Most Noh dramas are based on popular classic stories among the ordinary people in the Muromachi era, such as Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike) and Konjaku Monogatari (Tales of Ages Ago). One of the ways to classify Noh drama by structure is to divide them into "Genzai Noh" and "Mugen Noh." Genzai Noh tells the present story. On the other hand, in Mugen Noh's performance, the real world and dream world crisscross. It is therefore difficult to catch the story of Mugen Noh; however, since the structure of drama of Mugen Noh is all similar, audiences can learn the pattern.

The Structure of Mugen Noh

The flow of Mugen Noh is as follows:

A traveler visits a place and meets a local person.　
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The local person tells the traveler about a historic event and a story associated with a person at the locality.
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At the end of the story, the person reveals that he or she is the historic person who was just described in the story, and then the person disappears.

This is the first half of Mugen-noh and is called "maeba."

After this, the main character once withdraws backstage, which is called "nakairi."

After nakairi, the main character appears on the stage and "nochiba (the second half of the drama)" of the drama starts.

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The local person's ghost appears in the traveler's dream, dances to show the past event, and gradually disappears when the traveler wakes up.

LLet's closely examine the structure of Mugen Noh based on the actual Noh story "Izutsu (the Well Head)."

"Izutsu (the Well Head)," Zeami's magnum opus of mugen Noh, is based on a story in Ise Monogatari (the Tale of Ise).

The following is the summary of the story.

One autumn day, a traveling monk stops by the Ariwara Temple in Yamato, on his way to Hase for prayer. When he prays for Ariwara no Narihira and his wife, who were linked with the temple by fate, a local woman appears. The woman draws water from a well and offers the water to an old mound. The woman tells the monk that Narihira had an affair with another woman but was struck by the sincere love of a lady, who always cared for Narihira. Accordingly, he fell in love with the lady. The woman continues her story that "Narihira and the lady were friends from childhood and played together around this well. They married when they grew up. I am the lady who was called Lady Izutsu, the daughter of Ki no Aritsune." (Maeba -- Interlude)

The monk hears the story of Lady Izutsu from a villager who visits the Ariwara Temple and decides to console the spirit. When the monk is taking a nap, the ghost of Lady Izutsu appears in his dream and dances in Narihira's attire for the remembrance of him. She sees the reflection of herself in the water in the well and seeks the shadow of what Narihira used to be. As it is dawning, the ghost of Lady Izutsu disappears and the monk wakes up from the dream. (Nochiba)

In maeba of this drama, a local woman tells the story of Narihira and Lady Izutsu to a traveling monk, reveals that she is the ghost of Lady Izutsu, and disappears. In nochiba after nakairi (interlude), the ghost of Lady Izutsu appears in the monk's dream, wears Narihira's costume for the remembrance of him, and dances longing for Narihira in the past days. This is the typical format of mugen-Noh, in that the ghost of Lady Izutsu, who appears before the traveling monk as a real woman during the day, appears in the monk's dream at night just as she looked in the old days.

Genzai Noh

Mugen Noh is the drama whose main character (shite) belongs to another world such as a phantom of the deceased or vengeful spirit. On the other hand, the Noh drama, whose characters are alive and whose story develops as time goes by, is called Genzai Noh. "Sumida-gawa (Sumida River)," "Mii-dera (Mii Temple)," and "Sakura-gawa (Sakura River)" are the Genzai Noh that describes mothers who became mad while looking for their children who are missing. "Funa-Benkei (Benkei in a Boat)" is another Genzai Noh, whose story is about the group of Minamoto no Yoshitsune which is escaping to the western provinces.

Characters in Noh Drama

The protagonist in Noh dramas is called "shite." Shite plays roles such as a god, ghost of a samurai, ghost of a woman, a madwoman, and living man and woman. The role also includes supernatural existence such as a tengu (long-nosed goblin) and the spirit of a dragon. Shite performing in maeba (the first half of the drama) is called "mae-shite" and the one in nochiba (the second half of the drama) is called "nochi-shite." Mae-shite and nochi-shite in a Mugen Noh drama are usually performed by the same Noh actor although he acts totally different characters in the two sections.

It is said that Noh dramas take the "shite-centric" style since shite is the protagonist of the drama as well as the stage director, who controls the entire drama including the casting of music players and how the drama is performed.

