The Other Side of the Noh Stage

Ariel Stilerman
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University
Wednesday, 26 April 2023
10:30–11:00 am

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Abstract: This talk focuses on the audiences that came to enjoy Noh during its first two hundred years. Noh is often discussed chiefly in terms of its theatrical elements, conventions, and repertoire, and mentions to its audience are limited to the fact that its early patrons were powerful warriors invested in learning about the classical aristocracy. Like the practice of elegant linked verse (renga), also popular with warriors, Noh plays borrow from classical poetry (waka) and aristocratic narratives such as The Tale of Genji. We don’t have systematic, exhaustive accounts of who was in the audience of Noh performances, but if the changing structure of late medieval Japanese society is any indication, that is only half of the story. This period saw the emergence of wealthy urban merchants as a new social group and a driving force in society. These urban commoners saw classical culture as a target of parody, as a venue for the satire of upstarts, and—above all—as a vehicle for comedy. These two ways of engaging with the cultural legacy of the aristocracy (in earnest and in jest) appear, respectively, in Noh plays and in the humorous, satirical kyōgen plays that were performed together with them. This talk argues that Noh and kyōgen need to be understood as symbiotic and complementary way of engaging with a progressively diverse audience.  

About the presenter: Ariel Stilerman is Assistant Professor at the East Asian Languages and Cultures department at Stanford. Ariel specializes in premodern Japanese literature. He has also received training in Industrial Design, Psychotherapy/Psychoanalysis, and the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Current projects include a book manuscript (Court Poetry and The Culture of Learning in Japan) on the transformation of Japanese court poetry from a social performance into the core of a comprehensive, far-reaching process of cultural transmission across diverse social spaces. Other interests include translation, performance, art history, and the history of technology.