Paper short abstract:

Through experience with master performances, drama students gained a new appreciation for noh that transcended exterior aesthetics. Rather, students comprehended technique, appreciated complexity in stillness, and even reassessed their own approach to other forms of performance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the implications of a workshop designed for students on a practice-based course grounded in actor training approaches in Chinese and Japanese drama, which introduced them to key patterns of noh movement through demonstration and participation. Students spent three hours a week practically training in noh, experiencing how it operates as a form, but also thinking about transferable skills that could be used outside of the context of noh. An important outcome of the "Passion in Stillness" workshop was its effectiveness in highlighting how constraint enables creativity. In turn, this enhanced the students' understanding of the complexity and difficulty of maintaining stillness as an essential mode of physical expression. During the workshop itself, some students were curious as to why certain kata were retained if they are so difficult to perform well. This was explained both in terms of a discipline that has origins in ascetic ritual, and as a means of pushing boundaries creatively. The students' appreciation of these points was evident in the practical assessments and reflective work at the end of the course. They had become more inclined towards considering technique as the essential essence of noh, rather than seeking to imitate exterior aesthetics. Instead of devising expansively, students focussed on constraint, and the physical manifestations of stillness, energy, and labour as the bedrock of performance skill. This demonstrated a comprehension of the deep level skills of the noh actor. Their inability to easily imitate noh movement introduced the concept of failure as a training tool, and impressed upon them the need for long periods of training to achieve a professional standard of performance. Beyond noh, it also enabled them to reconsider their approach to other modes of performance - for example, naturalism - in light of the tension, stillness, and control they witnessed and experienced through noh.

Paper short abstract:

Japanese Studies students from all years studied multiple aspects of noh together on a themed language project. The preparation for the noh masters' visit gave a practical purpose to their learning, while the workshops enhanced their level of appreciation for noh and its source culture.

Paper long abstract:

This paper describes, explains and evaluates the Japanese language noh project from the perspective of pedagogy in Japanese language and culture.

This project brought together undergraduates from different years of the Japanese Studies programme to participate in learning activities related to noh, which would both prepare them to get the most from the workshops and performances held towards the end of semester 1, and provide a focus for multiple types of learning relevant to their degree programme.

It aimed to offer a holistic, interdisciplinary learning experience from year 1 to year 4, around the same theme, and to provide the opportunity to learn about Japanese traditional performing arts, culture and society, language and teamwork, while acquiring specific skills and carrying out assigned tasks as follows:

• Learning how to type Japanese characters on the computer (1st years)

• Learning how to read semi-authentic Japanese texts for research (1st and 2nd years)

• Deepening knowledge of Japanese language and culture through producing event materials in a realistic working situation (all years)

• Working in a team with other 1st, 2nd and 4th years

Through these activities, the project also sought to build a sense of community among all Japanese Studies students, as a role play simulating a company/research environment and as a means of cultivating peer support learning. The project was therefore organized through teams led by 4th years and composed of students from different year groups and different levels of language learning, who worked together on tasks linked to specified learning outcomes. Although these were completed collaboratively, each student's achievement was assessed at their own level.

The paper will attempt to identify ways in which the "Passion in Stillness" workshops and performances supplemented and transformed the students' learning experience by motivating them to engage actively with the prescribed tasks and offering unique opportunities to further their understanding of Japanese language and culture through studying multiple aspects of noh.

Paper short abstract:

Students were guided step by step through the process of devising a noh play, working from their own storyline. Their understanding of the complex conventions of noh composition, and the reasons for them, increased due to the close interaction with master performers and their own direct input.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the second of two workshops designed to present mugennō (phantasmal noh) to undergraduates in Japanese Studies. These workshops were integrated with the Japanese language noh project leading up to the "Passion in Stillness" tour. While the first workshop centred on the performance of scenes from the traditional repertoire, "experiencing mugennō" aimed to teach students about the composition of noh plays and offered experiential learning based on material they themselves had suggested.

In preparation for the workshop, students received a template from noh master Takeda Munenori outlining the structure of a mugennō play, then worked in groups to summarize, using modern Japanese, a story they considered suitable for dramatization in this form. The workshop organizers had expected their suggestions to feature British/non-Japanese characters and locations, but Yami no Hana, the story selected for the workshop, was set at the site where Honnōji once stood, with Akechi Mitsuhide's ghost as its nochishite. Takeda therefore began the workshop by introducing Japanese attitudes to Akechi as a historical figure and speculating on how audiences might respond to the students' version of the story. He gave an illustrated explanation of the process he had used to adapt their synopsis to the classical language of noh, emphasising the importance of drawing also on the "vocabulary" of kata as set patterns of movement with prescribed functions. After a "work-in-progress" demonstration performance, students learned to sing lines from the script in the classical noh style and to perform the kata adopted to bring the text to life.

Students benefited from this session because they were directly involved in both devising and performing the story, and gained insight into all stages of process as they were guided through it. The discipline of noh was exercised first in the requirement to follow a formalized structure for their synopsis in modern Japanese, then in learning the musical and choreographic patterns to contribute to its performance. They acquired a sharper awareness of the complex conventions involved in writing and performing for noh, and of the versatility that ensures its continued relevance in contemporary Japan.