Kyōgen

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Kyōgen ( Japanese 狂言 , literally: "crazy words; wild language") is a form of traditional Japanese theater . It developed together with the Nō theater from the Sarugaku ( 猿 N ), was performed together with Nō pieces as a kind of cheerful interlude between the acts of the Nō (often as so-called Aikyōgen, 間 狂言 ) and maintains its close relationship with Nō to this day . That is why it is sometimes referred to as Nō-Kyōgen . However, its content is not at all similar to formal, symbolic and serious Noh theater. Kyōgen is - with a few exceptions - a strange form, its main goal is to make the audience laugh, or rather to make them smile. Kyōgen and Nō were jointly included in the UNESCO list of masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of mankind in 2001 under the collective term Nōgaku and in 2008 they were included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity .

history

The Kyōgen archetype is believed to have descended from a form of Chinese entertainment that came to Japan as part of the performing arts known as sangaku during the Nara period . This archetype soon developed into sarugaku , which originally included both serious drama and cheerful comedy . By the 14th century, these two forms of Sarugaku had finally split conceptually into and Kyōgen.

Kyōgen exerted a considerable influence on the later development of Kabuki theater. After the earlier, coarse forms of kabuki had been banned in the mid-17th century, the government allowed the establishment of the new yarō-kabuki (male kabuki) only because it avoided the personalities of the earlier kabuki forms and on Kyogens who have since become tamer oriented.

No was the official form of entertainment in the Edo period and was therefore supported by the government. Kyōgen, which was exercised in connection with Nō, benefited from this promotion by the government and the upper class. Up until the early Edo period there had been an abundance of schools and "sects", supported by different families or subfamilies. Under the Tokugawa government, these were incorporated into the three large, established Kyōgen schools ( 狂言 流 ). However, after the Meiji Restoration , support ceased and interest in Kyōgen sank. Nō and Kyōgen therefore fell into disrepair, as many Japanese were more attracted to the “modern” Western art forms. In 1879, however, the former US President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife expressed an interest in the traditional art of the Nō during a visit to Japan. They are said to have been the first Americans to see Nō and Kyōgen performances and are said to have enjoyed the performance. This, it is believed, sparked a renewed interest in these forms of theater. However, one of the three established schools, the Sagi School ( 鷺 流 , Sagi-ryū ), did not survive this period. Although Kyogens are still occasionally performed in the style of the Sagi school, the Schulekura school ( 大 蔵 流 , Ōkura-ryū ) and the Izumi school ( 和 泉流 , Izumi-ryū ) are the big two that still perform Kyōgen today.

Today there are two forms of Kyōgen: Aikyōgen ( 間 狂言 ) and Honkyōgen ( 本 狂言 ). As already mentioned, Aikyog are performed together with Nō pieces and have the function of briefly depicting the characters and actions of the mostly somewhat more difficult, melancholy-dramatic Nō pieces in a relaxed, often cheerful way and in simpler language. Therefore, Aikyōgen is usually performed as a bridge between the first and second act of a Nō piece. Not infrequently, however, such an aikyog is also a farce or farce of the no-piece that accompanies it. The honkyōgen, on the other hand, is more independent and is often performed as a separate theater without a nō. The focus here is mostly on the everyday stories already mentioned in the form of antics, farces or satires. But gods or bakemono (ghosts, shapeshifters, etc.), even Enma-ō , the king of the underworld, are portrayed on the stage in a mythical manner, whereby the world of the numinous, which is so often discussed in Japan, loses part of its eeriness and abstractness. The two major schools have an estimated 260 of the honkyōgen pieces permanently in their repertoire, including the Tsurigitsune ( 釣 狐 , "The Fox Trap "), which is valued primarily for its difficult performance techniques and its dramatic-comedic plot .

Elements of Kyōgen

As with Nō and Kabuki, all actors in Kyōgen, including those in female roles, are grown men. In some pieces such as the famous Utsubo-zaru ("The Monkey Skin Quiver ", 靭 猿 ), however, children's players are also provided, after all, the training of a professional Kyōgen player begins at or even shortly before kindergarten age.

