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Training of the Nō Performer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
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Japanese nō is a complex theatrical form, as most Japanese including nō performers themselves will often say. The nō performer must undergo years of training before he will be recognized as an ‘adult’ among other nō performers. But this feature in itself is common to many other performing art forms throughout the world. In terms of pure performing technique, in fact, the physical demands of nō are probably not as great as many other Asian genres – such as kathakali, for example, which demands extensive training to master its complex eye, face and hand techniques, or Peking opera, which requires an often highly acrobatic body control of its performers.
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- Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1987
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1. There can be as many as 3600 different performance combinations for any single play. This total is reached by multiplying consecutively the number of schools of each speciality. There are some plays which do not use the taiko and/or the ai role. Also, certain schools of certain specialities do not have particular plays in their performing repertoire. In any of these cases, of course, the possible performance combinations would be less. On the other hand, certain schools have special variant performances of particular plays which again increase the total number of possible performances of a play. Thus, one can easily understand why full scores of performances are not available since they would represent only one possible performance.
2. Kamae refers not only to the basic body posture for dance movement but also to the correct posture for the instrumentalists when playing. It demands a degree of body tension keeping the body poised but not stiff, and this serves to focus the concentration of the performer on the movements he will make or the patterns he will perform as well as energizing the performance space for both the other performers and the audience. The kamae is maintained throughout a performance, thus holding that degree of energizing tension and creating a visually strong presentation.