The Cultural Politics of Noh
Through an extended reading of the noh play Aoi ne Ue, as well as briefer examinations of several other plays, this book sheds new light on the circulation of power and desire in the middle and late medieval periods in Japan. It argues that these plays constituted an active force in the theater of the medieval cultural imaginary by engaging specific sociopolitical issues and problems.
The Cultural Politics of Noh Steven T. Brown. CHAPTER I. Instituting. Noh.
Although noh is thought to have derived, in part, from various forms of
entertainment performed at court, such as Chinese dance (gigaku,] bugaku) and
music (gagaku), imported into Japan in the seventh and eighth centuries, its
beginnings were more popular than courtly. The early popular dramatic forms
that seem to have exerted the greatest influence on the development of noh
include various sacred and ...
