(The following group of essays were written by Ms. Joanna Rosset for a
introductory level course in Classical Japanese Poetry and Fiction in the
Fall of 1996. They are good models for essays of this sort because a sincere
attempt is made in them to give a critical reading.  These papers received a
high mark for their level of accuracy and good sense.) KLR

THE MAKURA NO SOSHI

     "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon" is one of the most delightful works
of Japanese literature.It is a work without precedent, filled with flashing
impressions and delicate touches, if lacking in great depth."   I found this
to be an accurate representation of the Makura no Soshi.  I found this piece
of work intriguing for three main reasons.

     The first reason I was interested in The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
was because it is the "most brilliant example of the zuihitsu genre;" the
author "made no attempt to unify or arrange in order these sparkling short
essays."   I found this to be very different from anything I had ever read
before.  The zuihitsu type of writing basically means "following the brush"
or "random essays."  There is no order or unity in this type of writing
which, for me, is a novelty.  All of the other literature I have ever read
has had some type of order to it; it was always arranged in a certain manner
and there was always a sense of unity and cohesion.  That was not so in this
work and I found that to be most interesting.

     The second reason I was intrigued by the Makura no Soshi had to do with
its author-Sei Shonagon.  I found the differences between her and her
contemporary, Murasaki Shikibu, to be fascinating.  Sei Shonagon wrote about
her "experiences at the court and her observations of nature and of other
people*s behavior."   Her writing was mainly non-fiction and it was the
prime example of the zuihitsu genre.  Murasaki Shikibu wrote prose fiction
and her work was extremely organized and unified.  The two writers were like
night and day.  Another major difference between Sei Shonagon and Murasaki
Shikibu came in their ideas on literary ideals.  Sei Shonagon always
insisted that she wrote purely for fun.  Because of her desire to enjoy
herself, Shonagon was concerned with the literary ideal of okashi ( a
reaction of pleasure and usually of amusement).  This can easily be
contrasted to the literary ideal in Murasaki Shikibus Tale of Genji.
Murasaki Shikibu believed in and used the literary ideal of aware (a
sensitivity to things).  Aware was used by Murasaki Shikibu to evoke the
moving and touching aspects of the human experience.   Sei Shonagon and
Murasaki Shikibu were like oil and water; they were total opposites and
their types of writing could never mix.

     I remembered from class that Professor Richard said that Sei Shonagon
and Murasaki Shikibu did not like each other.  In fact, Professor Richard
said that Murasaki Shikibu called Sei Shonagon "a bitch."  I thought that
their rivalry was just because they were competing with each other as
writers but as I did further research, I found another source for their
dislike of one another.  The empress whom Sei Shonagon waited on was Teishi.
Because of political wrangling in the 990s, a second empress came to power
and the two empresses ruled together.  The second empress was named Shoshi
(Akiko) and, you guessed it, Murasaki Shikibu was part of her court.  The
rivalry between the two empresses was reflected in the rivalry between Sei
Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu.  Because of the antagonism between the two
courts, Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu were not on the best of terms.  I
found the deeper reason for their dislike enthralling and I really enjoyed
reading about it.  

     The last aspect of the Pillow Book that I want to discuss is my
reaction to her work.  I could not decide whether her work was wonderfully
humourous or just downright cruel and hateful.  The part of her work that I
found so hilarious was her writing concerning hateful things.  I found her
witty comments on how men (lovers) should and should not behave highly
amusing.  Another aspect of her work that I found funny was one of her other
lists on hateful things.  Here are some examples of the things that made me
laugh:  "One is just about to be told some interesting piece of news when a
baby starts crying*An admirer has come on a clandestine visit, but a dog
catches sight of him and starts barking.  One feels like killing the
beast.One has been foolish enough to invite a man to spend the night in an
unsuitable place-and then he starts snoring."   These were sarcastic, witty
and funny; however, there were other sections in Sei Shonagon's work that I
found mean and spiteful.  One example is the manner in which Sei Shonagon
and her cohorts treated those of the lower class.  It started when a poor
man told Sei Shonagon about the fire that destroyed his house and how he was
unable to save a single object from the house.  Instead of showing some
compassion for his losses, Sei wrote him a nasty poem that mocked him.  The
she and her fellow courtiers laughed at him.  This heartless type of
behaviour is despicable and totally unacceptable.  In the end, I waffled
between laughing at her amusing work and being disgusted by her cruelty.  In
either case, her work did evoke an emotional response from me so in that
respect Sei Shonagon did her job as a writer.

