You Never Know (Noh) Who You Will Meet On The Train

Noh Performance at the Hagoromo Matsuri

Every year at the beginning of October, the Hagoromo Festival is held at Miho Matsubara in Shimizu. I was excited about going to see the Noh Performance at the festival this year with three friends. Usually the performance is held at the beach at Miho Matsubara, near Mount Fuji, but this year rainy weather forced the perfomance to move to an indoor venue near the train station.  We were disappointed not to be at the beach for the performance, but maybe we can go another year.

Hagoromo means garment or veil.  The legend is that a fisherman named Hakuryo found a beautiful robe hanging on a pine branch in the Miho Pine Grove.  He was about to take it away when a heavenly maiden appeared and asked him to return the "hagoromo" to her. The fisherman insisted on keeping it because he had found it. She cried in despair, saying she could not return to heaven without it.  The fisherman agreed to return it to her on the condition that he could see her dance the Celestial Dance wearing the robe.  The heavenly maiden agreed and danced for him, but then vanished into a mist when her dance was finished. 

(photo from the internet)

My friend bought our tickets early and was able to get us in the eighth row. Photos were not allowed during the performance, but I did take a few of the stage before it began.  

The performance used an ancient form of Japanese that even my Japanese friends did not understand. We knew the story behind the performance, so it was okay that we didn't understand the words.

The Noh Mask Exhibit

I was fortunate to be able to join two friends to see a fantastic exhibit of Noh masks. Noh is a form of Japanese theater which orginated in the 14th century. It combines music, dance, and drama.  The dual art of Noh and Kyogen, comical pieces which are performed during breaks in the main Noh performance, are listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.  The shite or main character in the performance wears a mask to tell the audience what kind of character is being portrayed.  

This exhibition contained 50 masks and the mask artist was on site to explain it to us.

The masks are made from blocks of Japanese cypress which are grown in the shade of other trees. He told us it takes about two months to carve each mask and explained the entire process, including coloring and hair. The mask insides are created so the sweat will drip out from the chin and not through the nose holes which could damage the face of the mask. The demon masks have brass eyes to reflect the stage lights and make them look scarier.

The masks were arranged by characters.  The first set are the comedy masks.

Men's masks

Next are the Demons

Women

This exhibit was fabulous.  Now, I want to see a Noh performance!