Takigi Noh at Heian-jingû
Jun. 9th, 2011 22:22![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyI tend to be either indifferent to Heian-jingû or to find it vaguely disturbing: it's another of the grand Meiji-era shrines built by a government intent on promulgating a very narrow, and narrow-minded, ideology, the Kyoto cousin to Yasukuni in Tokyo, enshrining "Japanese culture" rather than the war dead. That said, the gardens (a national treasure) are lovely, and last Friday they were free to the public.
There weren't as many irises as other years, I gathered, but it was wonderful to be able to stroll around the gardens and their ponds before taking my place in the line to get seats (and duck out of it to get tickets) for the noh performance that took place in the shrine precincts that evening, by torchlight ('takigi' means 'firewood' in Japanese).
I met my program-mate and, it turns out, neighbor, B in the ticket line, which was fortuitous as she's pretty cool and knows more about noh than I do, since her specialty is premodern Japan. The previous night's performance had been rained out halfway through, but the weather held for ours, and we were able to see all five pieces: a half-noh of Yoro (the Suiha-no-den variation); a full noh of Jinen Koji, a half-noh of Izutsu, the kyogen Kanazu, and a half-noh of Shakkyo.
Noh has a reputation as being boring, but I wouldn't say that's quite true--it's slow-paced, and intense, and of course these pieces were selected for their dramatic value, so they were less slow-paced than usual, but even so, 'boring' isn't precisely the word I'd use. Certainly it pays to know Japanese, and even better some classical Japanese, when listening to the actors and the chorus sing and speak, but a plot summary is enough to get the emotional gist of the story, and the performance of the emotion is what it's all about. It was really, really cool to see noh performed outside, since it was in origin partly a sacred art and was usually performed outside until the Edo period; the torchlight for the final three pieces definitely lent a very tangible spark to the atmosphere, particularly in interaction with the lead actors' masks.
There's only ever one player who wears a mask, the shite, and the performance we saw was notable in that a shite's robes caught on their headpiece not once but twice, necessitating discreet interventions on the part of the stagehands. In light of the fact that the shite is in some senses supposed to be embodying the divine, mistakes are highly theatrically fraught, but I tend to find them a timely reminder of humanity.
The one real disappointment of the evening, and even that not much of one, was the kyogen. I was lucky enough to see Mibu kyogen three years ago, and I was expecting more of the same--physical, fairly ribald, wordless comedy. But the piece we saw was clearly of a much later origin than the Mibu kyogen--fully voiced, with a chorus, a lead comic actor, and a secondary part played by a child, with a much more ironic humor. It was certainly funny, but not quite what I was expecting. Still, all in all, a once in a lifetime experience that was well worth the ¥4000 for same-day tickets.
I apologize for the lack of captions & alt-text; I need to mess around with Picasa some more, but not tonight. More photos later!
There weren't as many irises as other years, I gathered, but it was wonderful to be able to stroll around the gardens and their ponds before taking my place in the line to get seats (and duck out of it to get tickets) for the noh performance that took place in the shrine precincts that evening, by torchlight ('takigi' means 'firewood' in Japanese).
I met my program-mate and, it turns out, neighbor, B in the ticket line, which was fortuitous as she's pretty cool and knows more about noh than I do, since her specialty is premodern Japan. The previous night's performance had been rained out halfway through, but the weather held for ours, and we were able to see all five pieces: a half-noh of Yoro (the Suiha-no-den variation); a full noh of Jinen Koji, a half-noh of Izutsu, the kyogen Kanazu, and a half-noh of Shakkyo.
Noh has a reputation as being boring, but I wouldn't say that's quite true--it's slow-paced, and intense, and of course these pieces were selected for their dramatic value, so they were less slow-paced than usual, but even so, 'boring' isn't precisely the word I'd use. Certainly it pays to know Japanese, and even better some classical Japanese, when listening to the actors and the chorus sing and speak, but a plot summary is enough to get the emotional gist of the story, and the performance of the emotion is what it's all about. It was really, really cool to see noh performed outside, since it was in origin partly a sacred art and was usually performed outside until the Edo period; the torchlight for the final three pieces definitely lent a very tangible spark to the atmosphere, particularly in interaction with the lead actors' masks.
There's only ever one player who wears a mask, the shite, and the performance we saw was notable in that a shite's robes caught on their headpiece not once but twice, necessitating discreet interventions on the part of the stagehands. In light of the fact that the shite is in some senses supposed to be embodying the divine, mistakes are highly theatrically fraught, but I tend to find them a timely reminder of humanity.
The one real disappointment of the evening, and even that not much of one, was the kyogen. I was lucky enough to see Mibu kyogen three years ago, and I was expecting more of the same--physical, fairly ribald, wordless comedy. But the piece we saw was clearly of a much later origin than the Mibu kyogen--fully voiced, with a chorus, a lead comic actor, and a secondary part played by a child, with a much more ironic humor. It was certainly funny, but not quite what I was expecting. Still, all in all, a once in a lifetime experience that was well worth the ¥4000 for same-day tickets.
I apologize for the lack of captions & alt-text; I need to mess around with Picasa some more, but not tonight. More photos later!
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-09 14:57 (UTC)Aw, now I'm all nostalgic...^^
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-10 15:52 (UTC)I've never been to Kamakura, but if/when I get up to Tokyo this time I'm probably going to go.