     "Sei Shonagon's observations were expressed in prose rather than
poetry, but they are so acute as to defy any poet to surpass her.No
zuihitsu author ever equaled her achievement.It is the work of an
extraordinary woman whose writings have maintained their freshness and
individuality a millennium after they were first conceived." 

THE HOJOKI

     In An Account of My Hut there was "a deeply Buddhist tinge to the work,
A Buddhism quite unlike the intellectual aesthetic religion which Kukai had
taught.  The new Buddhism-and this work-was pessimistic, as was not
surprising in view of the disasters which befell Japanese society in the
late Heian Period."   There were a few interesting aspects to this work that
will now be discussed.

     First of all, there was the influence of Buddhism from China on the
Japanese literature of the time.  "There was a great upsurge of religious
belief during the Kamakura period, and many varieties of literature reveal
the omnipresent influence of Buddhism. Common to all sects was an awareness
of the transience of worldly things; a belief in rebirth and transmigration;
in causes from past lives resulting in effects in the present life. These
concepts were reflected in literature."   Nowhere is this type of Buddhism
more prevalent than in the Hojiki.  The author of the Hojiki, Kamo no
Chomei, was a great believer of this Buddhist doctrine; he was also a
hermit.  He believed that hermitage was the only possible refuge from the
world that was filled with disasters.  He used the image of a house
throughout his work to represent "the vanity of worldly attachments,
describing on the one hand the grief of those who lost their houses in an
earthquake, conflagration, or whirlwind, and on the other the joy of the
hermit whose hut is so temporary and so unpretentious that it would not
bother him even if it were destroyed."   This was the essence of the
awareness of the transience of all worldly things; the theory of here today,
gone tomorrow was central to his work.  He was also influenced by the belief
in rebirth and transmigration.  An example of these two things can be found
in his opening of An Account of My Hut: 

                The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is never the 
                same.  The bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing,
                now forming, are not of long duration:  so in the world
                are man and his dwellings.The city is the same, the
                people as numerous as ever, but of those I used to know,
                a bare one or two in twenty remain.  They die in the morning,
                they are born in the evening, like foam on the water. 

This was a beautifully written passage.  It represents the never-ending
cycle of nature; it is eternal and endless yet it is always changing
(allegory).  It shows how much of Chomei's writings and beliefs were
influenced by the Chinese and their religion.

     A second interesting feature of the Hojiki was the stylistic features
of Chomei's writing.  Aside from being influenced in thought by the Chinese,
Buddhist beliefs, Chomei's style was also heavily influenced by China.  He
often used parallel constructions in his work which was a clear sign of
Chinese influence.  Here is an example:  

                Perhaps the dew may fall and the flower remain-remain
                only to be withered by the morning sun.  Or the flower may
                fade before the dew evaporates, but even if the dew does 
                not evaporate, it never waits until evening. 

                                            Or in Japanese

                Aru wa tsuyu ochite hana nokoreri.  Nokoru to iedomo 
                asahi ni karenu.  Aru wa hana shibomite tsuyu nao kiezu.
                Kiezu to iedomo yube wo matsu koto nashi. 

"The parallelism is as precise as in Chinese p'ien wen, but it does not give
an impression of heaviness."   The parallelism in Chomei's work clearly
showed a Chines influence.
Another stylistic feature that I found interesting was the repeated use of
"hysteron protoron."  Which in English means a reversal of the natural
order.  An example of this can be seen in the above quotation that spoke
about the "bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming."
This literary device was used to show that things could change rapidly in
the world; that the natural order and the works of man were very uncertain
and always in a state of flux.   The last two stylistic features I wish to
discuss are mujo and mappo.  Both of these features once again have their
roots in Buddhist thought.  Mujo means impermanence; it also means a sense
of mortality and death by the sword-it is about gravity and brevity.  As we
have seen this was one of the most fundamental features of Buddhism.  Mujo
is essential to understanding all of the literature of this time, not just
writings of a specifically Buddhist nature.  It is a very important aspect
of the Hojiki.  Mappo is the aesthetic aspect to the work; it is the
acceptance of the impending end of the world.  This was also an important
part of Chomei's work.  In the end, many of Chomei's literary techniques and
devices were based in Buddhist beliefs from China and all of them were
important in understanding his work.

