Reviewed by:

• Noh as Living Art: Inside Japan’s Oldest Theatrical Tradition by Yasuda Noboru
• Jane Traynor

Yasuda Noboru’s Noh as Living Art, which is the English translation of his 2017 book Nō: 650-nen tsuzuita shikake to wa, is an excellent resource for readers looking to discover new points of access into the [End Page 209] world of nō. Yasuda’s perspective as a waki performer is a refreshing perspective to anglophone literature on the art of nō, which remains heavily biased towards the shite-centered discourse. He also notes in the preface to the English edition that he specifically does not engage in depth with the play texts in this book (x–xi) which, considering the abundance of English language resources on nō texts from a literary perspective, seems a sensible omission. What he does instead is establish various points of connection between nō and key moments history, as well as its relationship to literature, popular culture, and health and wellness merits over time—firmly situating the art in its contemporary context with language that is clear and accessible.

Yasuda’s book is divided into eight concise chapters. Chapter One situates nō as a contemporary practice and introduces essential points, such as shoshin (“beginner’s mind”), nō’s flexibility over time, and the potential benefits of nō to life outside of the art, all of which he wants the reader to keep in mind. Chapters Two and Three do a reasonable job of summarizing over six hundred years of nō history into a mere twenty-three pages. As a unit, these first three chapters not only provide the reader with foundational knowledge from which they can build basic nō literacy but also illustrate the art’s historical trajectory with enough nuance to communicate that the nō we have today is the result of various adaptations over time, rather than a single unchanged tradition.

Chapter Four moves into the nuts and bolts of nō performance, covering basic terms such as suriashi (sliding feet), jo-ha-kyu (“opening-development-climax”), utai (songs), and the categories of plays, as well as an introduction to the stage complete with a particularly clear diagram of the stage borrowed from Manga de tanoshimu nō kyōgen (Enjoying Nō and Kyōgen through Manga, p. 47). However, this chapter also reveals the downside to the more waki-centered approach. There is only a very short section dedicated to the use of masks—which is arguably one of the major draws for many people to the art. Yasuda himself acknowledges this personal gap in his expertise, attributing his knowledge of masks entirely to the experiences shared by his shite colleagues. When Yasuda discusses the mask, he uses the seemingly expressionless, or rather, subtly expressive masks, to make his assertion that the “mask by itself . . . is static and emotionally neutral” (p. 37). This is a very selective approach that prioritizes the more refined mask types, such as the trademark young women masks that often prove to be the iconic “face” of nō itself. Unfortunately, this also overlooks the wide diversity of elderly, gods, demons, and other entities that frequently grace the nō stage with their significantly stronger features. He does, [End Page 210] however, address the physical experience of wearing the masks and the impact it has on the performer, hence remaining true to the phenomenologically driven perspective of his book and perhaps providing enough of a hook to stimulate further engagement on the subject by the reader.

Next, Yasuda devotes Chapter Five to Zeami’s “genius and legacy” (p. 49). Looking beyond the standard idolization of Zeami that is by no means unique to this book, this chapter uses Zeami as a means of introducing ideas around mugen nō (phantasmal nō), spirituality, hana (“The Flower”), and the iemoto (family head) system (the latter of which is potentially confusing since the term iemoto dates back to only the mid-eighteenth century despite nō lineages practically functioning as such since approximately Zeami’s time) (Rath 2016...

审核人：

• 能剧作为生活艺术：深入日本最古老的戏剧传统安田升
• 简特雷纳

Yasuda Noboru 的Noh as Living Art是他 2017 年出版的书Nō: 650-nen tsuzuita shikake to wa的英文翻译，对于希望发现进入nō [End Page 209]世界的新入口的读者来说，这是一个极好的资源。安田作为一名waki表演者的观点是关于能艺术的英语文学的一个令人耳目一新的观点，它仍然严重偏向以shite为中心的话语。他还在英文版的序言中指出，他特别没有深入研究这本书 (x–xi) 中的剧本，考虑到关于 nō 的英语语言资源丰富从文学的角度来看，文本似乎是一个明智的遗漏。相反，他所做的是在能和历史的关键时刻之间建立各种联系点，以及它与文学、流行文化以及随着时间推移的健康和保健价值之间的关系——用清晰明了的语言将艺术牢牢地置于当代语境中无障碍。

安田的书分为八个简洁的章节。第一章将能定位为一种当代实践，并介绍了要点，例如初心（“初心”）、能随时间变化的灵活性，以及​​能对艺术之外的生活的潜在好处，他希望读者了解所有这些要牢记。第二章和第三章将 600 多年的能历史总结到仅仅 23 页的篇幅中是合理的。作为一个单元，这前三章不仅为读者提供了基础知识，他们可以从中建立基本的能文化，而且还以足够的细微差别说明了艺术的历史轨迹，以传达能我们的今天是随着时间的推移各种适应的结果，而不是单一不变的传统。

第四章进入能乐表演的具体细节，涵盖基本术语，如suriashi（滑脚）、jo-ha-kyu（“开场-发展-高潮”）、谣（歌曲）和戏剧类别，如以及从Manga de tanoshimu nō kyōgen（通过漫画享受能和狂言，第 47 页）借来的特别清晰的舞台图来介绍舞台。然而，这一章也揭示了更多的缺点为中心的方法。只有一个非常短的部分专门介绍面具的使用——这可以说是许多人对这门艺术的主要吸引力之一。安田本人承认自己在专业知识上存在个人差距，他将自己对口罩的了解完全归功于他的同事分享的经验。当安田讨论面具时，他使用看似无表情，或者更确切地说，具有微妙表情的面具来断言“面具本身。. . 是静态的和情绪中性的”（第 37 页）。这是一种非常有选择性的方法，优先考虑更精致的面具类型，例如标志性的年轻女性面具，通常被证明是nō的标志性“面孔”本身。不幸的是，这也忽略了老年人、神、恶魔和其他实体的广泛多样性，这些实体经常以其明显更强大的特征为nō舞台增光添彩。然而， [第 210 页结束] ，他确实解决了戴面具的身体体验及其对表演者的影响，因此忠于他的书的现象学驱动的观点，并可能提供足够的钩子来刺激进一步参与读者的主题。

接下来，安田将第五章专门用于世阿弥的“天才和遗产”（第 49 页）。超越对世阿弥的标准崇拜，这绝不是本书所独有的，本章使用世阿弥作为介绍围绕mugen nō（幻影nō）、灵性、hana（“花”）和iemoto（家族）的思想的一种方式head) 系统（后者可能令人困惑，因为iemoto一词只能追溯到 18 世纪中叶，尽管nō血统实际上从大约 Zeami 的时代开始就这样运作）（Rath 2016...