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Theatre of Yugen’s Direction of

Kyögen in English and Kyögen
Fusion Plays
Yuriko Doi with Theatre of Yugen

The award-winning Theatre of Yugen has been performing kyögen, nö adaptations,

and multicultural fusion productions since 1978. This article traces the challenges and
developments in the ongoing process of the company’s creation of English-language
kyögen and kyögen fusion plays.
Yuriko Doi is the founder of Theatre of Yugen, and a theatre director, teacher, and
choreographer. She received Masters degrees from Waseda University (Tokyo) and San
Francisco State University. Previous publications include “Silence in the Theatre” in
Theatron (1970) and “Masks in Fusion Theatre” in Mime Journal (1984). She is
a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the California Arts
Council artist in residency, and the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Outstanding
Achievement Award in direction. She has directed more than forty-five plays, includ-
ing seventeen kyögen repertory productions.

“Noh joke: Kyogen’s funny”

Holly Johnson used this to headline her review of Theatre of
Yugen’s 1982 performance at the Portland Art Museum (Oregon Jour-
nal, 30 January 1982); clearly we had surprised her. Instead of a staid
rendition of classical Japanese theatre, she had been drawn into the
universal humor of kyögen. In fact, effectively conveying a sense of kyö-
gen’s warai (humor) to American audiences was one of our earliest
challenges. Performing in English before an audience more accus-
tomed to the fast-paced style of television, Broadway, and movies was
a test of the form as well as our abilities. This first west coast tour, spon-
sored by the consulate-generals of Japan in Seattle, Portland, San

Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2007). © 2007 by University of Hawai‘i Press. All rights reserved.
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248 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

Francisco, and San Diego, played to attentive full houses and received
strong applause and favorable reviews. It was this tour that provided us
with the initial encouragement to pursue the development of kyögen in
English.
Kyögen is not as bold and slapstick as most Western comedy, nor
is it as colorful and extroverted as the more familiar kabuki. Rather,
kyögen depicts humor in human predicaments and foibles and it is
truly international and timeless. Its sparse dialog and stylized move-
ment require tremendous actor training and skill to convey emotion,
humor, and grace. Creating this same experience for an English-
speaking audience, with actors who have not trained their entire
careers in this form, has been my challenge. From experience, we have
learned that literal translations and mimicking of kyögen acting style do
not provide quality theatre; rather, modifications of the script, acting,
and staging are required to provide a theatrical experience that will
reward Western audiences with an entertaining kyögen experience.

Training the Western Actor

Since the founding of Theatre of Yugen1 in 1978, my approach
to the direction of kyögen for Western audiences has continually evolved
as a result of improvements of our actors’ kyögen skills as well as lessons
learned from our productions. I realized that no matter how talented
an actor is, kyögen training is essential for a good performance. So, I
started kyögen training for my actors, while continuing the search for
the most effective way of teaching the essence of kyögen. I realized that
our American actors could not commit to a lifetime of training as do
the traditional kyögen families, nor would they submit to the strict dis-
cipline that was part of my training,2 thus it was necessary to condense
the training and make it very interactive, while making adjustments to
the script and staging to compensate for their developing skills.
My first actors were three students in my theatre class at San
Francisco State University and an established Japanese mime from
Osaka. Though theatre students, most had little experience with styl-
ized movement and vocalization, which are essential elements of kyö-
gen. One was a teacher of modern dance, a member of Jose Limon
Dance Company in New York, as well as a kathakali dancer. Although
her posture and movement were beautiful, she had no experience
with dialogue.
I first used Japanese theatrical abdominal breathing techniques
along with movement to help them develop stronger voices using the
diaphragm. Later I invited a Japanese master of shintaidö (a new mar-
tial art) to teach the ten shin go so (five aspects of heaven) pattern for
basic voice and movement training.3 Simultaneously, actors received
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 249