Kyōgen pieces are usually shorter than Nō pieces, i.e. H. usually no more than 45 minutes, and often only have 2-3 roles, often standard types. The main player is called shite ( シ テ ), the secondary players are called ado ( ア ド ). In many pieces, the main player is by no means synonymous with the "main role" insofar as the other roles could be neglected or replaced. In the piece Shidōhōgaku ("The stubborn horse", 止 動 方 角 ), for example, we are dealing with four characters: the servant ( Tarōkaja , 太郎 冠 者 ), the master ( Shujin , 主人 ), the older uncle ( Oji , 伯父 ) and the horse ( Uma , ). The main player is the servant, who also takes on the central role, but without the figures of the master and the horse, this piece can neither be implemented nor understood.

The Kyōgen is performed on a Nō stage, the four main elements of which are the main stage honbutai ( 本 舞台 ) or just butai ( 舞台 ), the "bridge" hashigakari ( 橋 懸 り / 橋 掛 り ), which serves as a path to the main stage and as its extension functions, the choir place jiutai-za ( 地 謡 座 ), on which the choir sits, and the "rear place" ato-za ( 後座 ) or the "transverse floor" ( 横 板 ), on which the musical accompaniment sits, are. In Kyōgen, however, the ato-za and the jiutai-za only play a subordinate role and the seating arrangement on these parts of the stage differs from that of the Nō.

Movements and dialogues in Kyōgen are mostly exaggerated and make the plot easy to understand. Elements of slapstick or satire are present in most of the plays. Some of them are parodies of Buddhist or Shinto rituals, others are abbreviated, livelier, simplified forms of Nō pieces, many based on Japanese folklore or folk tales.

Kyōgen is occasionally performed with musical accompaniment, especially flute, drums and gong. The focus of the pieces is more on dialogue and action than on music and dance, which is why Japanese Nō and Kyōgen researchers usually assign Kyōgen to spoken theater .

In contrast to Nō, the actors usually do not wear face masks unless they play the role of a woman, an animal (such as a tanuki or kitsune ), a god or a monster (ghosts, demons, etc.). As a result, there is less variety in Kyōgen in terms of face masks / larvae ( came , 仮 面 ) than in Nō. The masks and costumes are mostly simpler than their Nō counterparts. In addition, only a few props and minimalist or no stage design are used.

literature

  • [1] (Eng.)
  • BRANDON, James R., Nō and Kyōgen in the Contemporary World. , University of Hawai'i Press: Honolulu, 1997.
  • HARRIS, John Wesley, The traditional theater of Japan. Kyogen, Noh, Kabuki, and Puppetry , Mellen Press: Lewiston et al. a. 2006.
  • ABURATANI, Mitsuo (ed.), Kyōgen handobukku , Sanseidō (improved edition): Tōkyō 2000.
  • IMMOOS, Thomas, Kyōgen. What are the Japanese laughing at? Vom Mythos zum Kyōgen , published in: Maske and Kothurn, 30, 1984, pp. 41–62.
  • KOBAYASHI, Seki (ed.), Arasuji de yomu meisaku kyōgen 50 , Sekai Bunkasha: Tōkyō 2005.
  • MORIOKA, Heinz / SASAKI, Miyoko, The stage art of Kyōgen. Nine classic Kyōgen games , (OAG Taschenbuch 69), German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia: Tōkyō 1997.
  • NOMURA, Mansai, Laughter. Exploring Kyōgen's Global Potential , published in: Japan Quarterly, 48.1, 2001, pp. 58-65.
  • SAKANISHI, Shio, Japanese Folk Plays. The Ink-Smeared Lady and Other Kyogen , ( UNESCO Collection of Representative Works . Japanese Series), Charles E. Tuttle Company (7th edition): Rutland - Tōkyō 1983.
  • SCHOLZ-CIONCA, Stanca, Origin and Morphology of the Classical Kyōgen in the 17th Century. From the medieval theater of the outsiders to the chamber play of the shogunate , Iudicium: München 1998.
  • Marguerite A. Wells, Jessica Milner Davis: Farce and Satire in Kyōgen . In: Jessica Milner Davis (ed.): Understanding Humor in Japan. (Humor in Life and Letters Series), Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2006, pp. 127-152.

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