- Music and Feet
- Stomping to the beat of the music
- gliding and stomping
- Fans and Hands
- symbolism
- expression
- Masks
- 6 masks:
- Okina (Old man masks)
- JO (Elders mask)
- Onna-men (Women masks)
- Otoko-men (Men masks)
- Kishin (Demons)
- Onryo (Ghosts and spirit)
- Orgin of the Noh mask
- Muromachi period (1392)
- Expressions
- 2: Teru and Kumoru
- neutral expression and embody emotion
- Tamuru
- Separating actors from the mask - relying on the mask
- Mask
- traditional comedy theater
- developed alongside Noh
- performed in between them
- Main goal - make them laugh
- typically do not wear masks
- Movements are exaggerated
- nameless characters - expression emotion with actors own emotion
- Exception of demon mask
- Most masks are neutral
- depend on movements
- Demon mask
- symbolizes ghosts
- Use of Body
- 14th century with Noh Theater
- Modern - Nogaku = Noh-Kyogen
- Comic relief to heaviness of Noh Theater
- No elaborate costumes
- large
- must emphasize body movement
- Sometimes stock characters
- Thought to derive from Chinese entertainment
- Different story lines specific to own stories
- Exaggeration makes it easier to understand
- Features may also feature jumping and stomping
- contrast to sliding
- Turn purposeful
- Long speech - walking towards the audience
- Not necessarily intermissions
- have their own stories as well
Kabuki
- Makeup, Face and Head
- Slightly newer - at least 600 years old
- Certain amount of plays allowed to be watched
- Plays are 5 hour long and often repeated
- Acting Kabuki is family tradition
- Audience is usually veterans
- Actors are the spectators
- Children start at 2-3 years old
- Makeup
- Kesho and Kumadori
- whiter the face = more important he/she is
- Kumadori --> superheros and villians
- veins
- red = superheros
- blue = villan, ghosts, or spirits
- brown = animals or inhuman beings
- Kesho --> Normal characters
- only black and white
- Soft spoken --> less definition and less/no lines
- Dominant --> strong lines
- All female makeup is the same
- no matter how important
- little red on edge of eyes
- lines on eyebrows
- red lips
- represent feminine beauty
- takes away masculine makeup
- more lines = more passionate
- makeup is changed in middle of play
- actors do own makeup
- Head
- Mie
- works like a close up
- literal = appearance or visible
- one eye will be crossed and one eye out
- powerful glare
- supposed to be scary
- predicted by head roll and music
- snap into place twice
- Females don't have mie
- similar but called kamuri
- not crossing eyes
- too much power
- Body movements
- Started during Edo Era (1600-1868)
- Merchants having to remain socially inferior due belonging in commoner class
- Fundamental themes about the conflicts between humanity and the feudalistic system
- Around 300 Kabuki plays
- Terms of origin 3 categories:
- Noh
- Puppet
- Kyogi
- Acting in general
- formalized view
- didn't attempt to hide performance aspect
- well aware they were performing
- meant to be esstecially appearing
- more like dancing than acting
- lavish costumes
- The body
- Onnagata - male character plays female role
- emphasizes and stylizing feminine movements and gestures
- knees and back slightly bent
- fingers are kept together
- tiny steps
- Wagoto
- fluid movement
- similar to Onnagata
- more of a narrow stance than Aragoto
- Aragoto
- broad
- Mie
- Villain or superhero
Bunraku
- Puppets
- Main stage puppets
- One stage - music and narrator
- narrator also voices the puppets
- Size
- 76 to 122 cm
- supposed to be 2/3 size of a human
- Relatively bare
- not meant to be very heavy
- Head
- has grip stick with control springs
- manipulates movements of the puppet
- 6 controls
- limbs attached with springs
- Changing faces
- one moment as a woman
- the next as a demon
- Head can also fall off
- neat tricks
- Puppeteers
- 3 puppeteers for each puppet being played
- Omo-zukai - head + right arm
- Aidari-zukai - left arm + props
- Ashi-zukai - legs + sound effects
- Based on skill
- had to start at Ashi-zukai --> Aidari-zukai --> Omo-zukai
- train 10 years each and performing
- at least 25 years to be recognized as professional
- Head is the heaviest
- Puppeteer without hood = most skilled/recognized
Butoh
- Body movment
- encompasses art
- 3 core ideas
- flexibility
- strength
- balance
- History of Butoh
- trauma
- trying to express in the most raw and guttural form
- first recognized as the "Earth Dance"
- Tatsumi Hijikata
- purely Japanese
- body can stand on its own
- people are taken aback by the intensity of the raw nature
- heavily explicit in nature
- Co-founder of Buto
- Well known Practitioner
- Also known as Dance of Darkness
- nudity
- white makeup
- Finding beauty in the grotesque
- rooted back to the Earth
- The Body
- guttural response
- given stimuli
- as a result unconventional
- distortion
- Kazuo Ono
- Co-founder practitioner
- Challenges what modern day may perceive beauty
- Face and Mask
- began as student riots
- social hierarchy was breaking
- Underground performances
- Makeup
- thick white layer
- transition from normal to whatever is inside
- white - ghost like
- depiction of people
- Facial expressions
- constant and gradual morph
- silent scream
- trying to say something but nothing comes out
- intense
- tongue dance
- never conscious of the tongue
- drooling
- grotesque beauty
- twitching muscles
