Noh and Kyogen Theatre

Nogaku is the oldest theatre still performed in Japan, and it makes very few concessions. A cedar stage with a painted pine backdrop stands inside the building like a shrine roof brought indoors, reached by a bridge along which the masked lead enters at a pace that can take a minute to cover a few metres. A chorus kneels at the side, three drummers and a flute mark time, and the text is chanted rather than spoken. Between the plays come kyogen, short comic pieces performed unmasked in ordinary speech, about servants outwitting masters and men outwitted by their wives. The contrast is the point, and the programmes have paired them for six hundred years.

What you actually see

• The stage itself - polished cedar, a painted pine, and jars beneath the boards to carry the sound of stamping feet.
• The masks - carved to read differently as the head tilts, so a single face shifts between grief and calm.
• Kyogen - the spoken comic interludes, easily the most accessible part for a first-time audience.
• Takigi noh - summer performances by torchlight in shrine and temple grounds, held outdoors after dark.

When to go

Performances run all year, with the main theatres programming most months. Summer brings torchlit outdoor performances at shrines, atmospheric but hot and often ticketed separately. Book a week or two ahead for the national theatre, which supplies English synopses and earphone guides. Read the plot before you go, since the chanted archaic text defeats most Japanese audiences too.

Honest expectations

The pace is slower than almost anything else in theatre, a single play runs one to two hours, and dozing in the audience is so normal that nobody minds. Seats can be hard, air conditioning fierce, and outside the national theatre English support is patchy or absent. If you want narrative drive, kabuki will suit you far better.

Nearby

The national theatre sits between Sendagaya and Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo.