I spent the weekend at the Kitazawa Hachiman Shrine in Tokyo’s Shimokitzawa, one of the main attractions for me was the three performances of traditional Kagura, or Noh theatre. A young warrior and demon battling with swords and war hammers, quite a lot of action for being not theatre! The mostly younger audience were watching throughout the evening when three or four actors would perform in each set, accompanied by a trio of musicians from the very young to the quite old. The sets are quite long and the there are no written sheets of music so I have always wondered how they can remember their parts, especially since there are no melodies or consistent beats. I guess that just like everything else here in Japan it is a question of constant practice throughout years.
I couldn’t help but taking a photo of one young fan whose mother was kind enough to lift him up on to the side of the stage so that he could see what was happening in the performance. I am always fascinated that the masks looks so realistic although they are clearly nothing more than masks.
