Nôgaku is a Japanese form of traditional public entertainment, which includes both performance art, also known as noh, and comics, which occur during the interlude. The theater, whose heyday was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, began when the Sangaku was transmitted from China to Japan in the eighth century. In temples and shrines, sangaku, which employed comical performances and acrobatics as well as mimicry, was popular entertainment. This spread throughout Japanese society, and its adaptation led to the assimilation of other traditional art forms, such as Nôgaku, a form of Japanese theatre that has influenced Kabuki and puppet theatre.
The Nôgaku theater incorporates masks, costumes, and props in dance-based performances. Because of this, the Nôgaku requires highly trained actors and musicians. The theater incorporates two types: Noh and Kyôgen, which are performed on the same stage. The stage projects into the audience and is linked with a walkway to the “hall of mirrors” backstage. Noh is typically performed with stylized conventional gestures representing the emotions of the characters. Noh's hero is often a supernatural being who takes on human form to narrate a story. The distinctive masks for which Noh is famous are used to portray ghosts, women, children, and old people. Kyôgen relies less on the use of masks, as can be seen in its comic dialogue. The text is written in an ancient language and vividly describes everyday life in the twelfth to sixteenth centuries.
The protagonist in Nôgaku is known as "shi-te". The shi-te is not limited to the roles of humans, as the shi-te can also take the roles of gods, warriors, women, mad people, and tengus (a supernatural mountain spirit with red skin and a long nose), or dragon gods. The counterpart of the shi-te is known as "waki," and in most performances it is indispensable. In addition to the performance of the actors, the actors' musical accompaniment is equally essential and influences the stage production. A powerful aspect of the production is the instruments that the actors use, such as nohkan, kotsuzumi, otsuzumi, and taiko, as well as the voice of the percussionists, who also make sounds such as “yo” and “ho,” and keep the performance flowing while hitting percussion instruments, such as taiko.
Japan's Nôgaku is performed in a variety of locations: Noh theatres, art theater halls, and outdoor Noh stages, such as temple and shrine precincts, parks, and outdoor Noh stages. In 1957 the Japanese Government designated Nôgaku as an Important Intangible Cultural Property, affording protection to the tradition as well as its most accomplished practitioners. The National Noh Theatre was founded in 1983 and has been showing regular performances since then. The institution also conducts courses to train actors to perform the lead roles of the Nôgaku. Today, Nôgaku is well known even abroad and can still be witnessed all over Japan as a tradition of public entertainment as well as a Shinto ritual.
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