standard lessons in kyögen dance and song to develop a vocal and

kinetic understanding of the stylization. My teacher, Master Nomura
Mansaku (II, b. 1931) always said, “In kyögen, the body cries and laughs,
not the face.” In order to pursue this kyögen physicality, I put papier
maché masks on actors so they would focus on making their bodies cry
and laugh. This is very difficult training for American performers
accustomed to relying on facial expression, with far less experience in
expression through body movement. When I insisted that they not use
facial expression, I realized their body movement also became stiff or
dead. I ended up allowing them to use a limited degree of facial expres-
sion, instructing them not to become dependent on it, and as their
skills improved, they were indeed able to portray the emotion using
less facial expression.
In addition to this training, I grappled with the important issue
of how to sustain energy in the body. For a beginning performer, accu-
mulating and releasing energy, sustaining a beautiful ma (pause or
space), keeping rhythm, maintaining simplicity, and the minimal
movement are all frightening; he or she will try to fill up the space with
extra movement. In training, we continually face the matter of tempo,
the slowness of the tempo requires intensity and experience on the
part of the actor.
A defining struggle my whole artistic life in the United States
with audiences and critics has been how much to adjust the pace for
the audience. This is a much larger problem in our nö productions
than in our kyögen.4 If I train actors to perform at a faster pace, they will
never understand the original nö and kyögen theatre forms. Initially our
actors’ skills were not developed enough to maintain the intensity nec-
essary for the slower tempo and ma that kyögen demands; so I made
adjustments to the staging, script, and movement, all the while con-
tinuing the training. For general American audiences, the pace must
be faster than Japanese kyögen, but to give a kyögen experience, a pace
slower than (most) Western drama is unavoidable. I believe that if I
use Western timing, it would no longer be kyögen—not even kyögen in
English; so to produce appealing drama with American actors, I have
learned to accept an intermediate pace that depends upon the expe-
rience of the actors involved.
Along with my training, I arranged for Nomura Mansaku to
periodically perform in the United States and to teach the actors of
Theatre of Yugen. In 1983 Theatre of Yugen actors had the unique
honor of joining the Nomuras in the production of Kusabira (Mush-
rooms) in San Francisco. This training and exposure were a great step
in our actors’ appreciation and mastery of kyögen form.
Current artistic directors Jubilith Moore, Lluis Valls, and Libby
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250 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

Zilber and actress Ellen Brooks have now trained and performed with
me for more than fifteen years. They’ve also had opportunities to study
with guest kyögen and nö masters at workshops in our San Francisco
theatre and in Japan. I now feel much more comfortable and confi-
dent with the challenges of performing kyögen in English and creating
new kyögen pieces with them.

Modifying Kyögen Plays for Western Audiences

My first approach to staging kyögen in the West was to reproduce
original kyögen plays using existing English translations with minimal
modifications. This taught me a great deal about the challenges of
reaching Western audiences. I tried to mimic the original kyögen closely,
based upon my lessons with Master Nomura Mansaku and his disciple
Ishida Yukio, observing their performances and using original stage
directions from either the Ökura or Izumi School’s scripts.
In the early years, our actors tried to mimic kyögen form. I also
allowed them to build their own sense of characterization. I found that
mere mimicking of the forms without the long years of training left the
plays stiff and amateurish, but found success by adjusting the tradi-
tional staging to the performers’ talents.
One example is the climactic ending of Busu (Sweet Poison
[The Delicious Poison elsewhere]), when servants Tarö Kaja and Jirö
Kaja sing, explaining how they tried to kill themselves by eating the
honey (busu) that their Master told them was poison.5 In the original,
both servants sit upstage center and sing without any gestures. As our
actors did not have the physical or vocal training necessary to express
their arrogance and insolence from a sitting position, the impact
needed to trigger the Master’s anger was lacking. I decided to create
a new kyögen dance to accompany the song to make up for the actors’
poor chanting skills and to fill the stage. In my direction, after singing
the line “we took more than ten mouthfuls” from a sitting position,
both servants stand up and say “but we still couldn’t die,” and continue
by dancing along with “How fortunate we are. What a strong life we
lead.” This gleeful dance clearly demonstrates the servants’ smugness
at outwitting the Master and makes the Master’s rage seem both timely
and comically impotent as he chases them off the stage.
Kyögen, as well as nö, was originally performed on an outdoor
stage open on two sides to the audience—to the front and the stage
right side. For proscenium theatres in the United States, I decided to
make some adjustments to the positioning and movements. So in
Kaminari (The Thunder God) when the Thunder God lies down on
the floor for an acupuncture treatment from the Quack Doctor, the
position was modified from perpendicular to the audience to diagonal,
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 251

to enable spectators to clearly see the Thunder God stretching and

bending his legs as the Quack Doctor bangs the needle into his hips
with “kottsuri, kottsuri . . .” As long as we are performing in English and
using a proscenium theatre in the United States, I feel free to alter the
blocking and direction to provide the strongest theatrical effect. I have
occasionally moved even the standard nanori (name announcing) posi-
tion, used by characters for self-introductions, farther downstage to be
closer to the audience, rather than have them remain in the upstage
right corner for visibility to the (now nonexistent) audience on the
stage right side. Recently I have heard that even some traditional kyö-
gen actors do this modification of traditional staging in Japan.

