Heritage

JAPANESE TRADITIONAL ART
KABUKI, NOH, AND BUNRAKU

Just as visitors to New York City often book a Broadway show, visitors to Japan should see one of the country's unique theatrical productions.

Kabuki is Japan's best-known traditional performance art, with productions at Tokyo's Kabukiza theater staged most months of the year. Kabuki is not high-brow entertainment, but rather has always enjoyed great popularity with the masses. Its murky origins stretch to the early 17^th century, when a troupe of women in Kyoto found a ready audience for their erotic dances. After the shogunate government banned female performers, men took over the roles of both men and women in Kabuki plays, which they continue to do to this day.

Kabuki plays are dramatic affairs, most of them written in the 17th and 18th centuries (dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon is often referred to as the Shakespeare of Japan) and centered on universal themes like love, revenge, sacrifice, and conflicts of duty. Costumes are gorgeous, and theatrical effects are enhanced by a revolving stage, a platform that can be raised and lowered for dramatic appearances and disappearances of actors, and a runway extending into the audience. In fact, the audience is part of the fun of attending a Kabuki play, as spectators laugh and yell their approval of particular scenes and performers.

Noh, on the other hand, developed as an aristocratic form of entertainment for the samurai class. Whereas Kabuki is lively and overtly dramatic, Noh is slow, restrained, solemn and graceful. The oldest theater art in the world, Noh is also performed by men playing both female and male parts, uses few props (the main actor wears a mask), and employs a chorus to chant spoken parts and a small orchestra consisting of drums and a flute. Between Noh acts are short comic plays, called Kyogen, which use humor to highlight the absurdities of everyday life. Noh and Kyogen are visible all around Japan and at the Nagoya Noh Theater and the National Noh Theater in Tokyo.

Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppetry theater, but for adults rather than for children, with themes similar to those in Kabuki (many Kabuki plays were first written for Bunraku) and accompanied by a chanter and shamisen player. What makes Bunraku especially fascinating are the puppeteers, who are dressed in black and are onstage with their puppets. There are three puppeteers for each puppet: one for the puppet's face and right arm and hand; another for the left arm and hand; and the last for the legs. Naturally, the puppeteers must work in perfect harmony, but they're so skillful the audience soon forgets they're onstage as the puppets take on a life of their own. The most famous place to see a performance is at the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka, though the National Theater of Japan in Tokyo also stages some performances (as well as Kabuki). In addition, Gion Corner offers a nightly program that provides a brief overview of several traditional arts and entertainment, including Kyogen and Bunraku.