Information About

Zeami Motokiyo




Zeami was educated by his father, Kan'ami , who was also an actor. This father-son team established the Noh theatre. When Kan'ami's company performed for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu , the Shogun of Japan, he asked for Zeami to have a court education in the arts. The Shogun took the boy as his lover, in the Shudo tradition, in 1374.

After Zeami succeeded his father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh. A mixture of Pantomime and vocal acrobatics, this style has fascinated the Japanese for hundreds of years.

Scholars attribute nearly 50 plays to Zeami. Among them are the masterworks '' Izutsu '' and ''Takasago'', the latter containing the phrase ''senshūraku'', "pleasures of a thousand autumns," familiar to Sumo fans as the name of the last day of a professional tournament. ("Izutsu" and "Takasago" are also the names of sumo ''heya''.)Noh means talent or skill. it is a poetic- dance drama.


Further reading

  • ''On the Art of the No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami.'' M. Yamazaki (ed.), J. T. Rimer (tr.) ([http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/1807.html Princeton], 1984)