Kyögen Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is one of kyögen’s beautiful elements. Even in
English-language kyögen, using the original Japanese provides a sense
of authenticity and tradition that can be easily understood if accom-
panied by expressive mime. I try to remain faithful to authentic Japa-

Figure 1. Helen Mogenrath as Tarö Kaja (left) and Pat Oyama as Jirö Kaja
(right) in Theatre of Yugen’s Sweet Poison. (Photo: Robert Graham)
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252 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

nese sounds, even though spectators may not be able to immediately

guess their meaning. In Kaki yamabushi (Persimmon Mountain Priest
[The Mountain Wizard and the Persimmons elsewhere]), the owner of
the farm says to the Mountain Priest hiding behind leaves on the tree,
“If it’s a dog, it will bark when it hears a noise.” The Mountain Priest
says, “I’ll try barking like a dog.” Then he barks, “Byo, byo, byo byo byo.”
This is an old, incomprehensible expression even to modern Japanese;
yet, as with my American audiences, the meaning is still apparent: bow-
wow! I stick with the original Japanese onomatopoeia for the sake of
authenticity and rhythm.
I have even altered or merged various schools’ versions to
increase these colorful, rhythmic expressions. In Uri nusubito (The
Melon Thief) I altered the scene of the Farmer building a fence
around his melon patch. In the Nomura family, the Farmer merely
states he is building a fence and then proceeds to set up the scarecrow.
To help American audiences visualize the action, and prepare them
for later events, I chose to use elements from the Shigeyama’s (Ökura
School) interpretation. The Farmer uses mime as he drives the imagi-
nary bamboo posts of the fence into the ground with the onomato-
poeic sound “zuku, zuku, zuku, zuku, zuku.” Later, using elements from
the Nomura family, the Thief approaches the melon patch and states,
“I expected something like this, so I brought a saw,” then mimes cut-
ting the imagined bamboo fence, “zuka, zuka, zuka, zuka, zuka,” using
his fan as the saw. While some translators might seek English equiva-
lents, I find the rhythmic Japanese sounds, accompanied by easily
understood mime, to be effective in communicating the actions. After
all, if we aim to accurately transform the Japanese to English, even the
gesture of sawing the fence would need to be altered, pushing to cut
rather than pulling, to reflect the different orientation of saw blades
in Japan.

Parallel American Metaphors

As a director experienced in both Western and Japanese theatre
and living both in the United States and Japan, I firmly believe live the-
atre should provide a vital communication between the stage and the
audience. My approach in directing kyögen in English is not to render
either academically accurate translations of literature or exact repli-
cations of the movement and direction, but to provide the Western
audience with a dramatic production that conveys the humor, pathos,
and style of the original performance. So when confronted with chal-
lenging gestures or expressions that may not immediately be recog-
nized by non-Japanese audiences, I have looked for familiar equivalents
of movement and word, drawing spectators into a more familiar rela-
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 253

tionship. Thus in our adaptation of Persimmon Mountain Priest, when

the Mountain Priest climbs a tree to eat its persimmons and is spotted
by the Owner of the farm, who decides to make fun of him, we
modified both the script and movement:

owner: I thought someone was up in the tree, but it doesn’t look

like a human being.
yamabushi: Phew, I’m glad he cannot tell I’m a person.
owner: It’s a dog.

