Dance Drama of the Samurai

Noh
Dance Drama of the Samurai
November 17, 2012 – February 24, 2013
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20. Yumi yawata (The Bow at
Hachiman), 1926
From the series Nōgaku hyakuban
(One Hundred Prints of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock
Sheet: 14 ⅝ x 9 ⅝
21. Himuro (Ice House), 1925/1930
From the series Nōga taikan
(A Great Miror of Noh Pictures)
Publisher: Seibi Shoten
Color woodblock
Sheet: 10 x 14 ½
22. Kumasaka (The Robber), 1925/1930
From the series Nōga taikan
(A Great Miror of Noh Pictures)
Publisher: Seibi Shoten
Color woodblock
Sheet: 10 x 14 ¼
23. Shakkyō (Stone Bridge), 1926
From the series Nōga taikan
(A Great Miror of Noh Pictures)
Publisher: Seibi Shoten
Color woodblock
Sheet: 10 x 14 ¾
24. Higaki (Cypress Fence), 1926
From the series Nōga taikan
(A Great Miror of Noh Pictures)
Publisher: Seibi Shoten
Color woodblock
Sheet: 10 x 14 ¾
25. Aya no tsuzumi (Brocade Drum),
1926/1930
From the series Nōga taikan
(A Great Miror of Noh Pictures)
Publisher: Seibi Shoten
Color woodblock
Sheet: 9 ⅞ x 14 ⅝
MODERN PRINTS
26. Yamaguchi Gen
(Japanese, 1896–1976)
Noh Actor, 1958
Color woodblock
Artist’s proof, edition 1/5
Image: 32 ⅞ x 18 1/16
Sheet: 34 ½ x 20
Lent by Edwin and Ellen Reingold
27. Takahashi Rikio
(Japanese, 1917–1999)
Noh Play (B), 1960
Color woodblock
Image: 22 11/16 x 16 ⅜
Sheet: 24 7/16 x 18 5/16
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey
Graphic Arts Collection
85.14.345
This exhibition is organized by the
Portland Art Museum and curated by
Maribeth Graybill, PhD, The Arlene and
Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art.
28. Matsubara Naoko
(Canadian, born Japan 1937)
Nō Dancer, 1977
Woodblock, edition 34/50
Image: 14 ¾ x 14 ½
Sheet: 24 x 19
Lent by Edwin and Ellen Reingold
Cover: 18. Tsuchigumo
Inside flap: 1. Ayakashi
The brantley Gallery
Noh
Dance Drama of the Samurai
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Noh, the oldest traditional form of Japanese
drama, is a complex and challenging form of
theater. At once austere and luxurious, it brings
the arts of dance, music, and choral chanting into
intimate settings, where an all-male cast performs
an ancient repertoire with enduring themes of
great emotional intensity. While Noh is uniquely
Japanese, it shares some characteristics with the
theater of classical Greece, especially in its use of
masks, choruses, and stories intended to have a
transformative impact on audiences. This display
of Noh masks, costumes, drums, and related
prints is inspired by and presented in conjunction
with the Museum’s special exhibition, The Body
Beautiful in Ancient Greece.
While Greek drama was performed in
open-air theaters on hillsides for huge audiences,
Noh was for most of its history the private theater
of the highest-ranking samurai—aristocratic
warriors who held positions of wealth, status,
and administrative responsibility. Since the late
fourteenth century, when the third Ashikaga
shogun, Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), invited the
father-and-son team of actors Kan’ami (1333–
1384) and Zeami (c. 1363–c. 1443) to perform
at his villa in Kyoto, successive generations of
military leaders patronized Noh troupes.
Five centuries of samurai patrons shaped
Noh drama into an art form that embodied
their core beliefs and values rooted in Buddhist
teachings. Many Noh story lines emphasize
themes of salvation in the Buddhist sense; that
is, freeing oneself from emotional attachments—
such as love, jealousy, anger, and resentment—
that ensnare the soul even after death. In a
typical plot, the shite (protagonist) is the ghost of
a fictional or historical character from the distant
past. The shite first appears in disguise and
converses with a traveling priest; as the dialogue
unfolds, the real identify of the shite is discovered.
