The Noh of Tomoeda Akiyo
12 Selected Performances

A Noh play based on an ancient Chinese tale. A young man named Rosei dreams an entire lifetime of glory while a pot of millet cooks at an inn in Kantan. Upon waking, he realizes it was but a fleeting dream. The play depicts the impermanence of life and the attainment of enlightenment. Kasa-no-de is a special staging in which the shite enters carrying an umbrella.

The Nue is a fearsome chimera with the head of a monkey, body of a tanuki, tail of a serpent, and limbs of a tiger. Shot down by Minamoto no Yorimasa, the spirit of the Nue recounts its tragic fate. A masterpiece depicting a vengeful phantom submerged in darkness.

Based on the Tsutsuizutsu episode of The Tales of Ise, this is Zeami’s supreme masterpiece of mugen Noh (dream Noh). The spirit of Ki no Aritsune’s daughter, yearning for Ariwara no Narihira, dons his keepsake robe and glimpses his image reflected in the well.

A Noh play based on the legend of Anchin and Kiyohime. A shirabyoshi dancer appears at the bell dedication ceremony of Dojoji Temple, but she is in truth the spirit of Kiyohime, transformed into a serpent. The escalating tension from the ranbyoshi dance to the dramatic entry into the bell is one of the most thrilling moments in all of Noh.

A play depicting the secret love between Princess Shokushi and Fujiwara no Teika. The spirit of the princess emerges from a burial mound entwined with Teika’s clinging vines. Bound by the vines of obsession, she continues to yearn for Teika—a serene portrayal of a woman’s undying devotion.

Set at Mount Obasute in Shinano, this play depicts an old woman gazing at the moon. The sorrow of an abandoned elder intertwines with the beauty of mountains bathed in moonlight. A celebrated piece expressing old age, solitude, and the state of serene resignation.

After the fall of the Taira clan, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa visits Empress Kenreimon’in, living in seclusion at Jakko-in temple in Ohara. Having entered the sea at Dan-no-ura with the young Emperor Antoku, she alone survived. She recounts the final days of the Taira clan.

A mother who has wandered from the capital to the eastern provinces in search of her child, taken by a human trafficker. On the banks of the Sumida River, she learns that her child has already departed this world. One of the most deeply sorrowful tales of a mother and child in all of Noh.

The spirit of Minamoto no Toru, Minister of the Left from Kawara, appears at the ruins of his Rokujo-Kawara mansion on a moonlit night. At the site where the scenery of Shiogama Bay was once recreated in a garden of former splendor, the ghost of a nobleman dances in the moonlight. A world of profound beauty woven from autumn moonlight and dance. Performed on the seaside Noh stage at Itsukushima.

Taira no Kiyotsune was a young nobleman of the Taira clan who drowned himself before the Battle of Dan-no-ura. His spirit appears in a dream to his wife and recounts the circumstances of his death and his feelings in the afterlife. A warrior Noh play depicting conjugal love and a warrior’s pride. Performed on the oldest extant Noh stage, the National Treasure “Nishi Honganji North Noh Stage.”

Ono no Komachi, once celebrated as a woman of peerless beauty, now appears as a hundred-year-old beggar. Seated upon a stupa, the old woman recounts the tale of Fukakusa no Shosho’s hundred nights of devotion, arriving at Buddhist enlightenment. A meditation on aging, beauty, attachment, and awakening.

A Noh play based on the divine marriage legend of Mount Miwa. A woman who appears before the monk Genpin is in truth a manifestation of the deity of Miwa. Kami-asobi is a special staging featuring sacred kagura dance—a celebratory finale of divine splendor.