Zeami's Style: a Study of the 'Mugen' Noh Plays of Zeami Motokiyo. (Japan).

Abstract

The name of Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) has become associated with most of the great noh plays in the modern repertory. This has happened because traditional lists of the repertory dating from the early Tokugawa period have attributed most plays to Zeami. Modern scholarship in Japan has demonstrated, however, that many of these attributions are false, and has identified only some thirty odd plays as unmistakably Zeami's on the basis of external evidence. This has been the starting point for the present dissertation. It examines the documentary evidence for attribution contemporary with Zeami himself, and proceeds to analyze some of his best plays in order to identify literary and musical characteristics which can be said to be typical of Zeami. The dissertation consists of five chapters: The first is a biographical survey; the second, an examination of external evidence for attribution. The third is a study of what Zeami calls the rotai, "the role of the old man." It contains a detailed analysis of the play Takasago and a discussion of other rotai plays which can confidently be considered Zeami's, as well as a brief discussion of the rotai style among other noh playwrights. The fourth chapter analyzes Izutsu in order to gain an underst and ing of Zeami's nyotai plays, "the plays for the role of woman." The final chapter is a study of the guntai, "the role of the warrior," with an analysis of the play Tadanori as representative of the guntai in general. The dissertation includes complete translations of Takasago, Izutsu, and Tadanori, as well as numerous excerpts from other plays. Among the appendices is an exhaustive review of the documentary evidence for attibution of plays to Zeami.