     The last thing I want to talk about that relates to An Account of My
Hut is the attitude of its author towards the world.  As stated before,
Chomei views the world pessimistically.  He became very disenchanted with
society for a number of reasons and because of said reasons, he chose to
shrink away from society and become a hermit.  He became a hermit to escape
all of life's cruelties (i.e.  the earthquakes, fires, deaths etc.).  By the
age of fifty, Chomei had become a Buddhist priest.  He chose to find peace
in his own little cottage and his own little world.  He sought a "refuge
from the passions and confusion of this world."   And in his own hermitage
he did find the peace he was looking for.  Now, I understand that the world
can be a cruel place but I believe that running away from it is not an
acceptable solution.  You have to stand up for yourself and solve the
problems that the world throws at you because if you start to run away you
can never come back.  Chomei viewed the world pessimistically; he knew there
were many problems in it but instead of trying to help fix the problems he
decided that there was nothing he could do so he did nothing at all.  If
everyone took that position, the world would fall apart.  One person can
make a difference and if everyone starts to believe that then it will not
just be one person but a world full of people trying to solve their problems
together and that is the best thing that could happen.  Chomei may have
found peace for himself but he did not find peace for the world, and in my
opinion, world peace is more important than one's own happiness.  That being
said, I still found his work to be a masterpiece of literature.

     "It must be said that An Account of My Hut is perhaps the most perfect
work of literature composed in Japanese under the strong influence of
Buddhism.  The style is surpassingly beautiful, accommodating Chinese
influences in structure and vocabulary without a trace of awkwardness, and
preserving the effortless lyrical flow of traditional Japanese prose," he
communicated his "vision in a manner so vivid that it still moves readers as
much as it did those for whom it was first composed." 

THE TSUREZUREGUSA

     "Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) is a zuihitsu collection*It is an
expression neither of sorrow over troubled times nor joy over the temporary
success of one or another party; it is instead a work of timeless relevance,
a splendid example of Japanese meditative style."   There are two main
aspects about the Tsurezuregusa that I wish to examine in this section of my
diary.  The first is the similarities and differences between Essays in
Idleness by Kenko and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and An Account of My
Hut by Chomei.  The second aspect I want to examine is the use of aesthetics
in Kenko's work.

     Let's start with a comparison of the Tsurezuregusa and the Makura no
Soshi.  First let's look at the similarities.  Both works were Japanese
masterpieces of the zuihitsu genre.  Both works treat "a wide variety of
subjects, seemingly in no particular order, and both are distinguished by
the unusual clarity of the author's observations."   So, as one can see,
Essays in Idleness seems to echo the delightful Pillow Book in many way (the
Pillow Book was written a few hundred years earlier than the Tsurezuregusa).
There were also many differences between the two works.  Essays in Idleness
was written by a Buddhist priest who was ultimately devoted to religious
truth.  Sei Shonagon was a court lady and she delighted in every piece of
gossip that came her way.   One other possible reason  why Essays in
Idleness has a "melancholy tinge to its worldly wisdom" is perhaps due to
"the tragic period in which it was written."   In any case, one is a work
mired in seriousness and darkness while the other one is a light, frivolous
piece of literature.  Another difference that stems from the first
difference is that Sei Shonagon's work was often witty and humourous.  On
the other hand, while Kenko does have humour, "it is not so much the
flashing repartee that might be exchanged by men and women at the court as
the amusing anecdotes old cronies might relate to one another."   Sei
Shonagon perceptions were sharp but the were not profound; they had no deep
meaning in them.  Kenko, however, linked most of his statements to Buddhist
beliefs; therefore, his statements had depth and soul.  The last major
difference between the Pillow Book and Essays in Idleness came in the view
the two authors had of the world.  Sei Shonagon scorned the past; she was
more interested in the latest happenings than she was in being an expert on
precedents.  On the flip side, Kenko was convinced that the world was
growing steadily worse.  He was writing in an "age that saw itself as doomed
to undergo the misery of mappo, when men could no longer hope to save
themselves," and he believed that "the least important tradition of the past
was a precious survival that had to be preserved, regardless of its
intrinsic merits."   These were the main similarities and differences
between The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon and Essays in Idleness by Kenko.

