Kyōgen

Of the extant comedy genres on the Japanese stage, Kyōgen, which is written with characters meaning “mad words,” is generally considered the oldest, although Manzai may be older. Kyōgen is the humorous twin genre of the stately Nō and is performed on the same stage, providing the comic relief between Nō plays. A full Nō program consists of three Nō plays interspersed with two Kyōgen plays, forming a full day's performance. Such full-day performances are no longer common. This entry discusses the elements of Kyōgen, its history, and types of professional Kyōgen performance.

The word kyōgen was used by the monk Dōgen in a pejorative sense in the 9th century and also by Fujiwara Teika in his diary (1188 CE). It is believed the term was first used about stage art during the mid-14th century. Zeami, the theorist of Nō, used it in his Shūdōsho (early 15th century), along with the earlier name for Kyōgen (Okashi or Wokashi, meaning “funny”).

Both the serious Nō and the humorous Kyōgen derive from Sarugaku, a comedic mimic genre of early times. Zeami and his father Kan'ami, talented Nō actors, obtained the Shōgun's patronage for their art, so that Nō and Kyōgen became theater for the upper classes and a Shōgunate drawing-room art. During the Edo period, however, rich merchants could also learn Nō singing, so it was by no means an exclusively aristocratic or samurai pursuit.

By the 20th century, Nō and Kyōgen had declined, but with government subvention they were revived and preserved as national treasures in the second half of the 20th century. Whereas both are arts that have been handed down within training schools whose members were men, in the second half of the 20th century women were learning and performing both arts.

Until the 20th century, Kyōgen was more exclusively an oral tradition than was Nō. Nō is in literary Japanese, convoluted poetic language, chanted at an exaggeratedly slow speed, often muffled by a mask and so not comprehensible to the untrained ear. Kyōgen scripts are close to the ordinary spoken language of the Muromachi period (ca. 15th or 16th century) and thus as comprehensible to native speakers of Japanese as Elizabethan conversation might be to native English speakers. For a Nō performance, part of the audience may pore over the script, but it is possible to sit back, relax, and enjoy a Kyōgen play.

This somewhat grotesque Kyōgen mask of Oto (a version of the more popular character Okami) emphasizes one squinting and one staring eye to comic effect.

Source: Far Eastern Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

[Page 432]Many Nō playwrights are known, and scripts were probably written down before being performed. Kyōgen playwrights are not known, and scripts have very obviously developed as improvisations. Kyōgen actors are still taught orally, although written scripts have existed since the publication of Kyōgenki (Records of Kyōgen) in 1660.

Kyōgen mask of the character Buaku. The faintly comical demon mask of Buaku is the Kyōgen version of the Nō theater mask of Beshimi. Both the characterization and stylized carving of this mask reflect the original prototype. The mask is carved from a single piece of cypress, with the features in high relief. The surface has been treated with a layer of gofun that has been painted a deep flesh color. The folds of flesh around the eyes, cheeks, brow, and mouth have been accentuated by the creases painted in a deep red color with additional highlights in black ink. Black ink, applied in firm yet sensitive lines, has also been used for the hair, eyebrows, mustache, and whiskers. The eyeballs have had gold leaf applied, with the edges emphasized by lines of ink accentuated by red painted rims. This follows the Nō theater tradition of coloring the eyes of a demon red and gold.

Source: Far Eastern Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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