Noh

myth:noh

The Noh theatre, and above all the mugen-no or 'dream Noh' that Zeami perfected: a traveling priest meets a stranger who proves to be a ghost or a living spirit, and who in the second act dances out the passion that binds it — a jealousy, a grief, a warrior's unspent rage — until a prayer sets it free. The stage itself is a threshold where spirits return to be laid to rest: its Aoi no Ue stages Rokujo's living spirit; its Dojoji, a woman whom jealousy turns to a serpent. — Japanese theatre