[Press release]
9th August, 2017
Arts Council Tokyo(Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Roppeita XIV Commemorative Foundation

Arts Council Tokyo Traditional Culture and Performing Arts – Experience and Appreciation
Program for Foreign Visitors

Noh Okina – Encounter with Deities
Press Workshop on Wednesday, August 30
Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) will offer a performance of Noh Okina – Encounter
with Deities on Saturday, January 27, 2018. This program combines experience and appreciation of the authentic performanceof traditional arts and develops understanding of Japanese traditional performing arts.
Before the special Noh OKINA performance, we are holding a press workshop on Wednesday, August 30 to offer anopportunity to experience and appreciate the unique Shinto ceremony of purifying Noh performers.
We look forward to your participation.
【Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)】
Arts Council Tokyo develops a variety of programs to encourage the creation and dissemination of arts and culture and topromote Tokyo as an international city of artistic and cultural attractions.
In order to improve the infrastructure and environment for new artistic and cultural creation, Arts Council Tokyo plays a key rolein Tokyo's cultural policies by implementing programs that explore Tokyo's originality and diversity, promoting international
cultural exchange and providing opportunities for promising young people who engage in a variety of artistic and culturalpursuits. Furthermore, Arts Council Tokyo will conduct projects that will serve as a driving force of the Cultural Program in therun-up to Tokyo 2020.
Arts Council Tokyo also conducts various projects and programs to increase enjoyment of authentic traditional culture andperforming arts among those who are not familiar – people from overseas and children who carry traditional cultures in thefuture – under the theme of “Approaching Tokyo Tradition.”【What is Noh?】
With a documented history of over six hundred years, noh is one of the oldest dramatic traditions in the world. In a typical play,
a wayfarer meets a stranger who is in fact the unquiet ghost of some great personage of the past. As this figure’s identity is
gradually revealed, his or her psychology and aesthetic interest are explored through chanted dialogue and interpretive dance,
until demons are quelled, hearts mended, the realm pacified. This therapeutic or benedictory element reflects noh’s use asstate ceremony, and it is one reason why warlords, bureaucrats, industrialists and other elites have often performed nohthemselves as a means of self-cultivation. Over time, noh has developed in the direction of abstraction and subtlety of gesture,rhythm, melody and vocal tone. The playwright Zeami (1363‒1443) advises actors to seek the “flower” of “hidden mystery” by
cutting off representation and expression to create a kind of phantom limb syndrome of dramatic effect. Embrace theminimalism of noh, and you too will find it heightens your senses.
[Overview of press workshop]■Date/time:
3:00–4:30 p.m. (reception opens from 2:30 p.m.), Wednesday, August 30, 2017
■Place:Kita Roppeita XIV Commemorative Noh Theatre (Kita Noh Theatre),
4-6-9, Kamiosaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Tel: 03-3491-8813
Transportation:
7-minute walk from Meguro Station, JR Line, Tokyu Meguro Line, Toei Mita Line, Tokyo MetroNanboku Line
■Admission fee: Free
■Detail:Experience and understand Shinto ritual for Okina performance – Performers: Takehito Tomoeda,etc.
Shinto ritual (Sakazuki ceremony) experience, explanation on Noh Okina, back-stage tour
■Organized by Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)■Supported by and in cooperation with Tokyo Metropolitan Government■Produced by Roppeita XIV Commemorative Foundation
Inquiries: Ms. Shoda, Kita Roppeita XIV Commemorative Noh Theatre (Kita Noh Theatre)
E-mail: okina_ticket@kita-noh.com http://kita-noh.com/

1About the performance (January 27, 2018)
Noh Okina – Encounter with Deities
Noh Okina – Encounter with Deities
This program is designed to help foreign visitors feel the essence of Japanese culture – a fundamental part of Japanesesociety – through the Noh Okina performance. It is more appropriate to say that foreign visitors will be offered anexperience rather than a viewing opportunity. Okina is considered sacred, to Noh performance.
In ancient times, actors were not allowed to perform what they had never experienced or to show mimicry to the audiencein ordinary spaces. Therefore, Japanese people believed that performance that moved and inspired the audience wasdeceptive behavior. By having deities in the space, however, the performance becomes true and excusable. Wearing amask shows that the act has been permitted by the deities. In Okina performance, a performer (Tayu) puts on a mask
while on stage. This shows that he is permitted by the deities and he can purify the place on the deities’ behalf.
A performer who is allowed to wear a mask is a specially chosen person who has been permitted by the deities.
Therefore, since old times, an actor who plays Okina needs to meet strict requirements. Before each performance, analtar is placed in a green room (Kagami no ma) in order to perform a Shinto ritual and purify the person who purifies thestage.
In this program, the audience is invited to experience the unique Shinto ritual of the Noh performer which will take place ata special altar in the lobby outside the hall before the Okina performance.
Program plan (January 27, 2018)■Date/time:
Doors open at 12:30 p.m. (experience program starts at the same time), performance starts at 1:30
p.m., Saturday, January 27, 2018
■Place:Kita Roppeita XIV Commemorative Noh Theatre (Kita Noh Theatre),
4-6-9, Kamiosaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Tel: 03-3491-8813■Transportation: 7-minute walk from Meguro Station, JR Line, Tokyu Meguro Line, Toei Mita Line, Tokyo MetroNanboku Line
■Admission fee: Adults 3,000 yen, Students 1,500 yen■Organized by Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)■Supported by and in cooperation with Tokyo Metropolitan Government■Produced by Roppeita XIV Commemorative Foundation
Doors open at 12:30p.m. / Experience program
Guided by a Noh performer, the audience will participate in the same Shinto ritual that performers undergo at a specialaltar in the lobby to purify themselves and get ready to welcome Okina Dayu (which includes purification with salt andkiribi with flint-stones).
The box of the mask used for Okina will be placed at the altar and Shinto ritual will be held towards it. The audience will
experience the same ritual that performers go through in Kagami no ma. The mask box will be moved with solemnity to
the green room ten minutes before the performance and performers who are ready to perform will be purified. This meansthat performers and the audience are purified in the same manner under the same deities. It is a new initiative to let theaudience experience an essential unity with the stage.
1:30–3:30p.m. / Okina with Enma-Nyotai performance
Recently, performances often only end with Okina. Originally, Okina in the form of Shikigaku, is officially followed byWaki-Noh (supportive Noh) with the theme of deities. In this program, Enma will be performed in a special direction called
Nyotai, representing Iwato Gakure, the rock cave where Amaterasu Omikami, a sun god and one of the major Japanesedeities went to hide. The program will be “Okina with Enma Nyotai.” Okina Dayu will perform both the Shinto ritual and theancient world of Japanese mythology on stage. This is an aptly-selected play because the dance of Amenouzume inIwato Gakure is considered to be the origin of Japanese performing arts.
3:45–5:30p.m. / Back-stage tour
Participants will witness the world of Okina and Enma in the green room and on stage. A carpet will be laid down so thatthe audience can stand directly on stage.
Please note an English interpreter (and audio guide in English/Chinese) will be available for all programs.
Programs are subject to change.

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