The Noh stage, a landscape open to dreams

Conference by Véronique Brindeau, specialist in performing arts and traditional Japanese music at Inalco.

Noh is the oldest form of theatre in Japan, developed between the 14th and 16th centuries and characterized by a unique stage design and theatrical style, which also inspired modern theatre in Europe in the 1920s.

There is a profound connection between the elements that make up the stage and the events that unfold there. For example, the walkway the characters cross symbolizes the path they have traveled, the pillars supporting the roof serve as landmarks for the actors, and the gravel border delineates the stage space, a fictional space, from the audience, which belongs to the real space. Some elements have lost their original function but are still present on contemporary stages. For instance, a few steps at the side of the stage, now obsolete, once allowed members of the audience to offer gifts to the actors at the end of a performance. The actors who recite the text are also dancers and perform... kataPrecise shapes, the combination of which will form a choreography. At the back of the stage are the musicians and the chorus, with a codified placement of the instruments: a flautist on the right accompanied by two drummers, playing by hand, and a third, in pieces representing deities or demons, playing with beaters. The drummers' part consists of both strikes and modulated cries (syllables corresponding to a character's state of mind and the nature of the piece).

Noh Theater, Hakusan Jinja, Hiraizumi, Iwate.

National Noh Theatre. Tokyo.

The structure of Noh theater stages is inherited from religious architecture. This is particularly evident in outdoor stages such as the one at Hiraizumi in Iwate. Although rebuilt in 1853, it was designated a cultural property of national importance in 2003. Twice a year, Noh scenes are performed there, not by professionals, but by monks from the temple adjacent to the stage, accompanied by a choir chosen from among the inhabitants of Iwate. The only scenery is the pine tree depicted at the back of the stage, echoing the performances that were once held outdoors within temples and shrines. The stage design is very similar to the platforms where religious performances and chants serving as offerings to the deities were performed, and we see that indoor stages retain the roof, which, in effect, loses its function. Some modern stage designs incorporate only certain elements, such as those conceived by set designer Sugimoto Hiroshi (born in 1948). In 2001, this set designer, initially known as a photographer, exhibited his photographic works alongside a stage set inspired by Noh theater, where a work from his photographic series was displayed. Pine Trees dedicated to pine trees. This tree refers to the Battle of Yashima (1185), the subject of the Noh play written by Zeami (late 14th-early 15th century, considered the founder of Noh theater and author of treatises on Noh theater) which will be performed on stage. In his staging, he incorporates the walkway, the platform, and the pine tree, in his own style, and replaces the pillars with candelabras. In 2017, he directed his play Rikyû no Enoura (based on the famous tea master Sen no Rikyū) where the pillars are replaced by bamboo and the backdrop is the landscape itself. The architect Kengo Kuma (born in 1954) is also behind a modern Noh stage, built in Kyoto in 2024 and characterized by a minimalist structure made entirely of natural wood. He is also responsible for the restoration of the “Noh stage in the forest” (mori-butai) in Tome in the Miyagi region, including a covered gallery for spectators and acoustic jars located under the stage, as a historical reminder of this stage device which was used to amplify the actors' foot strikes.

Layout of the Noh scene. @nogaku

Shot of a Noh scene. @nogaku

Several elements of the stage design help to establish a link between the audience and what is happening on stage. In this regard, Paul Claudel writes in The black bird in the rising sun (1926) that the audience experiences both a sense of being enveloped and of distance. Not facing the stage but positioned on either side of the platform, the audience is bathed in the same light as the action on stage. The absence of tiered seating gives the impression that the Noh stage is elevated, a perspective that inspired the low-angle shots in the films of Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963). The Noh stage does not truly have a set. The pine tree depicted in the background is a reminder of early outdoor scenes, but it is also the place where deities descend to protect the actors and the audience during performances that feature characters from the past or unreal beings. The set elements related to the play come to life through the text sung by the chorus or spoken by the actor. Similarly, the few temporary sets are suggestive, such as a boat represented by a bamboo pole wrapped in white fabric. This empty set has sparked genuine fascination and enabled the renewal of theatre in the 20th century, as Jacques Copeau wrote: “the more bare the stage, the more freely the imagination plays on it.”

In this sense, the Noh stage can be described as a landscape open to dreams. Furthermore, a significant portion of the approximately 250 classical plays falls into a category called “dream Noh” or “apparition Noh,” which follows the same pattern. A first character, usually a monk, from our world (he is not masked), crosses the bridge and describes the landscape he traverses to reach the pillar at the back left, where he introduces himself and explains his presence in a place known for having been the scene of distant events or mentioned in ancient literary works. Then, a local character (villager, fisherman, etc.) enters the stage, and a dialogue ensues. This second character then recounts the events that took place in this location, whether a battle or the tragic end of a hero, initially in a very elliptical and poetic style, then with increasing precision, becoming unsettling because to know such details of what happened centuries ago requires having been present at the time. As evening falls, the monk falls asleep, and the second character withdraws, crossing the footbridge and revealing that he was himself the figure from the past he had been describing. After a musical interlude, he reappears in the guise of this former character to sing and dance these events, like a kind of exorcism that allows him to regain peace of mind, before leaving the stage. The monk recites words of blessing as the ghost departs, then the choir withdraws through the small door at the back of the stage, the actors and musicians through the catwalk, leaving the stage empty, as if the whole play were just a dream.

The Noh theatre of Aix-en-Provence.

The Rikyu-Enoura noo play staged by Sugimoto Hiroshi on the stone stage of the Enoura observatory ©Odawara Art Foundation.

The bridge, in addition to being a place one crosses to get from one point to another, is linked to strange events or rites in Japanese culture. In the theater, it allows passage between the world of the living and the world of spirits, leading to the stage known as the "crossroads of dreams." The delimitation of space is also found through the shirasu, this strip of gravel surrounding the stage, which echoes the principle of kekkai (the line that divides the space, the boundary) present in Japanese architecture through the torii Japanese temples and shrines, marking the passage from a profane space to a sacred space, or in Japanese gardens with the passage from the outer garden to the inner garden towards the tea pavilion.

The spirit of the irisesA Noh play attributed to Zenchiku (1405-1470), Zeami's son-in-law, is a famous example of "dream Noh." It tells the story of a monk who travels to a place renowned for its poetry, where a young woman appears to him. He asks her if this is indeed the place mentioned in the ancient poem, which is reproduced in the... Tales of Ise ; the woman will then tell him the story of the famous poet Ariwara no Narihira (9th century) who composed an acrostic poem, the syllables at the beginning of each of the five lines of which form the word iris (kakitsubataAs night approached, the young woman invited the monk to spend the night in her humble abode. Then, she departed and reappeared transformed, dressed in a magnificent kimono and headdress; she explained that the kimono belonged to the princess mentioned in the poem and that the headdress was that of the deceased poet. The spirit then began to dance before vanishing at dawn.

This place, described as the site of the apparition, with its Eight Bridges, often appears as a literary reference in public gardens, accessible via a zigzag footbridge, and is also known through the prints of Hokusai or, even more so, the folding screens of Ogata Kōrin. As for the Noh play, it is notably referenced in cinema by Ozu, in his film End of spring (1949).

Katia Choupik