Kashu-juku Noh Theater at Japan Society

In light of the tragic, still-unfolding events in Japan, the explicit message from Japan Society last evening could not have been clearer: Please focus on the depth, breadth and endurance of our culture.

With sober, subdued elegance, Japan Society presented the New York debut of Kashu-juku Noh Theater, the Kyoto-based troupe now touring North America. These sold-out performances, continuing tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm, are presented in conjunction with Carnegie Hall's JapanNYC Festival. A useful lecture, starting at 6:30 each evening and free to ticket-holders, traces the history and explores the aesthetics of noh and kyogen--elite, ritualistic theatrical forms rooted in Japan’s medieval warrior age, carefully tended by generations of masters, actors and musicians since the 14th Century. We are also treated to enticements to visit Kyoto.

Kashu-juku, under founder-director Katayama Shingo, has brought us three samples of the tradition:

An excerpt from Yashima: Here Umewaka Naoyoshi performs a famous mai-bayashi (a stripped-down solo in which musicians and chanters accompany a principal actor/dancer who performs mask-less and in a simple costume). A warrior’s ghost remembers a furious battle at sea: “I feel as if I am returning to that time again...the moon shines...light reflecting off the swords...the metallic helmets like stars in the sky...” As if drawing an abstract diagram on the floor, Umewaka advances and retreats, thrusts and withdraws, retracts a trembling gold/green fan and, kneeling, folds it. In an eerie kind of homeopathy, the violence of the ancient events, as replayed in his memory, is distilled to these simple, refined and, yes, ghostly actions set against the harshness of exceptionally spare drum beats, piercing flute notes and vocal whoops.

Boshibari (Tied to a Pole): A fine example of a kyogen, or comic dance, often performed as an interlude between noh acts. If noh represents the rarefied world of gods and aristocracy, the homelier kyogen gets down and dirty into the everyday world. In this piece, a master (Shimada Hiromi) attempts to prevent his servants from stealing his sake by tying them up--one standing with wrists lashed to a long pole; the other kneeling, with his hands restrained behind his back. It’s “a bothersome fix,” as the servants say. However, these two guys--Shigeyama Ippei and Shigeyama Doji--quickly figure out a clever and, yes, increasingly drunken workaround. This becomes quite a rocky dance and, with its outcome, one of the funniest parts of a sweetly amusing performance.

Aoi No Ue (Lady Aoi) draws from the legendary Tale of Genji and deals with Prince Genji’s jealous, vengeful mistress, Lady Rokujo (Katayama Shingo), possessing the being of her rival, the pregnant Lady Aoi (here represented, brilliantly, by a robe ritualistically folded and placed near the edge of the stage). As in the previous pieces, a monitor set to one side of the broad stage renders the Japanese dialogue in English. I was grateful for the translation, although I disliked having to glance away from the action. During Aoi no Ue, I missed most of the dialogue simply because its intense, pregnant stillness mesmerized me--as did the ultimately crucial rasp of prayer beads--and I could rarely avert my eyes.

Kashu-juku Noh Theater is sold out, but it’s worth taking a shot at the waiting list, beginning at 6:30pm at the box office.

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), Manhattan
(directions)