Although not in the original, I have added, “Phew,” accompanied by

the very Western gesture of wiping sweat from the brow, but stylized
into a big, slow, dramatic movement. This kyögen-like gesture, although
not used in Japanese productions, brings the audience into the comic
situation. I encourage actors to try spontaneous gestures during
rehearsals and then stylize them into a more kyögen-like form.
Similarly, in the drinking scene in Sannin katawa (Three Hand-
icapped Men), we used the kyögen komai (short dance) Usagi (Rabbit),
where the dancer portrays in stylized form a bunny hop and flip-floppy
ears. To give a sense of the season and the childish nature of the riddle
to the audience, when performing during the Easter season, instead of
ending with the original final line, “It’s a rabbit,” our singer some-
times chants, “It’s the Easter Bunny.”
I realize that kyögen in English performed with American actors
will never replicate Japanese kyögen. But even as we attempt to make
kyögen an exciting entertainment for non-Japanese through the use of
mime and dance, onomatopoeia, and the incorporation of bits of
American culture, we try to maintain a sense of the authenticity and
the tradition of kyögen.

Comic Rhythm
In translating dialogue, we have worked to maintain the sense of
comic rhythm. For example, in the scene of stealing the Master’s sake
in Böshibari (Tied to a Pole [sometimes called Tied to a Stick]), the ser-
vant Tarö Kaja goes to get a large, round lacquer box to scoop sake.
The alliteration of the original Japanese, which uses a repetitive “ku”
sound, gives a comic and rhythmic sense. We deviated from a literal
translation to maintain the repetitive comic rhythm by using a repeat-
ing “L” sound. I feel that the life and humor of the plays are more
important than literal exactness.

tarö kaja: I’ll ladle it (Korya korya kore de kumu wa).

jirö kaja: Ladle it (Kumeruka)?
tarö kaja: I’ll ladle a l ittle (Mazu kundemiyö).
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254 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

Modifying Staging, Movement, and Interpretation

The play Hanago (Mistress Hanago) requires the Husband to
show great depth of joy and pathos, contrasting complex emotions
with subtle changes in movement and song. The Husband dem-
onstrates his joy in leaving his nagging Wife to see his mistress when
he exits in act one with a style called ushin no iri (exiting with floating
and fast foot movement). When he re-enters in act two with mushin no
de (entering with dreamy sense of joy), he first demonstrates his lin-
gering state of bliss on the bridgeway, and then enters the main stage
with the sadness of leaving his loved one. For emphasis, I use exagger-
ated gestures from kabuki’s adaptation of the play, called Migawari zazen
(The Zen Substitute), and replace the original slow and graceful kyögen
song and dance with joyful ones, remaining very careful not to vulgar-
ize the form or subject. Nomura Mansaku encouraged my free style of
direction in his book Tarö Kaja o ikiru (Living Tarö Kaja):

Theatre of Yugen does not stick with traditional methods, but is broad-
minded in its expression. For example, in one of the most difficult
pieces, Mistress Hanago, I noticed that they treat it as a regular kyögen
play [rather than as one of the ‘three heavy learning pieces’], seem-
ing to focus on expressing the essence of its humor. (Nomura Man-
saku 1991: 164)

I also changed the ending of Ka zumö (Sumo Wrestling with a

Mosquito). It is said that the anonymous playwrights of kyögen often
depicted the stories from the point of view of the weaker side of
humans (Andö et al. 1973: 123). In my new ending, the feudal Lord
(daimyö), who lost the sumö wrestling match with the mosquito, grabs
Tarö Kaja and throws him down on the stage out of spite. Instead of
Tarö Kaja ending on the left downstage corner, he then stands and
chases off the Lord, who is now mimicking the mosquito, fanning him
with a big uchiwa fan. In this sense, Tarö Kaja’s character is revealed to
be not only defensive and obedient, but also strong enough to tease his
boss. With this change I felt the ending became clearer and stronger
for American audiences. In the premier of Sumo Wrestling with a Mos-
quito, I also worked with Japanese mime artist Hitomi Ikuma to achieve
a mosquito’s light movement, interpreting the insect freely. While such
additions from other genres could betray the Japanese original, I chose
to add them carefully to remain faithful to the true kyögen spirit of play-
ful improvisation.
In our translation of Shimizu (Spring Water, included in this
issue) I also modified the ending to take advantage of the expression
“totte kamö.” First Tarö Kaja uses this phrase when he lies, claiming a
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 255

