Father Noh's best

While other three-year-olds were learning the alphabet and playing in sandboxes, Soraya Umewaka '06 was beginning to master a traditional Japanese art form that has been carried in her bloodline for 600 years. Her father, Naohiko Umewaka, performed this genre of theater — called Noh drama — last night in McCormick Hall.

The classical Japanese form combines poetry, dance, song and wooden masks into a highly stylized performance.

"Noh is symbolic and refined, and sometimes it's hard for audiences to understand its depth," Soraya said. "There are many stories about ghosts, warriors and romance that are accompanied by beautiful poetry."

The Noh art form is performed in Japan by rigorously trained artists — mostly men — who have passed down the Noh tradition among family members for generations.

Naohiko is one heir to this ancient tradition. Last night he presented "Tomonaga," a two-part play in which he acts as a woman in the first scene and a warrior ghost in the second.

Naohiko, a master of Noh drama and leader of the Umewaka Noh Theater Troupe, will perform "Yorimasa" tonight at 9 p.m. in Frist 302.

"[Naohiko's] performance was very moving and really wonderful," said Akiko Colcutt, the wife of professor and East Asian Studies program director Martin Collcutt.

Soraya, who helped the East Asian Studies Department arrange her father's visit, is a professional Noh actor by training and heritage. She said she felt aware of her role as an Umewaka from a young age.

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"It's a great privilege to be an artist because very few females can perform," Soraya said. "When I performed [as a child], I knew I had a lot of responsibility to do well onstage."

Noh dramas typically involve five to seven actors, including the main character, called the shite. A chorus, usually consisting of eight people, sits at the side of the stage and narrates the story through chants sung in ancient Japanese.

Philosopher Zeami Motokiyo penned numerous Noh plays in the 14th century and also included details on how Noh should be acted, directed, taught and produced. During the Edo period from the 1600s to 1800s, Noh became the official performance art of the emperor and military elite.

When reforms in the late 1800s eliminated most of the Noh theater's patronage, the genre nearly died out. Gradually, though, enough performers persevered to attract private sponsorship. Naohiko Umewaka's grandfather participated in this movement to save Noh drama by teaching his art to amateurs.

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The practice of passing down the Noh art from father to son has been the primary means by which the Umewakas have upheld the tradition in their family line. Naohiko trained with his father, the late Naoyoshi Umewaka, and started to act at the age of three.

"[My father] never blinked his eyes. When he stamped, his body never moved," Naohiko said. "I learned these from him, but there's still a place for me to improvise."

Naohiko began teaching Noh to Soraya and her brother when both were three years old. In addition to being a teacher, composer and director of Noh drama, he is an associate professor in arts management at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture in Japan.

"He has taken the [Umewaka Theater] Troupe around the world, to places like the Smithsonian and New York and Europe," Soraya said. "He was also the Emperor [Hirohito] in the film 'Hiroshima.'"

Though Soraya is not performing this week, she hopes to take the stage when her father presents one of his own works based on the Noh philosophy in April.

After graduation, she wants to help preserve the tradition of Noh drama. "I think I'm going to pursue [Noh] in some form or another through academia and the study of Noh texts," Soraya said.

She realizes that many Japanese youth are unfamiliar with Noh theater.

"What I find really unfortunate is that the new generation in Japan is really focused on the West," she said. "They're losing the precious traditions of their roots."

"Now is the time for me to express Noh in my own way," Naohiko said. "I hope Soraya will continue Noh by transplanting some Noh traditions into modern art. That way, Noh can be spread internationally."