Theatre from Ritual
A Brief History
Both kagura and Greek theatre emerged from traditions that celebrate spring and the renewal of life. The kagura ritual stems directly from Uzume’s dance in the most popular Amaterasu myth. In this myth, after the birth of the world and the gods, Amaterasu, the sun goddess of Japan, married her brother Susa-no, and at first the two lived happily. However, Susa-no became vain because of his power and cursed Amaterasu’s household, which resulted in the death of one of Amaterasu’s servants.
Offended, the sun goddess shut herself in a cave, plunging the world into eternal night. The eight million deities became very worried, and at last devised a plan to lure her out. They hung a large mirror in an uprooted sasaki tree, along with offerings of beads and flowers. Then Uzume began to dance. At the peak of her performance, she was possessed by kami and exposed her breasts and genitals. The other gods laughed with joy. Confused, Amaterasu opened the door of her cave to see what was happening, and the other deities yanked her out. Thus the sun, and therefore life, was returned to the world (Kojiki, pgs 180-187), and the dance is performed to bless the ritual space and talk with the kami.
Today, kagura has evolved into several different styles and "includes performances of dance-dramas of 35 scenes from mythology" (Basic Terms of Shinto Online). The height of kagura’s popularity was in the Heian Period, when it was used for both entertainment and exorcism. About the same time, bugaku and dengaku were imported, with Buddhism, from China and Korea, and the imports eventually became the dominant styles of theatre, at least in the court. Mi-kagura as it was originally performed has been lost, but many historians believe that sato-kagura, or kagura for the people, survived in grassroots performances and, combined with sangaku (also from China), became sarugaku, and heavily influenced Zeami’s Noh. Pure kagura fell out of favor with the Japanese until the Meiji Restoration, when mi-kagura was reconstructed and performed for the emperor, primarily as a political statement that he was the descendant of Amaterasu (Bowers, 5). However, no matter whether it is used for entertainment, religion, or politics, kagura’s roots are in the joyous celebration of the renewal of life.
Greek theatre likewise has its origins in celebration. The theatre came from a spring festival that celebrates the birth of Dionysos, the god of wine, theatre, and insanity. Dionysos’ mother, Semele, was the mortal princess of Thebes. She and Zeus fell in love, and out of jealousy, Hera, Zeus’ wife, killed her rival. Fortunately, Zeus saved the infant and sewed the baby into his thigh until the child could be born. Later, the new god descended to earth and spread his worship. Most of his followers were Maenads, women who wore animal skins, roamed the forest, and killed and ate their own meat raw. The Dionysian worship spread to Thebes, where Semele’s nephew and Dionysos’ cousin, Pentheus, ruled. Being a logical, rational Greek, he refused to allow the wild cult, but Thebans continued to convert and leave the city. Pentheus finally decided that he would put a stop to the insanity once and for all, but Dionysos, in disguise and pretending to help the king, tricked Pentheus into dressing as a woman and wandering into a group of Maenads, who, in a frenzy of bloodlust, ripped him limb from limb (Hamilton, 59-61). The murder served as a warning not to defy the new god. Though cruel, Dionysos was a god of the earth, and could also be kind. He saved his mother Semele from the clutches of Death. He descended into the underworld, wrestled with Death, and won. However, in exchange for his mother’s soul, Dionysos had to return every winter to the underworld to succumb to the torments of the afterlife, to return, renewed, every spring. (Hamilton, 58). His return to the world was eventually celebrated in spring festivals all across Greece.
These myths represent the introduction of Dionysian worship into Greece from Persia, probably sometime in the 15th or 14th century BC. Spring festivals at the time were already being held to celebrate Demeter and the return of her daughter, Persephone (goddess of spring), from the underworld, so the Greeks incorporated Dionysos into their celebrations. At first, local people simply sang retellings of the spring myths (in the form of goat-song, which was a choral ode, and dithyramb, which was a combination of dancing and singing), by the 6th century BC in Athens, King Solon had centralized the festivals into the City of Dionysia. He combined the goat-songs and dithyramb, and added contests for the recently popular epic poetry (called rhapsodia). About 550 BC, the legendary Thespis (whose name is the root of the modern term "thespian," meaning actor), combined rhapsodia with dithyramb into a large staged performance, which became the basis for all Greek theatre, which, unlike kagura, was always performed for the populace (kagura split into mi-kagura, which was kagura for royalty, and sato-kagura, which was for the people).
Purification
An entire performance of kagura, from beginning to end, is a very elaborate religious rirtual to help humans speak to the kami. Some elements of kagura, even to this day, are used in exorcism and purification rituals (for example, a dance from a kagura dance-drama might be performed to summon a spirit out of a person’s body). Greek theatre, and in fact Western theatre in general, became primarily for entertainment; however, Greek theatre retained a purgative element called catharsis. According to Webster’s, catharsis is a "purification . . . of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art." The audience that experiences catharsis will feel intense pity for the fate of the characters, and then, when the play is over, experience an unburdening. The stress
they felt over little details is gone, or at least put aside, and they can function with a sense of harmony with the world. Catharsis is almost like an emotional exorcism. So, both kagura and Greek theatre served to purify the soul of the audience.
The Differences are Structural
Kagura and Greek theatre have similar origins in the celebration of life and the purification of the soul. Both sprang from religion and helped impart myths to the people, and both served primarily as entertainment at the peak of popularity. However, though their roots are similar, the two styles are visually very different.
