“Flower” as Performing Body in Nō Theatre

The medieval Japanese artist Zeami’s metaphor of the flower (hana) is extremely ambiguous. By linking Zeami’s terminology with theoretical approaches to the body, this article understands the flower as the flexible and mutable body of nō performance itself. Using Zeami’s play Tadanori as the primary text, the article examines the way in which the flexible employment of the body in nō is closely connected with traditional Japanese aesthetics. Furthermore, the article argues that physical as well as psychological cross-bordering in nō performance allows the audience’s emotional involvement in the dramatic space while actualizing their latent desires and dreams on stage, an aesthetic moment perceived by the audience as flower.