The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (54 page)

As Okakura
⁵
observed,
Noh
was performed on a stage of hard, unpainted wood, with a single pine tree somewhat conventionally portrayed on the background, thus suggesting “a grand monotony” to heighten the “infinite suggestiveness” of this short epic drama. Although one-act
Noh
are not unusual (e.g.
Hagoromo
or “Robe of Feathers”), the majority of
Noh
have at least two acts and many have three or more. One-act seldom went more than an hour without a comic interlude or
kyôgen
. Thus, a
Noh
performance could go on for a whole afternoon or evening (i.e. for five or six hours).

2. Among us, one actor wearing a mask slowly makes his way onto the stage; in Japan two or three actors without masks rush out onto the stage and face each other in the manner of cocks ready to fight
.

The sixteenth century witnessed profound innovation in European theatre, fueled by a proliferation of great dramatists, formal acting companies, and the building of public theaters such as the Globe in London and the Corral de la Cruz in Madrid. And yet for all the dynamism, European theater remained true to Greek and Roman drama, including use of the prologue—an extended moment before a play when a masked actor appeared on stage to briefly explain or introduce the comedy or tragedy (signaled, respectively, by a smiling or sorrowful mask).

Frois' comment in this distich about Japanese drama corresponds to the opening sequence in many
Noh
, in which the supporting actor and entourage come out and line up as described. The fact, however, that the actors are said to rush out on to the stage has prompted Okada to suggest that Frois is contrasting a European prologue to a
kyôgen
interlude, which typically separate acts of a
Noh
drama.
Kyôgen
are comic or light-hearted skits that often feature popular song and focus on simple truths or adventures such as travel to the city, or, in the case of city-dwellers, a trip out to the countryside.
⁶
Most
kyôgen
feature a principal actor
(
shite
) and two associates (
ado
); their comic intent is immediately made known either verbally or by exaggerated observance of rigid stage conventions.
⁷
Eliza Scidmore
⁸
described a
kyôgen
entrance as follows:

The actors enter at a gait that out—struts the most exaggerated stage stride ever seen, the body held rigid as a statue, and the foot, never wholly lifted, sliding slowly along the polished floor.

3. Our autos are in verse; theirs are all in prose
.

Speakers of Romance languages found rhyming fairly easy because their languages had fewer phonemes to match and used a wide range of versification. Consider the following stanza from Gil Vicente's
Nao D' Amores
, first performed for Portugal's João III in 1527:

Japanese lacks the proper syntax for end rhyme, as Frois points out in
Chapter 10
(
#26
). Moreover, as noted, Noh performances consist of more than dialogue or prose.

4. Ours often vary and others are reworked; theirs are predetermined in all aspects from the outset and do not vary
.

This contrast bears some similarity to Frois' comment about changing fashions in Europe and the lack therof in Japan (see
Chapter 1
,
#3
). With respect to Europe, certainly the sixteenth century was a time of significant change. Even though most works of drama, particularly
autos
, were formulaic and reiterated “old” themes (e.g. human frailty and God's power and mercy), theatrical genres were constantly subverted and re-invented such that spectators both knew what to expect, and yet expected to be surprised.
¹⁰

In Japan, Zeami,
Noh's
Shakespeare, died ca.1443, a hundred years before the first Portuguese reached Japan.
¹¹
By then,
Noh
had become
the
drama of Japan and most Japanese acting schools took their cue from Zeami, the actor, the playwright, and the theorist. Although critics and scholars often blame the Tokugawas for enforcing Hideyoshi's law of 1591, which essentially fixed theatrical repertoires,
¹²
Frois'
comment here would seem to suggest that Noh drama had become prescriptive over a decade before that much-maligned era began.

5. Ours, being autos rather than tragedies, are not divided into acts; theirs are always divided into first, second, third, etc
.

Autos
were one-act plays that lasted anywhere from thirty to ninety minutes; generally they have only one setting or scene. For instance, Gil Vicente's auto “The Boat to Hell” all takes place in the chamber of one Queen Maria. The queen's chamber is the scene for a trial-like encounter between the devil and a host of sinful elites who enter the chamber only to be successively assigned a seat on the devil's boat leaving for hell.
¹³

Zeami argued that
Noh
should follow the principle of
Jo, Ha
and
Kyû
, which translate respectively as introduction or slow beginning, development or a buildup in dramatic tension, and then a rapid finish. In keeping with this principle, each act of
Noh
is divisible into smaller units (
dan
) with particular instrumental music, dialogue, poetry, and/or chorus.
¹⁴
Thus, a two-act
Noh
would have at least six
dan
and, as noted, each act would be separated by a
kyôgen
interlude.

6. Our performers emerge onto the stage from a separate structure in which they cannot be seen; Japanese performers are near the theatre behind sail-like curtains
.

Frois seems to be referring here specifically to
autos sacramentales
, which had their origins in the Feast of Corpus Christi (instituted in 1264 by Pope Urban IV). These
autos
often were the culmination of a procession that featured wagons (
carros
) with elaborate superstructures and tableaux that graphically and dramatically depicted religious truths or allegories. Usually the procession eventuated at an important or central plaza, where a pair of wagons was pulled up next to a temporary stage where the
auto
was performed.
¹⁵
This may be what Frois is referring to when he speaks of performers emerging on stage from a “separate structure.”
¹⁶

The stage for a
Noh
performance typically has a bridge (visible to the audience) leading from the back of the stage to a “green room” off to the left. Here the actors wait behind what Sakanishi describes as a “curtain of five colors.”
¹⁷
Okada guesses that Frois' odd expression “sail-like curtains” (
cortinas de fune
) meant an entrance curtain that was hoisted in the manner of a sail. Indeed, such a curtain is still used in
Noh
today. The curtain is raised from the bottom hem and has the visual effect of a billowing sail. As Komparu
¹⁸
notes, before the curtain
is raised the principal actor or
shite
actually begins his performance (apparently as a shadow behind the curtain), perhaps explaining Frois' preoccupation in this distich with performers “off stage” who are visible (as opposed to those who are hidden, in the European case).

