Learning, Prowess and Judgment: The Noh of Three Late Muromachi Playwrights
Date of Award
Fall 2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
East Asian Languages and Literatures
First Advisor
Kamens, Edward
Abstract
This study surveys works attributed to Komparu Zempō Motoyasu, Miyamasu, and Kanze Yajirō Nagatoshi in an attempt to glean a better, more comprehensive understanding of developments in noh during late fifteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries. If medieval noh theater can be likened to a landscape, then the works of Kan'ami, Zeami, and Zenchiku are relatively well mapped, and their contours better understood. This dissertation is an attempt to shed light on the comparative terra incognita that is at times referred to by the catch-all term furyū nō. It serves as an initial foray into the plays outside of the existing canon of repertoire, to consider works known as haikyokyu (retired works) and bangaikyoku (unperformed works), which represent at least 90% of extant noh plays. Individual consideration of the plays reveals that, rather than a period of decline, the late Muromachi was a period of preservation and augmentation of the noh theater, as it evolved with the times. Most notably, this augmentation concerns theme and subject matter; sources; size and nature of cast; convergence on and divergence from conventional noh dramaturgy; and use of stage props.
Recommended Citation
Haliburton, Adam, "Learning, Prowess and Judgment: The Noh of Three Late Muromachi Playwrights" (2022). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 773.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/773
