BH+3


 * Among the Noh plays you have read, select one that appeals to you the most and discuss why you are drawn to it above all the other works. You may wish to refer to the video illustrations of the excerpts of the plays that we saw in class, as well as the scripts to compose your answer. **

My favorite Noh play was Izutsu. The story of the play immediately struck me in a very powerful way. The intense longing for someone who is out of your reach, even if that is because they have cast you off, is inherently tragic. I also felt that the slow, graceful movements of the Noh fit perfectly for this kind of play. The sorrow which is so heavy she can scarcely bear to move seems appropriate justification for the movement that I otherwise often could not motivate. Likewise, her confusion upon seeing the reflection of herself mixing with her beloved lends itself to a hesitant slowness as well as the relative frenzy of the dance.

I was also captivated by the very traditional and distinctly Japanese mask used for the main character. By that I mean that it is a representation of female beauty which is very different from modern western ideas of beauty. If one were to compare the mask, however, to the Mona Lisa then I think there is a greater similarity—the roundness of the face; the thin, pale lips; the high forehead; and the eyes which are small relative to the size of the face. Still, the features of the mask are, of course, very particular to East Asia.


 * [wc:212] **


 * sources: Noh video of Izutsu, Izutsu script **