Students should write their answers to these questions in the spaces provided on the worksheet.Īs a class discuss student responses to the play and its elements. Once they have finished reading the play, have students discuss the basic elements of the story: the setting, the characters, the conflict, the resolution, the theme, and the style of the writing. Distribute copies of the worksheet "Questions about the Story Elements of Atsumori," available here as a PDF. In a group of four, one student could read the parts of the reapers and the chorus or the young reaper and Atsumori. Instruct each group to assign parts, with one student reading the part of the priest, one the reaper, one the group of reapers, one the chorus, and one Atsumori. Once students have had an opportunity to read the play and to complete the work sheets on the story elements divide the class into groups of four or five students. As students read the play for the first time they should fill in the "Story Elements of Atsumori Chart" which is available as a PDF. You may wish to assign this reading as homework before conducting the class discussion. Have students read the Noh play Atsumori, the text of which is available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library. You may also wish to print out the document " Conventions of the Noh Play," which you can use as an answer key for the questions in Activity 2. Download, print, and copy the plays for your students if you will not be having them read the plays online.This essay includes excellent study questions that encourage students to think about Japanese culture. You may also wish to read the essay Buddhism in Japan, available from Asia for Educators, while looking for similarities between the religion and the stories in the plays. In preparation for leading students in a discussion of the ways in which Noh plays reveal Japanese culture and values, read the essay Shinto & Buddhism: Wellsprings of Japanese Spiritualism, which is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource The Asia Society. The Noh stage reflects Shinto temple architecture, and the stories told in Noh plays rely heavily on the Buddhist belief that salvation is achieved through prayer and penance. Both Buddhist and Shinto doctrine are reflected in the Noh plays.As you review the plays, make note of the roles of the characters, the structure of the story, the nature of the conflict, and the outcome. Read the Noh plays Atsumori and Sotoba Komachi, accessible through the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet Public Library.Also read the section entitled "Reading" on Noh Drama, on Asia for Educators. Familiarize yourself with the history and conventions of the Noh plays provided by " Background to Noh-Kyogen" and the " Elements of Noh-Kyogen" accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website Asia for Educators.You can learn more about the history of Noh Theater by reading this background information on Noh-Kyogen, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed website Asia for Educators. Although Noh nearly died out, enough performers regrouped, found private sponsors, and began teaching the art to amateurs so that it slowly began to flourish again. Noh developed into its present form during the 14th and 15th centuries and flourished under the patronage of military leaders of feudal Japan before the societal reforms of the Meiji period (1868–1912) eliminated Noh's government patronage. Students will expand their grasp of these conventions by using them to write the introduction to a Noh play of their own. By reading classic examples of Noh plays, such as Atsumori, students will learn to identify the structure, characters, style, and stories typical to this form of drama. This lesson provides an introduction to the elements of Noh plays and to the text of two plays, and provides opportunities for students to compare the conventions of the Noh play with other dramatic forms with which they may already be familiar, such as the ancient Greek dramas of Sophocles. There are today approximately 1,500 professional performers who make their living largely through performing and teaching Noh. Today, Noh plays are no longer a form of popular entertainment in Japan, but interest and appreciation for the genre endures, and both men and women study its conventions. In traditional Noh plays, all roles were played by men in traditional Noh masks and costumes. Like the dramatic tradition of comedy and tragedy in ancient Greece, the Japanese theater is divided into the comedic, called Kyogen, and the more serious, though not necessarily tragic, Noh plays. Noh, the oldest surviving Japanese dramatic form, combines elements of dance, drama, music, and poetry into a highly stylized, aesthetic retelling of a well-known story from Japanese literature, such as The Tale of Genji or The Tale of the Heike.
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