mountain demon scared him and chewed up his master’s treasured

wooden bucket. The demon shouts, “Totte kamö,” translated as “Catch
and gnaw,” before attacking. I use its English translation along with
the Japanese the first few times it is said, “Catch and gnaw, totte kamö.”
Later, as the audience understands the expression, I use only the Japa-
nese. Tarö Kaja uses this expression again as he scares his Master while
posing as the demon. As in many kyögen plays, Tarö Kaja’s newfound
power leads to his downfall. He overreaches by making too many
demands of the scared Master. This childlike, naïve attitude, of course,
is discovered when the Master recognizes Tarö Kaja’s voice while Tarö
Kaja is posing as the demon. Rather than the usual kyögen ending, with
the Master chasing Tarö Kaja off, yelling “Yarumaizo, yarumaizo” (You
won’t get away with it), I have chosen to end the play with the Master
holding the demon mask and yelling “totte kamö” as he chases Tarö Kaja
off. I felt the audience could see the Master’s development around the
phrase “totte kamö” and find more humor in the Master’s understand-
ing and sense of humor.

Choosing and Adapting Plays for Western Audiences

I tend to choose kyögen plays that display great physical move-
ment and have a clear dramatic sense, which can be more easily appre-
ciated by Western audiences. I realized that our Uchizata (Domestic

Figure 2. Yuriko Doi (foreground) as the Lord, and Hitomi Ikuma as the
Mosquito, in Theatre of Yugen’s Sumö Wrestling with a Mosquito. (Photo: Mar-
ion Gray)
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256 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

Dispute, the Izumi School title of Oko Sako [Oko and Sako], translated
in this issue) was not successful in part because it was hard for Amer-
ican audiences to understand the Japanese bitter irony, especially
when a henpecked and cowardly Husband ends by mocking himself.
Mikazuki (Winnowing Love, translated in this issue) and Hachiku renga
(Eight Poetry Links) are also human comedies related to an apprecia-
tion of poetry, but I feel that these kyögen plays are not dramatic
enough for American audiences. It is difficult to translate the nuances
of a poem without extraneous verbal explanation. I would also like to
direct darker kyögen plays with echoes of theatre of the absurd, like
Kawakami (Kawakami Headwaters, translated by Yuriko Doi, Midori
Nohara, and Theatre of Yugen) [also known as Sight Gained and Lost]
or Tsukimi zatö (Moon Viewing Blind Man), but as these plays require a
high level of skill, I have not felt that our actors are ready yet for the
challenge.

Dual-Language Dialogue
As our actors’ kyögen skills improved, we started modifying the
dialogue of the kyögen plays and translating new plays, constantly work-
ing to get closer to the rhythm and nuance of the original kyögen pro-
duction. In this process, we began using Japanese in the script.
I felt that the absurd use of a giant mosquito spirit in Sumo
Wrestling with a Mosquito would be very interesting for American audi-
ences. After learning the play from Ishida Yukio in Tokyo, Libby Zil-
ber, Hitomi Ikuma, and I decided to translate it and use some of the
techniques that seemed to work well in the United States. In our ver-
sion, the Lord speaks some of his lines in Japanese, and Tarö Kaja
later repeats the Lord’s speech in English to the spirit of the Mosquito.
In this way the audience can appreciate the beauty of the original kyö-
gen intonation and modulation. And since they do not understand the
Japanese, they tend to concentrate on the physical expression and into-
nation of both the Lord and Tarö Kaja. By having Tarö Kaja repeat the
lines in English so that no meaning is lost, we create a more demand-
ing bilingual performance for the actors that only works well when they
are already somewhat skilled as performers. Almost as an unexpected
consequence of these experiments, we discovered that de-emphasis
of the linguistic meaning aided actors in their physical expression.
Nomura Mansaku very often said that American audiences respond
much quicker than Japanese at key points in the action. I believe this is
because they cannot understand the Japanese and are carefully watch-
ing the body language, which often communicates in advance of ver-
bal signals. He has stated that acting for our American audiences has
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 257

helped improve his acting by forcing him to pay even greater attention
to his physical movement.