In the second half of the play, the shite reappears
in true form, as a ghost. As the chorus chants his
confession, the shite mimes the action in a dance
of highly stylized, decorous movements. Through
the catharsis of narration and re-enactment, the
tormented ghost finds release at last.
The language of Noh, like its themes, is
archaic, as the spoken lines often quote directly
from poetry of the Heian period (794–1185),
the courtly novel The Tale of Genji (written in
the first decade of the eleventh century), or war
tales, especially those focused on the struggle for
power between the Taira and Minamoto clans in
the twelfth century. For the samurai aristocracy,
who often trained in Noh chanting and dance
themselves, Noh became the portal to knowledge
and symbolic possession of Japan’s literary and
cultural heritage.
After the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate
in 1868, the feudal system was abolished, and
with it the samurai class that had supported
Noh for so long. Following a brief period of
precipitous decline, Noh resurged in the early
twentieth century, thanks to the charisma of a
few actors and moral support from the imperial
family. Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869–1927),
such as those seen here, were published in serial
form in a leading magazine, where they helped
to introduce Noh to the general public. Without
changing its repertoire, language, or acting style,
Noh gradually won fans among the educated
middle class. Today it thrives as never before,
as Japanese and non-Japanese alike flock to
seasonal performances, take lessons in Noh
chanting, participate in amateur performing
groups, and study the libretti as literature.
Noh theater is a multisensory experience,
dazzling the eye and ear and engaging the mind
and memory. On a sparsely furnished stage, visual
splendor is created by the luxurious costumes,
among the finest Japanese textiles ever made.
Here, two chōken jackets from the Museum’s
collection, garments worn for female dance
roles and male aristocratic roles, are woven of
diaphanous silk gauze brocade. The gleaming
yellow in the brocade design is actual gold foil,
laid on paper and woven into the fabric.
Another touch of gold appears in three
ko-tsuzumi drum bodies, all dating to the
Momoyama (1573–1615) or very early Edo
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CHECKLIST
Dimensions are in inches.
Height precedes width precedes depth.
MASKS
COSTUMES
1. Unknown artist, Japan
Ayakashi (Vengeful Warrior)
17th century
Gesso and pigment on wood
with gilded metal eyes
8¼ x5¼ x3¼
Lent by Sydney L. Moss, Ltd.
7. Unknown artist, Japan
Chōken, 19th century
Gauze silk brocade with woven
design of oxcarts and heartvine
42 ½ x 76
Museum Purchase: Funds provided
by Marge Riley
2002.38
Yamaguchi Bidou
(Japanese, born 1970)
Gesso and pigment on cypress
wood
Courtesy of Target Stores
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2.Ko-omote (Young Lady), 2002
8¼x5x2¾
3. Shōjō (Sprite), 2002
8¼x5x2¾
period (1615–1868) and adorned with gilt lacquer
designs. The smallest of the three drums in the
Noh orchestra, the ko-tsuzumi is made from
two taut disks of horsehide held apart by a
barbell-shaped grip of hollowed-out cherry wood.
The high-and low-pitched beats of the drum
punctuate the dialogue throughout the play,
setting the pace and heightening the drama.
The masks of the Noh stage are unique in
their power to evoke what the great playwright
Zeami called yūgen, “a profound, mysterious
sense of beauty...and the sad beauty of human
suffering.” The oldest mask in the exhibition,
dating to the seventeenth century, is of the
ayakashi (strange fellow) type, used to portray
angry warrior ghosts. The other five masks,
representing a variety of roles, are contemporary
works by Yamaguchi Bidou (born 1970), a young
sculptor who is now winning accolades in Japan
and abroad. Yamaguchi trained in traditional
mask-carving techniques and spent more than
ten years restoring older masks and making
new masks for the theater. His recent work
looks beyond Noh for inspiration, as he seeks
to “materialize the ‘narrative’ hidden behind
each face.”
A selection of woodblock prints serves
to illustrate Noh performance on stage. Two
of these date from the Edo period, when the
general public had access to Noh only on very
rare occasions. Chikanobu’s humorous Townsmen
Viewing Noh on a Ceremonial Occasion (1899),
where the samurai are seated in orderly rows
in a grand hall at Edo Castle while the invited
merchants brawl in the courtyard below, makes
it clear that the lower classes had yet to develop
an appreciation for Noh’s rarefied language and
sedate style of performance.
