They have Hakama Noh in summer. The general
audience does not like it, but experts can see the
movements better as the actors sometimes wear no
upper dress at all, and are naked save for the semitransparent
hakama. New servants are surprised
at it.
Mr. Umewaka Minoru has tried hard not to
change any detail of the old customs. In recent
times many have urged him to change the lights,
but he prefers the old candles. They ask him to
modernize the text and to keep the shite from sitting
in the middle [of the stage? or of the play?], but
he won't.
A pupil of his, a wood-dealer, says that a proper
Noh stage could not be built now, for it is all of
hinoten. The floor is in twenty pieces, each of which
would now cost 250 yen. There must be no knots
in the pillars, and all the large pillars and cross
pieces are of one piece. This would cost enormously
now even if it were possible at all.
Awoyama Shimotsuke no Kami Roju built this
stage [the one now used by Minoru] for his villa in
Aoyama more than forty years ago; it was moved
to its present site in the fourth year of Meiji (1872).
The daimyo sold it to a curio dealer from whom
Umewaka Minoru bought it. Shimotsuke was
some relation to the daimyo of Bishu, in Owari, and
so he got the timbers for nothing. The best
timber comes from Owari. So the stage had cost
only the carpenter's wages (2000 yen?). Now
the wood alone would cost 20,000 to 40,000 yen,
if you could get it at all. You couldn't contract
for it.
The form of the stage was fixed in the time of
Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu. In Ashikaga (fourteenth
century) the performances were in Tadasu ga wara,
and the stage was open on all sides. The bridge
came to the middle of one side (apparently the back)
where the pine tree now is. The stage was square,
as it now is, with four pillars. The audience surrounded
it in a great circle "like Sumo" [whatever
that may mean]. They had a second story or gallery
and the Shogun sat in front. The roof was as it
now is.
The roof should not be tiled, but should be like
the roof of the shinto temples in Ise. Shimotsuke
had had a tiled roof because he was afraid of fire.
People had said that he (Minoru) was mad to set up
a Noh stage [at the time when he was starting to
revive the performance]; so he had made the roof
small and inconspicuous to attract less notice.
Under the stage are set five earthen jars, in the
space bounded by the pillars, to make the sound
reverberate—both the singing and the stamping.[5]
There are two more jars under the musicians' place
and three under the bridge. This has been so since
early Tokugawa times. The ground is hollowed
out under the stage to the depth of four feet.[6]
The jars are not set upright, as this would obstruct
the sound. They are set at 45 degrees. Sometimes
they are hung by strings and sometimes set on
posts. Minoru's are on posts.
Some jars are faced right and some left; there
is a middle one upright. Minoru says it is just
like a drum, and that the curve of the jars has to be
carefully made. The larger the jars the better.
Hideyoshi or Iyeyasu put the back on the stage.
It is made of a double set of boards in order to throw
the sound forward. They didn't like having the
sound wasted. This innovation was, on that score,
aesthetic.
"Social and palace" reasons have in some
measure determined the form of the stage.
The floor is not quite level, but slopes slightly
forward. The art of stage-building is a secret of
"daiko." It is as difficult to build a Noh stage
as to build a shinto temple, and there are no proper
Noh stages built now.
The painting of the pine tree on the back is most
important. It is a congratulatory symbol of unchanging
green and strength.
On some stages they have small plum flowers,
but this is incorrect; there should be no colour
except the green. The bamboo is the complement
of the pine. To paint these trees well is a great
secret of Kano artists. When skilfully painted,
they set off the musicians' forms.
The three real little pine trees along the bridge
are quite fixed; they symbolize heaven, earth, and
man. The one for heaven is nearest the stage,
and then comes the one which symbolizes man.
They are merely symbols like the painted pine tree.
Sometimes when a pine is mentioned the actors look
toward it.
The measurements of the stage have not changed
since early Tokugawa days. It should be three
ken square, but this measurement is sometimes
taken inside, sometimes outside the pillars.
There is no special symbolism in the bridge; it
is merely a way of getting across. The length was
arbitrary under the Ashikaga; later it was fixed
by rule. At the Shogun's court the bridge was 13
ken long, and one needed a great voice to act there.
The middle palace bridge was 7 ken. Minoru's
bridge is 5 ken. The bridge must be an odd number
of ken, like 13, or like the "in" and "yo" numbers
(7 and 5). The width is 9 "shaken" outside and
8 inside the pillars.
