Noh Theater Analysis

The beginning of Noh Theater dates back to 11th century Japan. At this time entertainment was taking a turn toward musical form and dramatic nature. Poetry had been flourishing in Japan for many years, and performance art began to develop by way of influences from China and Korea. Two of these types of entertainment, the sarugaku and the dengaku, merged, and Noh theater blossomed. Saragaku offered a choreographic element, and the dengaku brought an element of the dramatic. A very popular Noh playwright Zeami, brought the art form to popularity during the Muromachi Period (1300-1550).(Brazell) Noh is a unique art form structured around music and dance. The name is derived from nō, which means “talent” or “skill”. It is unlike the Western …show more content…
She said if you carry this package and walk around the garden hundreds and thousands of times, she will come out to the garden while you are doing it. What a wonderful offer she makes for you!… The package is the burden of love. What a beautiful package it is! Do you not think so?” He instantly accepts this task only to discover that the package is immovable. In defeat he experiences the pain of unrequited love. He struggles with his desire to lift the chest and suffers in vain at his unattainable love. He eventually ends his own life, and when news of his death comes to the Lady Consort she is stricken with grief, as her intentions were not to harm him, but to demonstrate the impossibility of their romance. She thought he would see the difficulty in an unlikely pair and give up on his desire for her. As she visits the now passed on Yamashine no Shōji, she is approached by his spirit and unable to stand, feeling the weight of her actions, she says, “Although I try to stand up, I feel like a huge rock presses me down. I cannot stand up”. Transformed now into a vengeful spirit, the ghost of Shōji acknowledged his foolishness and lamented his fate for loving a woman beyond his station in this soliloquy; “I kept my love in my heart so that just as the sound of water running between the rocky banks of the Yoshiko River would not be made, no one would talk about my love. And I died for my love. I have held on to my love and become an evil spirit bearing a bottomless grudge. But meaningless it is…It all happened because I relied on her empty words.” We see how the Lady Consort did not intend to give him false hope, but broke his spirit by allowing him to accept the burden of an unreciprocated love for a younger beautiful woman. The story goes on even further as the spirit of Shōji resolves to not seek vengeance but instead vows to be her protector and guardian from the after-life. “Being ablaze with love, smoke