     This next part will examine how the Tsurezuregusa and the Hojiki were
alike and how they were different.  Like Chomei in the Hojiki, Kenko
believed in mujo and mappo.  And like Chomei, Kenko chose to become a
Buddhist priest and live as a hermit.  When he "left the world" his writings
included many of the feelings of disenchantment found in the writings of
other monks (including Chomei).  However, this is where the similarities
end.  Chomei chose to totally leave the world; he shrank away from most
contact with his surroundings.  Kenko did not.  He chose to live in the
world; he left his retreat to reenter life in the city and he became deeply
involved in its activities.  Kenko also clung to tradition (e.g. how
criminals should be punished etc.); this attachment to the "things of this
world" was unbecoming for a true monk.   While Kenko did state with
conviction "that the world is mutable and not to be depended on Kenko was
far from being a recluse in the manner of Kamo no Chomei, he was much too
involved with this world to renounce it for a hermitage."   This was a major
difference between these two writer and it cannot be overlooked.  However,
the two works also had quite a few things in common and that should be
pointed out as well.

     This next section will briefly discuss some of the aesthetics used by
Kenko in the Tsurezuregusa that I found to be most fascinating.  There were
three main types of aesthetics that I wish to discuss.  The first is the
aesthetic of simplicity.  Kenko stated that one should be careful in
decorating his/her house or garden.  He believed that things should be kept
simple because if one went overboard, the house or the garden would become
garish and ugly to look at.  The second aesthetic he espoused was that of
irregularity (as opposed to uniformity or symmetry).  He believed that
uniformity was "undesirable Imperfect sets are better," because "leaving
something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that
there is room for growth."   Though most other cultures prefer symmetry,
parallelism, and other devices for achieving aesthetic balance. the Japanese
seemed to favour irregularity from their very early history; Kenko was just
offering an explanation for why they preferred things to be irregular.  The
third, and last aesthetic I found interesting in the Tsurezuregusa was that
of Kenko's advocacy for suggestion over climactic expression.  Kenko most
likely turned to suggestion as an aesthetic device for two reasons.  The
first was that the forms of expression were so restricted that the Japanese
had to turn elsewhere for their writing styles.  The second reason that
suggestion was preferred was because it was a more faithful approximation of
actual experiences.  "Suggestion that can convey more than what is visible
or otherwise apprehended is a conspicuous feature not only of," Kenko's work
and Japanese literature, "but of all the Japanese arts."    Kenko's use of
these three types of aesthetics were typical of most Japanese things but
they were very different from anything I have ever known and that is why I
found them so interesting and intriguing.  

     "Essays in Idleness was unknown to the reading public during Kenko*s
lifetime, but it came into prominence at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, and since then has been one of the best known of the Japanese
classics.  Kenko's tastes at once reflected those of Japanese of much
earlier times, and greatly contributed to the formation of the aesthetic
preferences of Japanese for centuries to come." 

HEIKE MONOGATARI

     "The Heian period was brought to a close by the warfare of 1180-1185.
The protagonists of this warfare were two clans, the Taira and the Minamoto,
also known respectively as the Heike and the Genji."    "The supreme example
of the martial tale is unquestionably Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the
Heike), an evocation of, successively, the origins of the conflict between
the Taira and the Minamoto clans, the various defeats suffered by the Taira
during the warfare and finally, the deaths of the last members of the once
proud Taira family." 

     To be perfectly honest, I did not like this piece of work at all
because I do not enjoy reading about warfare.  That being said, there were
some aspects of The Tale of the Heike that I did find somewhat interesting.
The first thing that I found interesting about this work was how it was
intended to be told.  While the story was written down on paper for people
to read, The Tale of the Heike was really meant to be told orally.  "A
written text was probably used as the basis of recitations by professional
storytellers who embellished the original narrative, perhaps in response to
the demands of listeners who craved to hear more about the heroic deeds of
the war."   In this way the stories of the Heike grew longer and longer.
The Tale of the Heike probably exists in more versions than any other piece
of literature in Japanese history.  For The Tale of the Heike to be fully
effective, it must be read out loud with the intonation of a biwa hoshi who
was used to presenting the work.  The recitation of the work should be
accompanied by the "plangent notes of the biwa.  In translation the musical
effects are inevitably lost, and even the most accurate version is likely to
seem inadequate to anyone familiar with the cadences of the original."
Because this story was meant to be told orally, it suffers more in
translation than most other works because the other works were meant to be
read rather than recited.  I found the fact that this work was meant for
recitation rather than reading to be most interesting.