Creating New Plays Using Kyögen Techniques

and Aesthetics
To survive as a professional theatre company it is extremely
important to develop a strong audience base. Producing only kyögen in
English limited our ability to draw a wide audience. We began to
expand our work by taking familiar plays, literature, or myths and
adapting them into kyögen-style productions. Known Western plays
drew audiences and critics, expanding our exposure and increasing
the general public’s awareness of kyögen as a theatre form. As a theatre
director I was excited by this new challenge.
One of our first works was an adaptation of Jack and the Bean-
stalk, titled Jaku and the Beanstalk. In the early years of our company we
accepted many educational performances for children. For many years
we were on the roster of the nonprofit organization Young Audiences
Inc., as well as Spectra, Cultural Council of Santa Cruz, California. They
sent us to elementary and middle schools to give forty-five-minute pro-
grams. We would start with the adaptation Jaku and the Beanstalk to help
focus students and familiarize them with the kyögen stylization through

Figure 3. North as the Ogre and Pat Oyama as Jaku in Theatre of Yugen’s
Jaku and the Beanstalk. (Photo: Jock Walker)
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258 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

a known story. Then we would demonstrate some elements of the kyö-

gen form, show different uses of the fan, and perform the kyögen dance,
Usagi (Rabbit), asking them to guess what the dance was about. After
such participation generated great interest, we would finish with an
easily accessible kyögen in English, such as Fukuro Yamabushi (Owl
Mountain Priest or Owls), Persimmon Mountain Priest, or Sweet Poison.
We very often received positive comments from teachers telling of
their students’ delight in mimicking the hooting owl. This combina-
tion of a familiar story interpreted through kyögen technique, followed
by student participation, and finally a kyögen in English was very suc-
cessful when touring schools.
Between 1982 and 1989, Theatre of Yugen performed at approx-
imately twenty-five schools a year in the San Francisco Bay Area. We
also toured for three to five-day residency programs for the school dis-
tricts of Mesa, Arizona; Palm Springs, Los Angeles, and San Diego, Cal-
ifornia; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Though these educational tours have
continued, we now primarily perform at colleges and major festivals.
The establishment of our own venue, NOHspace (capacity: 78)
in San Francisco in 1991 allowed us to switch our focus from educa-
tional touring. We could concentrate more on producing and creating
our own fusion productions and challenging new plays geared for
adult audiences.
An early kyögen adaptation production was Samuel Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot, which exploited the silence and sense of space
through kyögen stylization.

Figure 4. Brenda Wong Aoki as Lucky in Theatre of

Yugen’s Waiting for Godot. (Photo: Robert Isaacs)
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 259

Kyögen plays rely heavily upon the actors to convey the humor
and subtlety through physical movement and the use of timing and
pauses. Most Western plays rely far more heavily on the dialogue. I
have found that most scripts are too descriptive and lengthy to be used
for kyögen without extensive cuts and modifications. This is often time-
consuming and difficult, especially when the writer is unfamiliar with
kyögen and/or cannot attend the rehearsals. In both of our most suc-
cessful fusion productions, Noh Christmas Carol and Crazy Horse, the
playwrights attended rehearsals and radically reduced the dialogue in
their scripts as we learned to simplify the play and to convey the feel-
ing through physical movement of kyögen and nö drama forms.

Conclusion
In my directing I have sometimes broken kyögen rules and con-
ventions in favor of theatricality for American audiences, yet I always
pay attention to kyögen training and to the aesthetics and beauty of the
spirit of kyögen. I strongly believe that instead of passively receiving a
nonstop rush of images, reflective of America’s fast and aggressive TV-
oriented lifestyle, we need to create space to think and develop on our
own. Children especially need to learn to develop their own imagina-
tions with empty space and time. In addition to this, the right rhythm
of communication between audiences and performers is needed to
bring the production to life. The beauty of live theatre is that moment
of connection between actor and audience.
I recently saw the kyögen play Kagyü (The Snail) twice in Japan,
with Nomura Mansai (b. 1966) and Nomura Manzö (IX, formerly
Nomura Ryosuke) in the role of the Mountain Priest. Both times the
ending was different from what I had been taught by Nomura Man-
saku. Their new ending was adapted from the ending of Nomura Mata-
saburö’s style in Nagoya.6 I felt that this change in the ending from the
Master and Tarö Kaja chasing off the pompous Mountain Priest to the
Master cheerfully exiting with a dance to rhythmical music was a bet-
ter fit for modern Japanese audiences. After seeing this I realized that
Japanese kyögen families’ flexible response to contemporary audiences
is similar to what we are doing.
In 2003, Theatre of Yugen presented the Nomura Mansaku
Company’s performance of the unusual, tragic kyögen Kawakami Head-
waters at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Nomura Mansaku
entered to the lonesome sound of a blind man’s bamboo stick hitting
the wooden floor. The “kotsu, kotsu, kotsu” taps resonated through the
entire theatre, creating a stillness and tension in the audience as they
attended every gesture. The Blind Man had come on a pilgrimage to
the deity Jizö, who blessed him with sight. The American audiences
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260 Doi with Theatre of Yugen