7. Our autos are performed through speaking; theirs are nearly always sung—or danced
.

As Frois indicates, European drama was by and large a matter of spoken dialogue and soliloquy. In 1585 opera was still an emerging art form in Italy, spawned by experiments at recovering “authentic” Greek drama, which humanist scholars argued was primarily sung rather than spoken.

Although the first recognized performance of
ka-bu-ki
, or sing-dance-technique, did not take place until 1594, song and dance long had been a part of Japanese drama. In this regard, what perhaps distinguishes
Noh
from earlier drama is that is has more “telling” than dialogue
per se
and this “telling” is conveyed through “song” and dance. With regard to the “song,” Okakura found it full of what we now call sound effects, such as “the soughing of the wind amongst the pine boughs, the dropping of water, or the tolling of distant bells, the stifling of sobs, the clash and clang of war, echoes of the weavers beating the new web against the wooden beam, the cry of crickets, and all the manifold voices of night and nature, where pause is more significant than pitch.”
¹⁹
During these extended moments of “semi-articulate sound,” actors could rest their voices and allow dance to tell, or rather suggest, the story.

8. We consider it disruptive and insulting to make noise during an auto; in Japan a performance is honored and praised if there are some people on the outside giving loud hoots and hollers
.

Autos
of both the secular (i.e. palace performances) and religious variety were pretty staid affairs.
Autos sacramentales
often were a dramatic portrayal of a theological statement about God's enduring presence in the lives of Christians, realized especially through the Eucharist. Certainly for Catholics it was rude (if not “sinful”) to make noise or otherwise act disrespectfully during these particular
autos
.
²⁰
However, theatergoers attending one of Cervantes' plays, or spectators in Italy who crowded around street performers who pioneered the
commedia dell' Arte
, were hardly quiet. Indeed, with the exception of the
autos sacramentales
, theatrical performance in sixteenth century Europe was all about the playwright and actors engaging the audience and making them part of the performance.
²¹

At climactic moments of
Kabuki
, it is not unusual for audience members to yell out and cheer on actors, much as fans at an American baseball game yell insults or
cheer for their favorite players when they are at bat.
²²
It is conceivable that in Frois' time some
Noh
or
Kyôgen
interludes encouraged the audience to voice their approval of actors during a performance. Because
Noh
involve relatively little dialogue, audience participation was not likely to compete with the actors' infrequent, slowly drawn out speech. In Japanese folk (festival and farm) singing, a sporadic musical accompaniment or a shrill chorus of voices, usually female, is often used to spice up the melody. Especially in festivals, this “sassy” sound works wonderfully to increase the total energy level of the performance, much in the way that “call backs” enrich the total sound effect of a Southern black Baptist congregation in America.

9. Our masks cover the entire jaw and beard; in Japan the masks are so tiny that if an actor is playing the role of a woman, his beard is always sticking out from under it
.

Imagine the role of Juliet in
Romeo and Juliet
being played by a man with a beard! Sounds strange, but in much of Europe (Italy, Spain and France witnessed more exceptions) it was still common in 1585 (or 1594, when Shakespeare wrote) for men or boys to play female roles.
²³
The Church and Europeans more generally frowned on women taking to the stage. Thus, Frois' focus here on masks that succeeded or failed to hide the beards of male actors.

In
Noh
men also played both male and female roles and wore small masks carved from cypress wood.
²⁴
Because Frois noted that it was unusual for any Japanese man to have a beard (see
Chapter 1
,
#5
), he is probably referring in this distich to the fact that
Noh
masks were not “full-face” masks intended to actually cover and disguise the actor's face, and thus if a Japanese man
were
to have a beard, the beard would be apparent.
Noh
masks generally bespeak an archetypal figure (
shite
), whose emotional/spiritual state is conveyed by the actor through dialogue, song, dance, and gesture. Japanese three-dimensional “art” could be very realistic (e.g. statues showing each pore of the skin, with carefully implanted real hair). The
Noh
mask bespeaks an aesthetic choice for an icon with more typological rather than explicit meaning.
²⁵
European drama, much like Renaissance art, aimed for mimetic credulity, using backdrops and other props that were realistic and often cost a small fortune.

10. Our comedies or tragedies feature gentle musical instruments; in Japan they use small kettledrums shaped like goblets, a larger kettledrum played with two sticks, and a bamboo flute
.

Frois is generally correct that European drama featured music that served as aural background rather than conveying significant meaning and thus being integral to a performance. Arguably, the Japanese used their instruments (two different
drums and a flute) to create what is analogous to a modern-day movie soundtrack: the music could get very intense and often conveyed as much or more meaning than the dialogue or movements of the actors.

The first drum mentioned by Frois is called a
ko tsuzumi
, and it is played by hand. It looks like a long hourglass, with percussive membranes on each end that are laced together with chords that can be squeezed as one strikes the drum membranes. Striking the membranes while squeezing the chords results in what is essentially a “talking-drum.”

The second type of drum (
taiko
) is just a drum; when hit on the head it gives a good solid drum sound. Note that the sticks that Frois mentions spend most of their time hitting the wood on the side of the drum. Both drums were used to emphasize and harmonize with the telling and the action of the play, mostly in a temporal rather than tonal way.