Zeami Motokiyo
Encyclopedia
Zeami Motokiyo also called Kanze Motokiyo (観世 元清), was a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese aesthetician, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

.

Acting

Zeami was educated by his father, Kan'ami
Kanami
Kan'ami Kiyotsugu , was a Japanese Noh actor, author, and musician during the Muromachi period. Born Yūzaki Kiyotsugu in Iga Province, Kan'ami also went by the names 'Miyomaru' and 'Kanza Kiyotsugu' ....

, who was also an actor. The father-son team established the Noh theatre. When Kan'ami's company performed for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
was the 3rd shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who ruled from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was the son of the second shogun Ashikaga Yoshiakira....

, the Shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 of Japan, he asked for Zeami to have a court education in the arts. The Shogun took the boy as his lover, in the shudo tradition, in 1374.

After Zeami succeeded his father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...

 - a mixture of pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 and vocal acrobatics.

Writing

Scholars attribute nearly 50 plays to Zeami. Among them are the works Izutsu
Izutsu
' is a classic Noh play written by Zeami, the dominant figure in the early history of Noh theatre.Izutsu is based on an old story, Tsutsu-Izutsu , from the Ise monogatari, a 10th century collection of stories, many of which are based on stories about the romantic encounters of a "certain man",...

, Sekidera Komachi, Yamanba
Yamanba (Noh play)
' is a frequently-performed Noh play of the fifth category attributed to Zeami Motokiyo. Its central character is the legendary mountain hag, Yama-uba....

, Aoi no Ue
Aoi no Ue (play)
Aoi no Ue is a Noh play based on an episode in the Tale of Genji and named for Lady Aoi, one of the novel's characters. It is an example of the fourth category of "miscellaneous" Noh plays. Aoi no Ue was the first of many Noh plays based on the Tale of Genji...

, and Atsumori
Atsumori (play)
' is a Japanese Noh play by Zeami Motokiyo which focuses on Taira no Atsumori, a young samurai who was killed in the Genpei War, and his killer, Kumagai Naozane...

, a play based on an episode in the 14th-century Tales of the Heike.

In addition to writing plays and his major theoretical work, Fūshi kaden (風姿花伝)—also known as Kadensho (花伝書)— Zeami also wrote practical instructions for actors and established the Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...

 theatre as a serious art form. His books are not only instructions but also aesthetic
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

 treatises based on the spiritual culture of Japan.

Further reading

  • On the Art of the No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami, 1984, M. Yamazaki (ed.), J. T. Rimer (tr.)
  • The House Of Kanze, Nobuko Albery
    Nobuko Albery
    Nobuko Albery is a Japanese author and theatrical producer and the widow of noted English theatrical impresario, Sir Donald Albery.-Early life:She was born Nobuko Uenishi in Kobe, Japan, the daughter of parents Keiji and Sodako...

    , 1985, Simon And Schuster, New York, ISBN 0-671-60520-8 (novel)
  • Zeami's Style: The Noh Plays of Zeami Motokiyo, Thomas Blenman Hare, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1986.
  • The Flowering Spirit: Classic Teachings on the Art of Nō, Zeami, William Scott Wilson (tr.), Kodansha International, Tokyo, Japan, 2006, ISBN 4-7700-2499-1 (Fūshi kaden translated)
  • Zeami: Performance Notes, 2008, Tom Hare (tr.), Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-13958-8
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK