"Hakata Raku" is a progressive Noh company of youngish Noh performers, based in Fukuoka. They work under the artistic guidance of Rokuro Umewaka, one of the leading Noh players in Japan. For the past few years they have been working with Teruaki Momoi

Hakata Raku - from front: Yukinori Takao, Seiichi Iida, Yasuyuki Shirasaka.
M&M Agency

of Production Agency M & M to explore ways of bringing Noh to new audiences, doing about 45 performances a year. In September they will perform a specially composed Noh play based on the Hakata Yamakasa to an audience of 1800 people in ACROS Fukuoka - in collaboration with a 45 piece "western style" orchestra....

This is all very rare. In the closed, traditional, hierarchical world of Noh, sons follow in father`s footsteps, outsiders such as Momoi-san are almost never involved, "new" Noh plays are rarely created (although it has become more common in the past 10 years) and collaboration with musicians playing other instruments is almost unheard of. The traditional Noh canon contains about 250 plays, many dating back to the pens of the founding fathers of Noh, Kannami and his son Zeami and others in the 14th and 15th century. Modern opera, ballet or drama audiences are used to seeing quite radical interpretations of a work; we talk, for example, of "Olivier`s Hamlet" or "Kurosawa`s Lear". By contrast a modern Noh performance is not so much an "interpretation" of a Noh masterpiece as an attempt to "realise" what is almost a "platonic ideal" of the perfect performance of that play. Noh plays have come to be regarded as "complete", perfect and immutable, like diamonds - nothing more can be added. The job of the Noh player is to present them in polished form...

It wasn`t always like this. At Noh`s inception, when many of the great Noh players were writing and performing Noh was a more liberal, dynamic and innovative art form. After it came under the patronage of the shogun Yoshimitsu Ashikaga, in the early Muromachi period, and subsequent military governments during the Edo period, it was honed, simplified and formalised into the rigid form we see today. After the Meiji restoration, although formal court patronage was withdrawn, powerful zaibatsu and rich private sponsors took over support. So it wasn`t until the end of WW2 that Noh had to fall back on its own resources, as patronage waned. Current reality is 1529

"Tamura" - Akihiro Takao.

professional players and an uncertain financial future as fewer and fewer people take lessons and professional performance becomes a more important source of income. The challenge Noh faces in modern Japan is how to cope with a decline in students and audiences and renew itself, while retaining its integrity and staying true to the ancient spirit of Noh.

Hakata-raku`s answer is to return to Noh`s roots and experiment a little, taking Noh out to new audiences. From M & M, Momoi`s experience of promoting classical music left him with the desire to present productions done with the needs and interests of the audience in mind rather than the artists`. Of course, these two aims are not identical, but both sides felt there was enough overlap for a fruitful collaboration.

Both to Hakata Raku and to Momoi, the idea of creating a wholly new Noh play and presenting it with a full western orchestra was a huge challenge, but one they simply could not run away from. Clearly, as a project, it carries a lot of risk. Financially it is risky because Acros Fukuoka Symphony Hall has 1800 seats, all of which have to be filled. Artistically there are several challenges; first in creating a wholly new Noh play, and then in creating a satisfactory "performance" involving such radically different forms as Noh and a large orchestra, while dealing with the practicalities of a lighting system and a large, unfamiliar stage. Finally, it is risky to the individual reputations of

	Hakata Raku

the Noh stars themselves. Where there is risk, there is criticism and is fair to say that not all of the more traditionally minded of Fukuoka`s Noh players entirely approve....

The first purpose of Hakata Raku is to create something that works as a performance, is suited to the space and that a contemporary audience can enjoy. But they have no interest in merely adding a superficial splash of modern colour to a traditional performance to suit present fancy. Instead they have a deeper and more interesting purpose - to go back to the roots of their art and re-discover its core truths and values. Hakata Raku`s challenge is to leave their own ground and communicate with performers from other genres; to look at Noh from the outside and by doing so go back to its origins. In short, to create a Noh for modern times in the true sense, and hand this wonderful and ancient art form on to future generations.

Our thanks to "Hakata Raku", M&M, Tetsuro Morimoto and the Kyushu Noh Players Committee, Ms Nakashima of the Fukuoka Prefecture Cultural Affairs Office and others involved.

You can see a gallery of Noh images in a popup off the front page of this issue.
®