Plays of Old Japan: The 'No'

by Unknown

Plate 3.

A COUNTRY POETESS

The figure of a country girl, who was also a poetess, and sent a subtle verse in reply to a noble who sought to obtain some of the plant growing by her cottage (as represented on the stage by the bower to the left of the cut.) The figure shows well the ceremonial dress, of scarlet hakama, or divided skirt, with flowing, voluminous kimono over it. At the throat can be seen the series of under-dresses, of which only the edge of each appears. The massive folds over the head are not some head-dress, as might at first be thought, but the folds of the long kimono sleeve falling back over the arm which is raised above the head. The squatting figure to the right is that of a priest, who comes into the story of this Nō.

The Costumes

Though in other respects the Nō staging is so simply organised, the costumes of the actors are sumptuous and completely representative of the parts the actors are playing. The various robes are all of mediæval cut and fashion, and are mostly very stiff with opulent brocades or embroideries. Some of the styles are shown in the various illustrations in this book, and it will at once be noticed that they are all elaborate and richly coloured. While the cut of most of the garments is something akin to the simple kimono and hakama (divided skirt worn by the men when fully dressed) of the present day, they are on a more massive scale with great stiff boufflé divided skirts (as the figure in plate 3, p. [14], shows particularly well), and with the kimono sleeves so wide and stiff that the wearer seems almost three times his normal width. The figure on the [Frontispiece] illustrates such excessively voluminous and elaborate dress. The garments may be worn in overlaid series, showing beneath a rich overdress the edges of many equally fine under-robes, and of course armour and accoutrements are carried by those representing the ancient warriors.

The costumes of the Nō are in truth the treasures of a museum, put to actual use.

Properties

There are few or no “stage properties” of any kind. Just as there is no scenery and the images of the places in which the action lies must be evolved in their own minds by the spectators, guided by the descriptive passages of the play; so also there are no appliances. If the actors, for instance, have to enter a boat and be rowed across a stream, they will perhaps merely step over a bamboo pole. If one of the characters has to ladle up water and offer it to a fainting warrior, the whole action is accomplished with a fan. Sometimes there may be a little in the way of properties—for example, the arbour-like bowers in plate 3, p. [14], which are drawn on to the stage and represent dwellings, and in plate 4, p. [16], where the little temple bell is brought into the action. But even in such cases the actors have to create an illusion round the accessories by their words and motions.

We scarcely need to be reminded that Shakespeare’s plays were originally written for a stage which had but little more in the way of properties, and that even to-day there are not a few persons who feel that Shakespeare’s finest passages do not gain but actually lose by the life-like and elaborate settings of the modern stage.