JapaneseTheater

JAPAN• Japan is rich in culture and tradition.

Ikebana and Cherry blossoms, to name a few represent the beauty of its cultural heritage.

• One of the traditions are that is very popular until today is the traditional form of theater which began at the end of sixteenth century and soon became the most successful theater entertainment in red light districts of the great cities. Together with Noh, it is considered the most important Japanese contribution to world theater.

• Both NOH and KABUKI are unique and the genuine expressions of the Japanese spirit and culture. They mirror, however, taste and ideals of different social classes, in profoundly different environments and periods.

• Kabuki• The best known form of Japanese theatre is Kabuki. It was

performed by Okunis. Perhaps its fame comes from the wild costumes and swordfights, which used real swords until the 1680s. Kabuki grew out of opposition to Noh — they wanted to shock the audience with more lively and timely stories. The first performance was in 1603.

• Like Noh, however, over time Kabuki became not just performing in a new way, but a stylized art to be performed only a certain way.

• As a matter of interest, the popular Gekidan Shinkansen, a theatrical troupe based in Tokyo today, insists it follows pure kabuki tradition by performing historical roles in a modern, noisy, and outlandish way — to shock the audience as kabuki intended, if you will. Whether or not they are kabuki, however, remains a matter of debate and personal opinion.

• Kabuki is a type of theatre that combines music, drama, and dance.

• Sakura is the one of the popular traditional songs of Japan. It is translated as Cherry Blossoms in English, it is a traditional song that produces distinct characteristics used in the Asian style of making melodies also known as the pentatonic scale. The pattern is mainly developed by using the pentatonic style adopted mainly from China. This style is mostly used in the performance of noh and kabuki.

• One of the key features of Japanese theater is the vocal technique used in singing. The continuous pattern of or ipponchosis is used in speeches building up to an explosive climax in the arogato (oversize, supernatural, rough hero) style, it requires an extra ordinary breath control that only few experts succeed in achieving. Another technique adapted from the chanting or jujuri is called nori.

NORI

It implies a very sensitive capacity of riding the rhytms of the shamisen (string instrument), declaiming each accompaniment.

Yakuharai technique in the same way describes the subtle delivery of poetical text written in the Japanese metrical form of alternating seven and five syllable.

Shamisen

Vocal Instrument and Features

• Dances and movements are accompanied by

shamisen music, from gagaku (classic court music imported from China during the 18th century), kagura (performed in Shinto shrines) no (chant derives from shomyo, the sophisticated and rich tradition of Buddhist chanting), down to the folk songs and fashinable songs of the day.

• The most popular shamisen music was called nagauta (Long song) which reached a golden age in the first half of the1 19th century as dance music for the henge mono or quick change pieces.

• Nagauta music is very flexible can be performed by one shamisen or by an entire orchestra of twenty musicians, of which ten are shamisen players, while others play flutes (fue taken from the no) and drums (small drum-kotsuzum; waist drum-otsuzumi; stick drum-taiko).