FAMOUS for its opulent yet austere style, Noh theater is one of Japan?s most revered artforms and is the oldest existing staged performance art. Its history dates back to the 14th-century Muromachi Period, which also saw the birth of what are now considered to be the quintessential expressions of Japanese culture: the tea ceremony and flower arrangement.

In 2001, Noh was declared by Unesco as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Interestingly, Noh with its virtuosity as an ensemble work is not rehearsed by its practitioners together. The musicians practice individually, the same with the shite (lead performer) and supporting actors.

This is due to the aesthetic philosophy of ichi-go, ichi-e (?one encounter, one opportunity?) in which each performance is a celebration of temporality. It?s a jam session by seasoned artists.

Under the auspices of the University of the Philippines Center for International Studies (Upcis) the chance for Filipinos to have ?one encounter, one opportunity? with a Noh master has been made possible.

Partnership

Naohiko Umewaka, Ph.D., a Nohgakushi (Noh Master for Shite) from the Kanze school, who gave his first performance at age three under the tutelage of his father, the legendary Naoyoshi Umewaka, and whose lineage goes back 600 years or as long as the history of Noh itself, has wanted to share his art with Filipinos since 2005.

In partnership with Amparo Adelina C. Umali of Upcis, Umewaka trained his first set of Filipino students, a venture which produced impressive results. The following year, these same students performed a full-length play, ?Okina,? with other Noh masters at RCBC Theater in celebration of the 50th year of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Philippines.

Noh training has been a long-term and continuing program since undertaken by Umewaka and Umali for Upcis.

Now in the Philippines for a month with an appointment as Special Advisor for Cultural Exchange by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Umewaka has been conducting Noh lectures, demonstrations and workshops open to interested students and teachers in UP Diliman, Cagayan de Oro and Naga City.

Asked how he can teach so many inexperienced students in one small classroom, he says the true space of Noh is in the mind. Or that it can be so with practice. ?The more you are disadvantaged, you could be better using this disadvantage.?

Solid tradition

Despite having six centuries of solid tradition behind him, Umewaka is not content with merely duplicating the tried and tested formulae of his art. While retaining the language of Noh, he has also been writing and performing in new works, which he has called ?modern plays and newly created Noh productions??proof that the art, though ancient, is dynamic and reflective of its context.

His 2006 production of ?Okina?/?Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa: Isang Noh sa Laguna? is one example. ?Okina,? considered to be the prototype of almost the entire Noh repertoire, is the most ancient of its plays, while Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio?s adaptation of the story of Sisa reworks Rizal?s tragic character from ?Noli Me Tangere? utilizing Noh conventions.

An original work by Umewaka, ?The Coffee Shop within the Play,? written in 2003 and an official entry to the Theater Olympics of the Nations performed at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2006, tries to unravel the form to create what might be called a meta-Noh.

?The Italian Restaurant,? written in 2007, is a psychological play that borrows from Noh and requires its main character to perform with a Noh mask. After watching the play, Nicanor G. Tiongson, playwright and theater scholar, remarked that it was a ?coup de théâtre.?

Umewaka?s experiments have been very well-received, although there is the inevitable resistance from the occasional purist. The work of cultural exchange presents its own daunting challenges. In an increasingly globalized and culturally homogenized world, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to be exposed to forms outside the generally Westernized mainstream.

Umewaka?s highly-participatory program involves the multiple aspects of lectures, demonstrations and workshops, as well as colloquia and performances, carefully conceptualized, organized and planned by Umali, to create what he calls ?a complex tapestry.?

Old teachers

Teaching foreigners is not new to the Umewaka family. Umewaka?s great grandfather, Minoru Umewaka (1828-1909), was credited with reviving the artform during the upheavals of the Meiji Restoration, when Noh temporarily lost favor with the general public in the rush toward modernization.

It was also largely through Minoru?s influence that Noh reached the West, one of his more famous students being Ernest Fenollosa and, by transmission, Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats. This tradition of innovation and opening up of what seems to be a rarefied world accessible only to the initiate is being continued by Umewaka-sensei.

Umewaka says Filipinos have an innate receptivity to the art, which makes it a pleasure to teach. In fact, some of his students have become capable Noh practitioners in their own right.
Three UP students?Dana Uy, Che Ramos and Diana Malahay?may even be said to have made Noh history by being the first women?and non-Japanese at that?to play traditionally male roles, playing the hip drum, and essaying the part of Sambaso and Okina, respectively.

Introducing the world to Noh is an ambitious undertaking, but Umewaka makes it seem almost effortless. For him, all the world can be a Noh stage.