     The second aspect of this work that I found interesting was the way it
seems to relate so well to the present day.  Aspects of this work still seem
relevant in today's society.  One example of this is the relationship
between Kiyomori and his son, Shigemori.  Many father and sons today seem to
have the same types of problems as Kiyomori and Shigemori.  Kiyomori was a
proud, violent, and merciless man; he was seen as a tyrant.  His son was
quite the opposite.  Shigemori was seen to be a model of statesmanship; he
was seen as a virtuous man.  Whenever his father was going to something
atrocious and foolhardy, Shigemori would step in and try to rationalize the
situation and act accordingly.  This contrast and conflict between the
father and the son still occurs in our society.  We may not be at war with
another clan and the fights may not be over killing another human being, but
fathers and sons quite often have different views on the world and how one
should behave in it.  In this way, the story of the relationship between
Kiyomori and his son can be relevant in the world today.  Another aspect of
The Tale of the Heike that can be seen in today's world is how the fighting
of the two clans affected the lives of ordinary citizens.  

The fall of the Taira is a worthy subject of an epic, but even more than 
the accounts of the battles or the speeches by Shigemori or other sections 
that relate directly to the overarching theme, incidental episodes are apt to 
stay in the reader's memory-moments in the lives of people, even those 
on the periphery of the action, who suffer because of causes beyond their 
control. 

It seemed that, in some instances, it was the innocent bystanders who ended
up getting hurt.  This is extremely relevant to the world today.  Just look
at what happened in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  The ordinary citizens of the state
who had nothing to do with the political turmoil were getting killed in the
streets by snipers and bombs because they went out to try and find some
water for their families.  Or the situation in Zaire, where the ordinary,
innocent people are getting killed or dying of starvation and disease
because of a few warring factions fighting for political power.  This is
exactly the point the Heike Monogatari exemplified.  No matter who is
fighting or what the reason for the fighting is, it is the innocent people
of the world that end up getting hurt.  I found this aspect of The Tale of
the Heike to be very intriguing indeed.

     "Innumerable works not only of literature but of painting and other
arts have been based on the tale of glory and the downfall of the Taira."
The fight between the two warring clans became a part of the lives of all
Japanese for the centuries to come; not only for those who were literate but
for those who were illiterate as well.  The warriors were the heroes of
Japanese society and their battles were commemorated in countless ballads
and works of Japanese theatre (e.g.  the Noh dramas).  Because everyone
could share in the stories of The Tale of the Heike, it has been said that
"The Tale of Genji has been loved and revered by educated people ever since
it was written, but The Tale of the Heike is in the blood of the Japanese." e

SHINKOKINSHU

     "The Shinkokinshu," or "New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems,"
was the eighth of the anthologies of Japanese poetry compiled by Imperial
order."   "The Shin Kokinshu represents not only the summit but the end of
the glorious tradition of court poetry, though innumerable poems, some of
undeniable merit, continued to be composed at the court during the following
centuries."   There were many fantastic poets and wonderfully written poems
in the Shinkokinshu-too many to chose from to mention in this diary.
Instead, I have chosen to focus on two other aspects of the Shinkokinshu
that greatly interested me:  the prefaces and the practice known as honka-dori. 

     Like the Kokinshu, the Shinkokinshu had two prefaces-one in Japanese
and one in Chinese.  They both basically said the same thing.  They gave "a
traditional account of the history of the waka statement of the policy
followed in selecting poems for inclusion; and an explanation of how it came
about that poems by Gotoba, who had commanded the compilation, were
included, although the compilers of the Kokinshu had not included poems by
the emperor, who had issued a similar command."   But the most important
part of the prefaces related to the device known as honka-dori.  The writers
of the prefaces wrote a lot about kotoba and kokoro.  They said that the
poets should keep the old words of the past while injecting them with new
life.  In other words, they should keep the kotoba of the past and inject
new kokoro into them (expand the spirit of the old words).  How were they
supposed to do this you might ask?  Well, they were supposed to do this
through honka-dori (allusion).

