Developing Zeami: The Noh Actor's Attunement in Practice (review)

The actor, playwright, and theoretician Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443) is the central character in the history of the nō drama, a towering figure who plays the role of the "great man" in the elevation of nō from popular entertainment to high art. The dozens of plays attributed to him and his sometimes cryptic artistic pronouncements (e.g., "Hi sureba hana nari" [When you keep a secret, that is the Flower]) have been attracting critical attention for almost a century. It has helped that Zeami was the second head of what is now the Kanze troupe, by far the largest school of nō performers in Japan, and that no other actor, except his son-in-law Zenchiku (b. 1405), left such a rich and complex body of critical works.

Works in English that provide an overview of Zeami's thought include Masaru Sekine, Ze-Ami and His Theories of Noh Drama (Colin Smythe, 1985) and Toyoichirō Nogami, Zeami and His Theories on Nō, translated by Ryōzō Matsumoto (Hinoki Shoten, 1973). Neither of these studies, however, is satisfactory as an English-language scholarly treatment of Zeami's treatises, and at the same time they are too technical for the general reader. Notable English translations of Zeami's writings on nō include J. Thomas Rimer and Yamazaki Masakazu, On the Art of the Nō Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami (Princeton University Press, 1984); Erika de Poorter, Zeami's Talks on Sarugaku: An Annotated Translation of Sarugaku Dangi with an Introduction on Zeami Motokiyo (J. C. Gieben, 1986); and several articles by Mark J Nearman published in Monumenta Nipponica between 1978 and 1982. (Most recently, William Scott Wilson has published The Flowering Spirit: Classic Teachings on the Art of Nō [Kōdansha, 2006], which is a new translation of Zeami's Fūshi kaden, but I have not seen it yet.)

Developing Zeami distinguishes itself from these fine translations by going beyond commentary on a single text or translation in order to illuminate how Zeami's thought developed and what he had to say about the relationship between actor and audience. Quinn draws upon readings of multiple works to examine the single theme of "attunement" between medieval nō performers and their audiences, which she locates in the metaphor of the flower and calls "a total effect created by whatever happens to work for particular audiences in particular performances" (p. 3). This book is long (290 pages of main text plus 190 pages of appendices, notes, and other back matter), wide ranging, and highly technical, and therefore difficult to summarize. Nonetheless, I hope the following will suffice as a general overview.

After a very helpful and convenient "Introduction" that lays out the major topics and arguments of the book, Quinn explores her theme in three parts. Part I, "Zeami's Shift in Representational Styles," focuses on monomane, Zeami's term for "the representation of characters" (p. 43). The nine character types (such as Woman, Mad Person, Deity, Demon) that Zeami mentions in his early work appear first, followed by a discussion of how important the elusive ideal of yūgen was to the ōmi sarugaku (nō) troupe, who were rivals of Zeami and his father. (It may come as a surprise to some that Zeami did not originate yūgen as a theatrical quality; in fact, as Quinn shows, he co-opted it from the ōmi troupes.) The adaptation of kusemai dances is also addressed. Zeami distilled the nine character types to three styles (Aged, Martial, and Feminine) and fused the representation of characters with the elegance and charm that were hallmarks of the ōmi style, which focused more closely on the "Two Modes" of chant and dance. This bold move is encapsulated in the phrase nikyoku santai (the two modes and the three styles) and is examined at length. Quinn regards nikyoku santai not as a mere catch phrase but as a deliberate strategy for competing...