能はなぜ眠いか
講座で扱かった能は、「船弁慶」「誓願寺」「葛城」「道成寺」「玉鬘」であった。講師は西村高夫観世流能楽師と飯塚恵理人教授であった。講座は西村能楽師が演ずる能のビデオを観ながら飯塚氏と西村氏が解説をしてくれた。
今まで能を見たことは一回だけであったが、その時の印象はとても眠いということであった。今回、五つの能のビデオを観てなぜ眠くなるのかがわかった。うっとりするような美しい地謡もさることながら、舞台に登場するシテやワキの動きが極端に少ないのだ。おそらく１０分経っても同じ姿勢をしているかと思うぐらい動きが少ない。
ここで思ったことは能楽師の舞台での舞いや動作は象徴であって、見せるものではない。能の面白さは舞台での役者の動きではなく（歌舞伎のように派手ではない）、バックグラウンドに流れる謡にある。その文章はよく練られていて、格調が高く、リズムがあり、古典を引用するなど奥が深い。能は見るものではなく、語りを聞くものだと思った。端的に言えば、能は浪花節や講談に紙芝居がついたものだ。しかしあの語りを理解するのは並大抵ではできない。十分な下調べが必要だと思った。さらに勉強していけば、能のなんたるかをもっと理解するだろうが、ひとまずこれにて終わりとしたい。
能の専門家には、この解釈はお叱りを受けるかも知れない。
追記
最近イギリス人の大学の先生によるシェクスピアの戯曲に関する講義を聞いた。先生によると、当時の大衆は「シェクスピアの劇を観に行く」とは言わずに「シェクスピアの劇を聞きに行く」と言っていたそうだ。能と共通していると思った。能は「観るもの」でなく「聞くもの」かもしれない。
WHY NOH PLAY MAKES YOU SLEEPY
I attended a five-series class of Noh at Sugiyama Jogakuen University from October through November. Since it was only a 5-time class, a total of seven hours and a half, I don’t think I am qualified to comment on what Noh is, but I would like to write here what I thought about it.
The Noh plays which the lectures, Kanze-ryu Noh player, Takao Nishimura, and Professor Erito Iizuka, dealt with were: “Funabenkei,” “Seiganji,” “Katuragi,” “Dojoji,” and “Tamakazura.” They explained the Noh videos while the students watched them.
I had seen a Noh play only once, and to tell the truth, I had felt sleepy during the performance. This time, after attending the classes, I found out why Noh plays make the audience sleepy. The reasons are:
1. The players rarely move on the stage during an-hour or two-hour performances. Even if you sleep for, say, ten minutes during the performance, you won't be able to detect the difference of the movements before you fall into sleep and after you wake up.
2. The traditional Japanese background Noh music is rhythmical, soothing, and relaxing. It hypnotizes the audience.
I thought the movement of a Noh player is a symbol, not a thing you appreciate by watching it. What attracts the audience is not the performance of Noh players but the musical narration by the storytellers. The narrations are well written, elegant, sonorous, and sophisticated with quotations from classical Japanese literature. I thought Noh was not a thing to watch but a thing to listen to. In essence, Noh is similar to the narrative performances like Naniwabushi and Kodan with static pictures in kamishibai (picture story show).
However, it is almost impossible to understand the meaning of the narration, because it is written in old Japanese. You need to prepare fully before you watch (listen to) Noh performances. The more you study various Noh narrations, the more you understand Noh plays.
Experts in Noh may be resentful about my opinion, but this is my candid impression.
(P.S. Recently I attended a lecture on Shakespeare by an English literature professor. He said “The people in those days went to ‘hear’ his plays, not to ‘see’ them.”)
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