Thinker · TH-0445
Zeami
Zeami Motokiyo was a Japanese actor, playwright and theorist who, with his father Kan'ami, shaped Noh drama into its classical form under the patronage…
On the Coordinates: 5.4 The Sublime
世阿弥
Also known as Zeami Motokiyo, Kanze Motokiyo
c. 1363 – 1443 · Kyoto; exile on Sado Island
Traditions: Japanese & Korean
Zeami Motokiyo was a Japanese actor, playwright and theorist who, with his father Kan'ami, shaped Noh drama into its classical form under the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in Kyoto. In later life he was exiled to Sado Island. His treatises on performance are among the earliest systematic works of Japanese aesthetics. Central to them is yūgen, a profound and elegant beauty that lies in what is suggested rather than shown, together with the 'flower' (hana), the fresh effect a performance has on its audience.
Key ideas
- Yūgen is profound grace, found in what is suggested rather than shown.
- The 'flower' (hana) of a performance is its freshness and power to move the audience.
- Restraint can be more expressive than full display.
- Training must be adapted to the actor's age and stage of development.
Major works
- Teachings on Style and the Flower (Fūshikaden 風姿花伝, c. 1400–1418)
- A Mirror Held to the Flower (Kakyō 花鏡, 1424)
- Noh plays such as Izutsu and Takasago
In the conversation
- Question Is there a film theory that starts from ma, rasa or the imaginal world rather than from Paris?
- Debate Yūgen is not a Japanese sublime, and translating it that way loses the point
- Discussion Does every culture have a word for ‘art’? Technē, kalā and the Japanese ‘ways’
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Zeami takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 5.4 The Sublime Why do we seek out what frightens us?