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Kyogen or kyōgen (literally, "mad words" or "wild speech") is a form of traditional Japanese theater. It developed alongside noh, was performed along with noh as an intermission of sorts between noh acts, and retains close links to noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated noh-kyogen. However, its content is not at all similar to the formal, symbolic, and solemn noh theater; kyogen is a comical form, and its primary goal is to make its audience laugh.
History
Kyogen is thought to derive from a form of Chinese entertainment that was brought to Japan around the 8th century. This entertainment form became known as saragaku and initially encompassed both serious drama and comedy. By the 14th century, these forms of saragaku had become known as noh and kyogen, respectively.
Kyogen provided a major influence on the later development of kabuki theater. After the earlier, more ribald forms of kabuki had been outlawed in the mid-17th century, the government permitted the establishment of the new yarō-kabuki (men's kabuki) only on the grounds that it refrain from the previous kabuki forms' lewdness and instead model itself after kyogen.
Noh had been the official entertainment form of the Edo period, and was therefore subsidized by the government. Kyogen, performed in conjunction with noh, also received the patronage of the government and the upper class during this time. Following the Meiji Restoration, however, this support ceased. Without government support, noh and kyogen went into decline, as many Japanese citizens gravitated toward the more "modern"-seeming Western art forms. In 1879, however, then-President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, while touring Japan, expressed an interest in the traditional art of noh. They became the first Americans to witness noh and kyogen plays and are said to have enjoyed the performance. Their approval is believed to have sparked a revival of interest in these forms 1 (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb182046.htm).
In modern Japan, kyogen is performed both separately and as a part of noh. Its traditions are maintained primarily by family groups, especially the Izumi and Okura schools.
Elements of Kyogen
As with noh and kabuki, all kyogen actors, including those in female roles, are men. Kyogen plays are invariably brief, and often contain only two or three roles, which are often stock characters.
Movements and dialogue in kyogen are typically very exaggerated, making the action of the play easy to understand. Elements of slapstick or satire are present in most kyogen plays. Some plays are parodies of actual Buddhist or Shinto religious rituals; others are shorter, more lively, simplified versions of noh plays, many of which are derived from folktales.
Kyogen is performed to the accompaniment of music, especially the flute, drums, and gong. However, the emphasis of kyogen is on dialogue and action, rather than on music or dance.
Actors in kyogen, like noh performers, typically wear masks, though these are less numerous in variety than noh masks. Both masks and costumes are simpler than those characteristic of noh. Few props are used, and minimal or no stage sets.
References
- Brandon, James R. Nō and Kyōgen in the Contemporary World. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997.
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