men

and dynamic stage direction.

Kabuki has been refined with the times over the past 400 years.

"Kata" is the way that great actors of the past performed roles, and we in the present copy them.

That's how Kata is passed down and remains today.

We learn these Kata and remember them with our bodies, copying our predecessors.

21)

In recent years, a new type of Kabuki performance that combines digital technology has come into the limelight.

One such performance is "Cho-Kabuki," a collaboration between virtual singer Hatsune Miku and kabuki actor Nakamura Shido.

"Let's make it bloom again."

Cho-Kabuki is doing something new, but it's all classic.

It's a challenge to the modern age to preserve the classics of Kabuki, but at the same time to have this style.

22)

In the long history of Japan, these traditional arts have not lived for just one lifetime but through all the ages in which they grew and developed.