     The device known as honka-dori is the second aspect of the Shinkokinshu
that I wish to discuss.  First of all, let me state what it means.  Honka
means original poem and dori means borrowing, put together it means taking
parts from previous poems (usually from the Kokinshu) and bringing them to
modernity (rearranging them for modern times and meanings).  The reason the
poets of the Shinkokinshu used borrowed phrases comes from what the author*s
of the prefaces said about kotoba and kokoro.  "Implicit in such borrowing
was the conviction that the poems a poet had read, no less than his
perceptions of nature or his direct emotional experiences, can inspire him
to compose new poetry; and poems that borrowed elements from the poetry of
the past were believed to possess greater depth than poems without
allusions."   The new poem was meant to enhance the old one; even if the
words were the same or similar, the new poem was supposed to create a
dissimilar effect.  There were a few accepted rules for the use of
honka-dori.  The first rule was that if a poet was going to borrow from
another poet, the borrowing should be from the first three imperial
collections.  The second rule for the use of honka-dori was that not more
than two and one half lines should be borrowed from an earlier poem.  The
third rule was that the borrowed phrases should not be placed in the same
place in the new poem as they were in the last one.  The fourth rule was
that the main theme of the original poem should be significantly altered in
the new poem.  The last important feature of honka-dori was that a poet was
never allowed to borrow from a contemporary.   The reason I find this so
interesting is because of the views that I have (or more to the point, the
views that I was taught to have) on plagiarism.  First of all, if I ever
directly quote something (i.e. use the same exact words), I would have to
footnote it.  Even if I did not directly quoted but used someone else*s
ideas, I would have to cite it in my footnotes.  I would have to do this
because I have to give credit to the other writer so no one would think that
the ideas were my creation and my own original ideas.  This is not so under
the theory of honka-dori.  Unlike society*s views (and by extension my
views) on plagiarism, honka-dori assumes that the "reader of the poem
(someone belonging to the same court society) would recognize the source
poem and be able to appreciate how the original meaning had been altered to
communicate the emotions of a poet who lived hundreds of years later."   I
found the device of honka-dori and how it compared to my views on plagiarism
to be thought-provoking, as well as being very interesting to read about.

     "The Shinkokinshu was compiled during the first decade of the
thirteenth century, at a time when the rise of the military had deprived the
court of most of its real power.  This may have given added importance to
the functions the court retained, such as the composition of poetry*no one
can read the Shinkokinshu without sensing that it is conspicuously more
intense and moving than the Kokinshu." 

NOH DRAMA

     The principal sources of the No plays were incidents related in The
Tale of the Heike. Though the No theater is likely to impress modern
audiences as a supremely aristocratic form of drama, many of the plays were
based on folktales or on the legends that had grown up around shrines and
temples in the counrtyside."   There are, literally, a hundred or so
interesting aspects surrounding the Noh drama.  Because of this, I could not
decide which aspects to right about; therefore, I have decided to do a short
(and for obvious reasons, incomplete) comparison between Noh plays and
Western plays.

     First I am going to look at the main characteristics of the Noh drama.
The two most important elements of the Noh plays are yugen (mysterious
darkness; the mysterious depth sought by the Noh actors) and hie (chill).
In the Noh plays, yugen came to "designate the indefinable beauty toward
which No is pointed in language, music, and dance."   The two elements
combined were designed to help transport the audience of the plays beyond
the boundaries of what they knew about chronological time and physical
space.  Another important aspect of the Noh plays were the sections of the
plays that were sung by a chorus to irregular metre.  This singing would
explain the main subject of the play that was being performed.  The next
important feature was the use of elaborate masks and costumes for the
performers.  While the masks were fancy, the stage scenery was sparse, in
fact, it was almost non-existent.  The last few features of the Noh drama
mentioned stemmed from Zeami and his influence on the Noh.  Zeami's plays
were not based in realism like the previous Noh plays.  His non-realism lead
to the elaborate masks, splendid costumes, bare settings, and the
insignificant props mentioned above.   The last important feature of the Noh
play was the fact that all Noh plays had the same composition (i.e. each
play is arranged the same way).  Now that I have summarized the most
important aspects of the Noh drama, I will next compare the Noh plays to
Western plays.