picked up on the man’s reaction of total surprise as he first saw his

Wife after ten years of blindness. Nomura Mansaku expressed the
Blind Man’s complex feelings towards his Wife wordlessly, and the
audience burst into laughter. Later he goes along with his strong-willed
Wife and breaks his promise to divorce her. The Blind Man resigns
himself to his fate, becoming blind once again. His sorrow, as well as
his joy, suffused the stage during the final dialogue:

wife: Come here, my dear. Shall we make our way?

husband: Please, take my hand.
wife: I am here.

After the silence, there was a standing ovation; I felt that American
audiences had grown with us in San Francisco.

NOTES

1. More in-depth information on the company is available in Theatre

of Yugen, 25 Years: A Retrospective, edited by Eric Ehn. Go to http://www
.theatreofyugen.org/book.html for details, and see the review by Halebsky in
this issue.
2. My exposure to nö and kyögen started with my great grand-aunt who
taught nö (Hösho school). Later, while studying theater at Waseda University,
Professor Kawatake Toshio introduced me to Nomura Mansaku of the Izumi
School of kyögen. From 1965 until 1987, Mansaku taught me in Japan, and later
gave me occasional lessons both in America and when I returned to Japan.
Since 1987 his head disciple, Ishida Yukio, has continued to give me lessons
in Japan.
3. Ten shin go sö is a shintai dö stretching exercise that goes along with
vocalizing the Japanese basic vowel sounds: A, E, I, O, UM. One starts from a
fetal sitting position, then stands and stretches toward several different direc-
tions, growing into an adult, while voicing “A” through “O.” In the end, while
voicing “UM” and drawing both hands back toward the chest, one returns to
the sitting position. These simple physical movements demand concentration,
breathing from the diaphragm, breath control, and physical power.
4. Theatre of Yugen has performed various Western plays adapted to
nö style or including nö elements, including Medea, Purgatory, Antigone, Noh
Christmas Carol, Sisa, Crazy Horse, Frankenstein, The Old Man and the Sea, and
Moon of the Scarlet Plums. For some of these plays we received critical comments
that attacked our pace. In his review of my adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone,
Bernard Weiner of the San Francisco Chronicle, May 23, 1983 said:

In her dedication to authenticity, Doi risks coming up with a produc-

tion that “reads” like an academic exercise. Long pauses, excruciat-
ingly slow entrances and exits, poetically declaimed speech—such are
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Direction of K YÖGEN in English and Fusion Plays 261

not the ingredients for drawing a (mostly) Caucasian audience into a

noh rendering of a Greek drama. I don’t think she’d sacrifice authen-
ticity by being more conscious of Western “theater time”: having her
actors pick up cues faster, speaking a bit more realistically, choreo-
graphing their movements a bit more exciting[ly]. (p. 42)

5. We chose to translate busu as “honey.” A literal translation would be

“molasses,” but to modern audiences that doesn’t have the same delicious
and irresistible connotation as “honey.” For us it was more important to set
up the comedy than to maintain literal exactness, and honey fits Tarö Kaja’s
line, “It was dark thick and lumpy all at the bottom of the box. It looks deli-
cious” right before he gestures as if scooping up a sticky liquid with his fan.
6. See the Kobayashi article translated by Kagaya in this issue for more
on styles within the respective schools of kyögen.

REFERENCES

Andö Tsunejirö et al., eds. 1973.

Kyögen söran: naiyö kösö enshutsu (Overview of Kyögen: Content, Plot
and Staging). Tokyo: Nögaku Shorin.
Ehn, Eric, ed. 2004.
Theatre of Yugen, 25 Years: A Retrospective. San Francisco: Theatre of
Yugen.
Johnson, Holly. 1982.
[Review]. Oregon Journal, 30 January.
Nomura Mansaku [II]. 1991 (1984).
Tarö Kaja o ikiru (Living Tarö Kaja). Tokyo: U Bukusu/Hakusuisha.
Weiner, Bernard. 1983.
[Review]. San Francisco Chronicle, 23 May.