Scanning the Horizon: New Hopes for the Future of Noh Theatre

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

This panel addresses the issue of transmission of noh theatre, one of the oldest extant traditional performing arts of Japan, outside its original context. Ever since the late nineteenth century, when noh lost its aristocratic endorsement as a consequence of the Meiji restoration, and amateur practitioners became the economic foundation of the noh establishment, professionals of the art felt the need to modify their teaching methods in order to adapt to their new patrons. However, since the early 1990s the amateur population has been progressively dwindling, a condition that has also impacted on the size of the audiences, thus posing a serious threat to the transmission of the art. In response to this, noh professionals are endeavouring to attract new audiences by boosting their outreach activities in Japan (for example among school and university students) and abroad, both towards general audiences and towards practitioners specialising in performing arts other than noh. Noh professionals have adapted their teaching formats in response to the needs of new audiences or communities of practice with different cultural backgrounds and pedagogic standards. This panel examines various aspects of dissemination of traditional knowledge outside its original context, raising questions of cultural ownership, authenticity and transmissibility. All presenters are scholar-practitioners with long-standing experience with disseminating noh in Japan and abroad.

Area of Study

• Northeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Diego Pellecchia, Ritsumeikan University

Chair

• Diego Pellecchia, Ritsumeikan University

Individual Presentations

• Desperately Seeking Young Blood: The World of University Noh Club Amateur Practitioners - Diego Pellecchia, Ritsumeikan University

• Challenges to Transmitting Noh Outside Its Traditional Professional Channels - Gary Mathews, North Carolina State University

• Noh Training Projects Overseas: Traditional and Contemporary Transmission Techniques - Mariko Anno, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• Teaching and Learning Noh: Twenty-First-Century Technologies and Medieval Theater in Japan - John Oglevee, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa