• A chorus of musicians with three to four different types of musical instruments such as the shamisen and tsuzumi drum with about six to eight people "singing"
• Very little props and backdrops are used. In fact, the standard backdrop is only a single wall with a pine tree and small pebbles on it. Props are very minimal, but they play an important role in Noh plays.
• Usually, there are only about two main actors, and the progress of the play is determined by the position of them
• The personality and the characteristics of the main actor is potrayed through his or her costumes and masks the actor wears. By the way, the actors must wear at least 5 layers of clothing. Honestly, don't their shoulders crush under all that weight?
• Although the masks only show one type of emotion, through actions, the actor is able to present various feelings and emotions.
• Noh plays are very lonnnnnngggggggggg, but there are short intervals with a half an hour kyogen performance. Goodness! How long is one full Noh play??? What if you have to get up to stretch your legs halfway?? I can't even last that long in the cinema!! LOL.
• Music in Noh is usually very simple with steady drum beats and melodies. Like Chinese opera, in a way :)
• There is not much sound effect change in Noh, unlike Kabuki. Most of the time, the music and sounds are repeatitive and quite slow.
• Also, unlike Kabuki, Noh does not include too many instruments in the musical chorus because it focuses mainly on the actors, not really as much on the music,
• however, the music plays a really important role as well because the singing is the equilvalent of speech and the emotions presented by the actors and vocal chorus.
• The singing is slow, and quite melancholy, but in some Noh plays, it can be seemingly comical
• Some of the plays are adapted from selected literature prose into a "musical". But some of these stories are very deep and quite difficult to understand.
• Noh plays, like several other traditional Japanese performing art forms, include the following characters: gods, warriors, beautiful women, and various other figures (often crazy women or modern figures)
• One of the most popular Noh play would be Lady Aoi, which is based on the 11th century story of the Tale of (Prince) Genji.
• Random fact: Noh plays were often presented to the shoguns by their favorite concubines. The plays usually durated for 3 hours and some, even a whole day! Shoguns really knew how to live their lives huh! :)

Labels: art, history, japan, music, noh, theatre, timeline, tradition

*300BCE- Jomon Era

*300BCE- 300CE- Yayoi Era

~ Rice agriculture is being introduced

*300CE-538CE- Kofun Era

*538CE-710CE- Asuka Era

~ Buddhism is introduced

*710CE-784CE- Nara Era

~Nara becomes the first permanent capital, but soon it becomes Nagaoka

*794CE-1185CE- Heian Era

~ Kyoto becomes the capital

~ The end of the Heian Era marks the end of the ancient and classical period of Japan

*1192CE-1333CE- Kamakura Era

~ The Mongols try but unsuccessfully invade Japan

~Fall of Kamakura clan (1333CE)

*1338CE-1573CE- Muromachi Era

~ Ashikagu Takauji captures Kamakura (1336)

~ Emperor flees and sets up a Southern court (1337)

~ The Dutch come and introduce firearms and Christianity, which is mostly accepted (1542)

*1573CE- 1603CE- Azumi Momoyama Era

~ Nobunaga is murdered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1582)

~ Japan is reunited after the fall of the Hojo clan (1590)

~ Korea is invaded, but the attacks are unsuccessful (1592-1598)

~ Hideyoshi dies (1598)

~ Ieyasu Tokugawa defeats the other military clans at the battle of Sekigahari

*1603-1867- Edo Period

~ Ieyasu becomes shogun and establishes the Tokugawa government, giving the country 00 years or so of peace (1603)

~ He starts the persecution of Christians, as he thought that the Christian clan was getting too troublesome and powerful (1614)

~ The Totoyomi clan is destroyed after Ieyasu captures the Osaka castle (1615)

~ Japan is almost isolated completely from the world (1639)

~ The Russians attempt to trade with the Japanese, but that is not effective (1792)

~ Commodore Matthew Perry forces the Japanese government to open a limited number of ports to the world for trade (1854)

~ The Battle at Aizu Wakamatsu- Shogun Yoshinobu has decided to give the power back to the emperor (1867-1868)

*1868CE-1912CE- Meiji Era

~ Meiji Restoration (1868)

~ Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)

~ Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

~ Annexation of Korea (1910)

~ Death of Emperor Meiji (1912)

*1912-1926- Taisho Period

~Japan joins the Allied Forces of Europe in WWI (1914-1918)

*1926-1989- Showa Period

~ Manchurian Incident (1931)

~ 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937)

~ Pacific War (a.k.a WWII) (1941)

~ The Emperor surrenders unconditionally after the Americans drop two atomic bombs in two Japanese cities within the span of 3 days (1945)

~ A new constitution is made (1946)

~ Allied Occupation in Japan ends (1952)

~ Japan becomes a member of the U.N (1956)

~ End of the Chisso Corporation commotion... mostly (1968)

~ The normalization of relations with China (1972)

~ Oil crisis (1973)

*1989- ?- Heisei Period

- The Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe (1995)

- Sarin Gas Attack in a Tokyo subway by the AUM sect (1995)

PHEW! LOL

Love, Joslyn

Labels: history, japan, timeline