     First of all, let's deal with the singing and the chorus in the plays.
Both the Noh and the plays of the Western world had choruses.  The Greek
choruses (i.e. the "Elders of Thebes" or "Women of Troy") had an identity;
it had its own person and its own voice.  The Noh chorus did not have such
an identity; it never spoke in its own voice-it usually spoke for the shite
(the chief character).  "A clear-cut division of the roles among persons who
voice only their own thoughts or emotions, such as we find in European
plays, was not observed in the Noh."   So in this way the Noh was both like
and dislike the Western play.

     The next point to be addressed will be the use of masks, costumes,
scenery, and props in the two types of plays.  The way the Noh drama
utilized the previous things was mentioned above (see Zeami and his
realism).  The West is almost the total opposite.  Very few Western plays
have the characters wearing masks (the only one I have seen is The Phantom
of the Opera) although some do use make-up to change the characters faces
(e.g. Cats).  Western plays are the opposite of the Noh plays in the use of
scenery and props as well.  Most of the large productions of modern times
have opulent sets (usually more than one) and they use a ton of props.  Some
examples of these large productions with spectacular sets with many props
are Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express, and EFX.  On the matter of
costumes, there is also a big difference between the Japanese Noh and the
Western plays.  In the Noh, the costumes are "splendid even when the actor
is playing the role of a fisherwoman."   because the Noh play is chiefly
concerned with beauty, not reality.  The Western plays, on the other hand,
are concerned with reality and the choice of costume reflects that
preference.  If a person is supposed to be a poor person then they will wear
ratty clothes for costumes (e.g. Les Miserables), but if they are supposed
to be a refined person of nobility they will dress the part.  In fact,
costumes always reflect the role of the performer whether it be trains in
Starlight Express to cats in, you guessed it, Cats.  These differences are
central to the understanding of the two types of plays.

     Now for the composition of the plays.  As mentioned before, the Noh
plays were composed in the same style.  All of them were arranged from
within according to three tempi (jo, ha, and kyu) as well as being organized
into five categories (a program of five plays).  As well, the play was
divided into two parts, and in between these two parts of the play there
would be narrations.  This is not so in Western plays; Western plays are
arranged in all sorts of styles-there is not set arrangement to follow.
Some start with the end and then go back in time to tell their story (Sunset
Boulevard) and some start and the beginning and go straight through to the
end (The Mousetrap etc.).  If there are two parts to a play, there is no
narration during the intermission.  These differences in the composition of
the plays were very important.

     The atmosphere surrounding the two types of plays is also an important
part of any comparison between them.  Let's start with the Noh.  Before the
Noh plays starts, there is no idle chatter from the audience.  "The great
gleaming expanse of the stage imposes silence, almost like an altar."   For
those who know the play well, there were certain instances where members of
the audience would yell out and "join in the action."  If a person tried to
leave the presentation early he would be informed that "this would be
interpreted as a sign of disrespect"  and it was strongly discouraged (they
would charge an exist fee if one insisted on leaving).  This is almost the
total opposite of Western plays.  Before the plays in the West, people often
engage in conversations and they continue to do so until the play starts.
However, once the play starts, there is silence in the audience and anyone
who dares to talk usually receives dirty looks from the people sitting
around them.  If someone chooses to leave early, no one will stop them;
people are free to leave whenever they want.  So once again, we can see that
the Noh and the Western plays have major differences.

     The last point I want to make about the two types of plays doesn't fall
into a real category but it is something I found very interesting.  Donald
Keene writes that "not everyone enjoys No.  Many in the audience doze they
could not understand what was going on."   This is because "the plays are
sung or declaimed in medieval Japanese that is so difficult to understand
that even well-educated Japanese in the audience follow the plays with
libretti if they have not learned them by heart."   If one does not have a
good grasp of Japanese, it is impossible to follow the action (as I can
attest to when I saw one of these plays when I was in Japan).  The only part
of Western theatre that is like this would be the opera genre.  If one
doesn't know the language or the story, they can't follow that either.  That
being said, most Western plays can be understood if one has a fair grasp of
the language and I think that this is a huge difference between the two
types of plays.  

     Although the Noh was very hard to understand, I did get a special
feeling at the end of it because I realized that I had just seen something
wonderfully unique.  Apparently I am not the only one who has felt this way.
As Donald Keene wrote:

                At the end of a performance the audience should feel moved 
in a way  that is unique to No.  It is hard to express the nature 
of this feeling, but it is surely a combination of the emotions 
aroused by great poetry, music, dance, and a story of universal 
and timeless intelligibility.