Noh

What noh is

Noh is dance-drama: the performers dance, sing and move to music rather than speak dialogue as in ordinary theatre. Carved masks show who a figure is, a ghost, a woman, a god or a demon, and the actor's feeling is carried by set, formal gestures instead of a natural face. Costumes and a few props complete the picture. It takes long training to do any of this well. The tradition values what has been handed down over anything new, so the way each role is played is fixed in close detail and watched over by the heads of the schools, the iemoto.

Origins and history

The word nō (能) means a skill or talent, and on its own it names the theatre that grew out of sarugaku in the middle of the 14th century. An older forebear, sangaku, reached Japan from China in the 8th century with acrobatics, dancing, songs and comic turns. Dances of rice planting (dengaku), court music (gagaku), folk Shinto dance (kagura) and the shirabyōshi given by women at court all fed into what became Noh. In the 14th century Kan'ami Kiyotsugu and his son Zeami Motokiyo reshaped these elements. Patronage from the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu let Zeami make Noh the leading theatre of its day.

Roles and training

A play needs at least one shite, the leading figure, and one waki, who answers and balances him, plus a chorus called jiutai of six to eight singers and a small band of instrumentalists, the hayashi. Kōken, one to three stage hands, move props and costumes. Kyōgen actors perform short comic interludes (aikyōgen) inside a play and complete pieces between plays. Instrumentalists play a flute, the nōkan, and three drums. Training starts in childhood, by tradition at three years old. Zeami set out nine levels of acting, the highest likened to a flower opening and joined to spiritual strength. Five schools teach shite actors: Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō and Kita.

Rhythm of a programme

Jo-ha-kyū governs how a performance is built. The words mean beginning, breaking and rapid, and the idea comes from gagaku, old court music, where the tempo gradually quickens. Noh, the tea ceremony, poetry and flower arrangement all took it up. A traditional programme ran to five plays, one from each category: the first stands for jo, the next three for ha, the last for kyū. Each play is itself in three parts, an opening, a middle and a close, starting slowly and ending fast. Kyōgen pieces are placed between the plays. In current practice two Noh plays and one kyōgen piece are often enough.

Today and change

When the Tokugawa shogunate fell in 1868, state money stopped and Noh lost stages and performers. Support from the imperial government returned in part because foreign diplomats admired the art, and the troupes that survived began playing to ordinary audiences in Tokyo, Osaka and other big cities. In 1957 the government named nōgaku an Important Intangible Cultural Property, which protects the tradition and its leading practitioners. The National Noh Theatre, set up by the government in 1983, stages performances and trains actors. UNESCO listed nōgaku theatre in 2008. Women, kept out during the Edo period, entered the Nohgaku Performers' Association in 1948 and the Association for Japanese Noh Plays in 2004.

How Noh is kept

A performance is a programme rather than a single piece. The shite, often masked, takes the leading role, while the waki gives him a partner to speak and move against. Behind them sit the jiutai chorus and the hayashi players, with flute and drums. Kōken are the stage hands. Between the Noh plays, kyōgen actors perform comic scenes, and inside a play they may step in for a short interlude. The tempo builds from a slow opening to a quick close, following jo-ha-kyū. Masks mark out ghosts, women, gods and demons.

When and where

Noh has no single feast day. It has been staged since the 14th century, and performances run through the year at theatres and on temporary stages. A historic programme put several Noh plays on one bill with kyōgen between them; today a shorter bill, often two Noh plays and a kyōgen piece, is common.

Noh belongs to Japan. It is strongest where its theatres and schools sit, in Tokyo, where the National Noh Theatre was founded, and in the Kyoto and Osaka region, where the shogun's court took the art up. Yamato Province, around today's Nara, was home to the sarugaku troupes from which four of the five schools descend.

What Noh means

For those who keep it, Noh carries the memory of a long line of teachers. Every gesture and position is repeated as it was handed on, and the slowness of the movement is itself a sign of respect for what earlier masters did. Masks turn the actor into a ghost, a woman, a god or a demon, while the meaning of the story is left for the audience to complete. Zeami's image of the actor as a flower, opening only at the highest level, sets skill beside inner discipline.

Questions people ask about Noh

See also

RakugoJapanese solo comic storytelling told from a cushion using a fan and a clothIkebanaThe Japanese art of arranging cut branches and flowers in a vesselDragon danceA long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivalsKyōgenA traditional Japanese comic theatre of short farces, spoken dialogue and satire

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Harry Partch – how Heiner Goebbels bought Delusion of the Fury to EdinburghThe Guardian, Article
• Nôgaku theatreUNESCO, Heritage listing
• Harry Partch – how Heiner Goebbels bought Delusion of the Fury to EdinburghThe Guardian, Article
• Nôgaku theatreUNESCO, Article

• Noh on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.