Download Essay On Japanese Traditional Theater

Klajdi Selimaj
HUC170
Japanese Traditional Theater
Japanese theater could be traced back many years. It was influenced a lot by Buddhism and
Shinto, a Japanese religion. Shinto is a religion that worships the power of life in the surrounded
environment of nature from which everything from life would come from. Buddhism is another
religion that was more into meditation, spiritual health, and wisdom. Two of the traditional Japanese
theaters are Noh and Bunraku.
The Noh drama was created around the 1300's, and influenced by the Buddhist monks. This
type of theater is about acting, singing and dancing. The name Noh comes from the Japanese word
which means “talent”. The stage of a Noh theater is a polished wood stage. Noh stories can be
subdivided in five subjects; the deities, the heroic samurai, the women, the insanity and the famous
legends. Each of these plays have three parts; a Jo, a Ha, and last a Kyu. The Jo is a meeting between
two characters. Usually it would be the protagonist and another character, the characters make
introductions, and show the concerns of the protagonist. In the second part, the Ha, the protagonist
dances, and through his dance he reveals his concerns. In the Kyu, the last part, the protagonist shows
as a new self.
The Bunraku is another type of Japanese theater. Unlike the Noh, Bunraku is a puppet theatrical
show. Bunraku was developed in the seventeenth century. The puppets are as big as one third of a
regular person, and they have flexible joints, eyes, mouths, and eyebrows. During the show, there is a
narrator that tells the story and does the voices. A puppet is controlled by three operators. The most
experienced one controls the right hand and the head. He is also the only from three operators that is
allowed to his face. The second controls the left hand, and the last one controls the feet. To master the
first operator's work, it takes about ten years of training.