KANDA NOZOMI MUSIC: Noh Theatre -1

The Noh theatre has a strong Japanese "Samurai" spirit and it's said to be the oldest theatre in the world.

The origin of the Noh theatre, called "Sangaku/散楽", came from China in the 8th Century.

This Sangaku was a popular entertainment with dance, music, acrobatics, mimic etc; more like a circus and used to play as entertainment at the yard of the local temple.

Sangaku

On the other hand Gagaku, another style of music with dance which came from China in the same period was used to play for the imperial events or pastime of the nobility.

Gagaku

After the Heian era (794-1185) the political power shifted to the samurai clans from aristocrats until the Meiji era (1868-1912).

At that time (12th century), Sangaku/散楽, that is the origin of Noh, was called Sarugaku/猿楽 (it sounds similar, but Kanji meaning is different. San/散 means something like "scatter" and Saru/猿 is a monkey); the mimic part of Sangaku became Sarugaku."It is not clear why it is called monkey music. It is said maybe because they used monkeys or maybe because of "mimic" (in Japanese there is an expression "monkey imitation").

This Sarugaku is said to be the origin of the Noh theatre.

There is another traditional dance called Dengaku/田楽 which is the ritual to pray for a good harvest. This dance had existed since the Heian era and at the time of the Kamakura era, it became more like the theatre.

As has been said, Dengaku also played a role in the creation of Noh theatre. Actually, in the present time, this word is more famous for food "Dengaku miso".

If you ask the Japanese people what Dengaku is, I think 9 out of 10 people will answer that it is food.

Both "Sarugaku" and "Dengaku" were called "Sarugaku no Noh", " Dengaku no Noh" and there were professional troupes.

The name "Noh (能)" comes from those theatres, but until the Meiji era (1868-) this had been called just "Sarugaku (猿楽) "; I found it sounds cute though its themes are often heavy and dark.

One of the origins is called "monkey music" and the other one is now famous as food…As I now know it refers to the music and theatre, I'm glad that they changed the name.