Kyogen

myth:kyogen

Japan set its laughter beside its gravest art: kyogen, the 'wild words', the comic plays performed between the solemn Noh — the cheeky servant Taro Kaja outwitting his lord, the everyday turned gently absurd. And off the stage, the lone rakugo storyteller with his single sly punchline, and the manzai duo of straight-man and fool. The people's laughter, framed by the most refined of theatres — and its very name a 'madness of words'. — Japanese theatre