The fellow cast member of shite is called "waki." Waki is an important role, and most of the Noh dramas include this character. It includes various characters such as a traveling monk and a foe of shite. Different from shite, waki in a Mugen Noh drama is a living person. It creates a structure that a living person meets shite, a diseased character, who seeks the salvation through the living person.

A Noh drama often involves the minimum number of players (tachikata); therefore it is not unusual that a drama is played by only two characters, shite and waki.

Furthermore, the companions of shite and waki are called "tsure" and "waki-tsure," respectively, and an attendant of shite is called "tomo." Also, a character performed by a juvenile Noh actor is called "kokata." Not only the character of child but also that of youth is sometimes performed by kokata.

In Mugen Noh, a kyogen actor appears on the stage in order to connect the maeba (the first half of the drama) and nochiba (the second half of the drama) and provides explanation about what happened between the scene in maeba and nochiba and advice on the role about waki. This performance of kyogen actor is called "ai," originally from the name "ai-kyogen (kyogen in the interlude)."

Types of Noh

Noh drama is classified into five categories: gods, man, woman, madness, and demon. Playing five Noh dramas - one drama from each category - in this order is called "goban-date (five-story program)." "Goban-date" has been a traditional programming since the Edo era. In between the five stories, four kyogen are performed. A Noh drama of gods, which is performed in the fresh morning time, is followed by a gallant Noh drama of shura-mono (Noh drama of warriors). Then, the elegant Noh of a woman is performed in the quiet early afternoon, and after that the audience enjoys the Noh of kurui-mono, which involves all human emotions. From the evening to the early night, which used to be called the time to meet demons, the Noh of demon is performed to close out the goban-date program. Today, goban-date is hardly performed as this program requires many hours to complete; however, all the Noh dramas are still performed with the consideration of this program structure.

Contents and Dramas in Each Category

Gods (First-group)

Noh dramas in which the shite takes the role of a god is called "sho banme mono (the First-group Noh)" or "Waki Noh."
The god appears on the stage promising peace, happiness, and fertility of all grains. Mostly, mae-shite acts an old man, who is the avatar of the god, and nochi-shite appears as the god. "Takasago," "Oimatsu (old pine)," and "Yōrō" are dramas included in this category.

Man (Second-group)

This is "niban me mono," the second-group in the full-scale Noh program. The central character of a drama of this category is a man, and shite often takes the role of a diseased man, such as the ghost of a samurai. This is therefore also called "shura mono (stories of aceldama)."
Representative of this category are the story of the ghost of samurai, which gained its source from Tale of the Heike. The plot of these dramas is that a warlord who suffers in aceldama after death appears in this world seeking salvation. "Atsumori," "Kiyotsune," "Yashima," and "Tomoe" are classified in this category.

Woman (Third-group)

This is "sanban me mono (the Third group Noh)." This is the Noh whose main character is a woman and also called "kazura mono." This is the center of goban-date program. The central character of this category is a ghost, and the theme is love and suffering resulting from that love. Most of the dramas in this category tell how the love of the female ghost keeps her on earth and forces her to float around. "Hagoromo," "Izutsu," "Matsukaze," and "Teika" are in this category.

Madness (Fourth-group)

This is "yonban me mono (the Fourth group Noh)." Shite takes the role of a crazy person in the drama in this category. It is also called "kyōjo mono (madwoman Noh)" or "kurui-mono (madness Noh)". Madness here does not mean mental insanity but rather a situation in which a person becomes frantic by thinking too seriously. This category is also called as "Zatsu Noh mono (the others)," which includes the stories which are not classified into other categories. "Sumidagawa," "Hyakuman," "Kanawa," and "Dōjō-ji" are famous in this category.

Demon (Fifth-group)

This is "goban me mono (the Fifth group Noh)." Shite mainly performs oni (demon), tengu (long-nosed goblin), fairy, or the spirit of a dragon. Since this is the last part of the goban-date program, it is also called "Kiri Noh mono" or "Kiri (the end)." The dance in this category is overwhelming, accompanied with drum music throughout the drama and spectacular music. The dramas in this category have splashy renditions. "Nue," "Sessho-seki," "Adachiga-hara (Kuro-zuka)"and "Shōjō" are famous examples.

Before performing shobanme mono, "Okina (an old man)" is sometimes performed. "Okina" is originally from the school of Okina sarugaku and described as "a Noh drama which is not Noh." This drama is treated as a ritual, thereby it is always performed before all the other programs.

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