Music and Dance
Music is an integral part of all religious celebrations in the world, and naturally is tired closely into Greek theatre and kagura. In kagura, a chorus of priests plays "sho (a reed-free mouth organ made of 17 bamboo), biwa (a shirt-necked lute), hichiriki (a double-reed pipe like a small oboe), and taiko (drum)." (Shinto, 1). The chorus might also chant at certain points during the performance -- for example, during the achime no waza, the chorus chants "oh" to summon the kami into the space.
The Greek chorus, like kagura, started as priests, but later they were trained singers and dancers led by the playwright’s patron. The Greek chorus, usually fifteen members (at the theatre’s height, it swelled to fifty), sang and chanted poetic retellings of the action and foreshadowed the downfall of the hero. Unlike kagura, the Greek chorus did not play instruments; the orchestra played flutes and cymbals, which left the chorus free to dance. ("Greek Theatre", Encarta).
The largest structural distinction between kagura and Greek theatre is the amount
of dancing in the performance. Kagura is referred to as dance-drama (Basic Terms of Shinto) because of its reliance on formal dance to tell a story. Greek theatre, with its heavy reliance on dialogue, downplayed the role of dithyramb (dance and song) and handed that responsibility to the chorus. At the height of Greek theatre, the chorus entered from the stage right side of the skene (which hid the backstage area, and could be painted with backdrops) and either walked or danced in a semi-circular pattern following the shape of the stage. Combined with the singing and orchestral accompaniment, this part of the play was called the strophe, and was used to foreshadow the plot. Toward the end of the play, the chorus would exit the way they came in, singing a summary of the play and offering the playwright’s opinion. This dance was the antistrophe. The actual characters in the play neither sang nor danced, although they would have blocking (movement across the stage).
The Theatre Space
Both kagura and Greek theatre began in fairly small spaces; however, as Greek theatre became more popular, it had to move from the square Palace at Knossus into arenas and amphitheatres, while kagura branched into mi-kagura (always performed for a small audience of royalty), and sato-kagura (which, during the Heian period, was performed outdoors at Shinto shrines for everyone).
The first Greek theatre was the Palace at Knossus, which was the capitol of the ancient Minoan civilization. The Minoans had a great influence on the Greeks (who were primarily descendants of the Indo-European tribe named the Dorians), and the mainland Greeks held a sort of mythic awe for their predecessors. The throne room of the Palace at
Knossus was square, with an altar in the middle, bleachers on three sides, and a throne against the fourth wall (see diagram 1). This throne room had an influence on the shape of later Greek theatres. Between 550 and 534 BC, the first formal theatre was built outside of Athens in a hillside (then rebuilt in stone in 499 BC because the wooden bleachers collapsed, killing several audience members). This theater, unlike the Palace, was semi-circular, with the royalty’s seat in the audience rather than behind the actors. However, there was still an altar in the center for sacrifice to bless the show. The Greek theatres, which were built from stone, still survive; in fact, the Theatre at Epidaurus is in such good condition that revivals of Greek plays are still performed there. ("Greek Theatre," Encarta).
Kagura is generally performed for a small audience, often indoors. However, it began as an outdoor ritual for the masses at Shinto shrines. The stage, called the kagura-den, is small and square with a backdrop of Amaterasu or the sun (regardless of what piece is being performed). The audience sits, as with the Palace at Knossus, on three sides of the kagura-den. At the Shinto shrines, the audience might have gathered around all four sides of the stage, simply because there were so many spectators. Today, however, kagura-dens are used for private performances; the larger kagura pieces for festivals are performed in the street ("Shinto").
Masks and Costumes
Although both kagura and Greek theater use elaborate costumes, the clothing serves very different functions. In Greek theatre, the costumes were realistic, and represented the character’s position in life -- for example, a priest would wear priest’s
robes, or a queen wore silk. Kagura does not have costumes for specific characters -- the dancers wear only the priest’s or miko’s robes. Similarly, Greek theatre has very large, elaborate masks that cover the whole head (the actors might have looked like dashboard bobble-heads in full costume). The masks, made of paper mache or clay, were sculpted into the character’s typical facial expression; for example, a mask of Dionysos would smile. There is some evidence that the large masks also served as megaphones so the audience could hear the actors (a few that have been discovered have the lips protruding in a cone, like a megaphone). Kagura masks, when any are used, are very simply, and modern kagura masks might be borrowed from bugaku. The most well-known kagura masks, the shishi masks, are not even worn, though they are taken out for festivals to renew the kami.
A Hint at the Answer
Visually, Greek theatre and kagura would be very different, and the audiences they catered to would have expected different things from the performance. However, although they never came into contact, the two styles have very similar roots in ritual, and they both serve to purify the souls of the onlookers, to help the audience become better human beings. These two forms of theatre are two of the oldest styles in the world, and they impacted the structure of all other theatre in their respective hemispheres. They have many differences on the surface, but their similarities reveal a demand from deep within the human spirit -- an answer to why we are here.
Bibliography:
1.) "Basic Terms of Shinto."
2.) "Ch. 16" and "Ch. 17." Kojiki. Trans. Donald L. Philipppi. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1969.
3.) "Greek Drama." Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta ‘99. CD-ROM. Microsoft. 1993- 1998.
4.) "Japanese Drama." Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta ‘99. CD-ROM. Microsoft. 1993- 1998.
5.) Garfias, Robert. "Kagura: The Japanese Ancient Sacred Music." The Gigaku/Gagaku Page. 12.16.98.
6.) Hamilton, Edith. "Dionysus or Bacchus." Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1940. 55-64.
7.) Ortolani, Benito. "Ch. II: Kagura." The Japanese Theatre: From Shamanistic Ritual Contemporary Pluralism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
8.) "Shinto."