Kanze Zeami (1364-1444), also called Zeami Motokiyo, was a Japanese actor, playwright, and critic. His theoretical works on the art of the No are as justly celebrated as his dramas.It was the great es...
Read more
As a youth Zeami, the son of a lowly performer, was given access to the highest social and literary circles of fourteenth-century Japan. Taking advantage of the education and tastes he acquired from t...
Read more
In the following essay, Ueda delineates Zeami's views on the nature and technique of Nō, particularly the concept of yūgen, or "elegance, calm, profundity, mixed with the fee...
Read more
In this essay, Ueda provides a detailed consideration of the conventions of No as prescribed by Zeami.
The Japanese Noh drama has been attracting increasing interest in the West since it was first ...
Read more
In the excerpts below, Keene discusses some of the difficulties inherent in establishing a canon of Zeami's works, and he offers brief introductions to six of his plays.
The difficulties con...
Read more
In the essay below, Tatsuro explores Zeami's insistence that performances of Nō must consider such factors as the time, the location, and the audience in order to be successful. According...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Brandon presents a broad overview of the form, content, characters, and staging of No plays and discusses Zeami's role in the drama's development.
Between th...
Read more
In the essay which follows, Brazell summarizes Zeami's portrayal of women in his plays, arguing that because his culture lacked a single model for women, he was freer to have his female charact...
Read more
In the following essay, which introduced her translation of The Two Shizukas, Mueller examines Zeami's treatment of the tragic character Shizuka in light of other depictions of this traditional...
Read more
In the essay below, Nagatomo uncovers the concept of freedom implicit in Zeami's theories of disciplined dramatic training, which results in a “controlled spontaneity” of mind and...
Read more
In the excerpt below, De Poorter surveys Zeami's theoretical writings, underscoring their “hidden” or “secret” quality as texts intended for a narrow, private audien...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Smethurst chronicles the extensive literary and stylistic similarities between Zeami's play Sanemori and Aeschylus's Persians.
From the discussion of structu...
Read more
In the essay below, Thornhill exposes elements of Shinto doctrines in the treatment of the sun goddess myth in works by Zeami and his successor Komparu Zenchiku.
In recent years, scholars of Japane...
Read more
Kanze Zeami
Zeami
Critical Essay by Makoto Ueda
