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Paper short abstract

This paper will survey the traditional system of Noh training and education, and how it is gradually changing in the twenty-first century.

Paper long abstract

Noh performers do not need to try out for productions through auditions, unlike actors and performers in other genres of theatre today. Academic training in drama, arts, or music is also not considered essential. The training of future 'Noh professionals' is carried out in a narrower context, in some cases within a single family where the skills are handed down from one generation to the next. This paper will survey the traditional system of Noh training and education. It will follow the training of different types of actors: children born into prestigious Noh families, children from peripheral families, and outsiders who enter the world of Noh as adults, either as students or as amateurs. First-hand information based on interviews with many different types of Noh performers will give us new insights, both about the traditional system of training and how it is gradually changing in the twenty-first century.