Zeami

or Seami or Kanze Motokiyo

(born 1363, Japan—died Sept. 1, 1443, Kyoto?) Japanese playwright and theorist of the no theatre. Under the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Zeami joined with his father, Kan'ami (1333–84), to create the no theatre in its present form. He is credited with about 90 (and most of the greatest) of the approximately 230 plays in the present repertoire. In treatises written as manuals for his pupils, notably Fushi kaden (1400–18; “The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style”), he set forth principles of no theatre that were followed for centuries.

In this engagingly written work, Shelley Fenno Quinn explores the treatises of the noh actor, theorist and playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) as they relate to the development of his ideas on how best to cultivate attunement between performer and audience.

Developing Zeami: The Noh Actor's Attunement in Practice by Dix, Monika / Pacific Affairs

This trait is due primarily to the Japanese dislike of disrespectful or contemptuous displays and figures prominently in the theories of the great Zeami, a fourteenth century actor and playwright of the no theater.

Laughter of the samurai: humor in the autobiography of Etsu Sugimoto by Dodge, Georgina / MELUS

Domoto Masaki's provocative essay - to my mind the best in the book - addressed this question directly, pointing out that, ever since Zeami, no has moved away from conflict-based dialogue dramas (genzaimono) toward highly lyrical and symbolic dream plays (mugen no), accentuating a single dancer and "a snobbish aura" of refinement and quasi-mysticism.

No and Kyogen in the Contemporary World by Poulton, Cody / Pacific Affairs

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