KANDA NOZOMI MUSIC: The Noh thatre - 2

The Noh theatre at that time, the Sarugaku, was further developed by Kan-ami and completed by Ze-ami, the two were father and son.

"Ami" was the title for a Buddhist monk.

At that time, artists didn't have any social status and were often very poor.

Many of them lived like a medieval minstrel (bard) in Europe.

Kan-ami and Ze-ami were part of this group.

One day, the shogun (the head of the samuraï, like the prime minister) of the time, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, attended one of the performances given by Kan-ami and Ze-ami and he appreciated their act and decided to support them.

It is said also that Ze-ami (son) was a beautiful boy at that time and the shogun liked him in another sense too.

The Noh theatre is known for its spiritual music, the beautiful costumes and the beautiful masks. As this theatre could get support from important people and had been played between those people, they also could do a lot of work on theses beautiful costumes.

No mask

Theses costumes are not depicted in the stories or the historical backdrop. Often the costumes for "Shite"(the principal role) are gorgeous even stories are about poor people.

At the end of the Muromachi era (1336-1573), in 1549 Francisco Xavier, the missioner of The Society of Jesus arrived in the south of Japan. Since then many Spanish and Portugues missioners came to Japan. Maybe because they arrived at the south, there are still more Christians in the south than in the north (a part of Hokkaido) in Japan.

Nobunaga Oda who got the power after the Muromachi period has taken in many parts of foreign cultures and goods.

Although that period is called "the war period", people had discovered a lot of European goods, music, pictures and textiles that were gorgeous and colourful for people at that time. And they took it in their life and also their arts. The costumes of the Noh theatre must have been influenced a lot by that new culture too.

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