Twelve prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo, produced
between 1899 and 1930 as part of three extensive
series devoted to Noh, perfectly capture the
dichotomy of spare austerity and refined luxury
found in this uniquely Japanese dramatic form.
The exhibition concludes with prints by three
leading modern print artists who respond to Noh
with powerful abstract gestures: Yamaguchi Gen
(1896–1976), Takahashi Rikio (1917–1999), and
Matsubara Naoko (born 1937).
The Museum is grateful to the lenders who
have made this exhibit possible by generously
sharing their collections: Irwin Lavenberg, Sydney
L. Moss, Ltd., Edwin and Ellen Reingold, and
Target Stores.
4. Imawaka (Young Man), 2002
8¼x5x2¾
5. Hakushikijō (Old Man), 2002
16 x 6 x 2 ¾
6. Ō-Beshimi (Tengū Demon), 2002
8¾x4x7
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
9. K
ōsei Masauji
(Japanese, dates unknown)
Ko-tsuzumi drum body
Late 16th–early 17th century
Black lacquer and gold maki-e palm
frond design on cherry wood
9 ⅞ x diameter 4
Lent by Sydney L. Moss, Ltd.
10. Unknown artist, Japan
Ko-tsuzumi drum body
Late 16th–early 17th century
Black lacquer and gold maki-e
waterwheel design on cherry wood
9 ⅞ x diameter 3 ⅞
Lent by Sydney L. Moss, Ltd.
11. K
ō Kozaemon
(Japanese, dates unknown)
Ko-tsuzumi drum body
Late 16th–early 17th century
Black lacquer and gold maki-e pine
needle design on cherry wood
9 ⅞ x diameter 3 ⅞
Lent by Sydney L. Moss, Ltd.
PRINTS
12. U
tagawa Toyoharu
(Japanese, 1735–1814)
Ukie nō kyōgen no zu (Perspective
Picture of a Noh Performance)
c. 1770
Publisher: Nishimura Yohachi (Eijudō)
Color woodblock
9 13/16 x 14 15/16
The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection
32.190
Maribeth Graybill, PhD
The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art
8. U
nknown artist, Japan
Chōken, 19th century
Gauze silk brocade with woven
cloud design
50 ⅞ x 87
Museum Purchase: Funds provided
by the Asian Art Council
2002.39
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13. Yōshū Chikanobu
(Japanese, 1838–1912)
Kyū bakufu gotairei no setsu:
chōnin onō haiken no zu
(Townsmen Viewing Noh on a
Ceremonial Occasion Hosted by
the Former Shogunate), 1899
From the series Onko higashi no
hana (Traditional Flowers of the East)
Publisher: Egawa Hachi’emon
Color woodblock (triptych)
14 ⅛ x 28 ⅜
Lent by Irwin Lavenberg
T sukioka Kōgyo
(Japanese, 1869–1927)
Lent by Irwin Lavenberg
14. Ō
hara gokō (Imperial Visit to Ōhara)
1899
From the series Nōgaku zue
(Illustrations of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock with embossing
Image: 8 ¾ x 13
Sheet: 9 ⅞ x 14 ¾
15. T omoakira, 1900
From the series Nōgaku zue
(Illustrations of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock
Image: 8 ¾ x 13
Sheet: 9 ⅞ x 14 ⅝
16. Oba ga sake (The Old Woman’s
Wine), 1900
From the series Nōgaku zue
(Illustrations of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock
Image: 8 ⅞ x 13 ⅛
Sheet: 9 ½ x 14 ⅛
17. Tankai, 1901
From the series Nōgaku zue
(Illustrations of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock with metallic
pigments and embossing
Image: 8 ⅞ x 13
Sheet: 9 ⅜ x 14 ⅛
18. Tsuchigumo (Earth Spider), 1922
From the series Nōgaku hyakuban
(One Hundred Prints of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock
Sheet: 14 ⅝ x 9 ½
19. Sotoba Komachi (Komachi by the
Gravepost), 1923
From the series Nōgaku hyakuban
(One Hundred Prints of Noh)
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi
Color woodblock
Sheet: 14 ⅝ x 9 ⅝