
Kanze Noh Theatre
Sumida Gawa, Busshi, Shakkyo
“Resplendent costumes and masks, hypnotic music and intricately stylized performance.”
New York Times on Kanze Noh
- Noh: Sumida Gawa (Sumida River)
- Kyogen: Busshi (The Fake Sculptor)
- Half-Noh: Shakkyo (The Stone Bridge)
This summer, Kiyokazu Kanze—the 26th Grand Master of the Kanze School and a descendent of the founder of Noh—brings the profound lyricism and aesthetic elegance of this ancient dramatic art form to Lincoln Center. On an authentic Noh stage constructed especially for Lincoln Center Festival, Kanze Noh Theatre will present five different Noh dramas selected from the repertoire of approximately 240, as well as two Kyogen, the customary comic interlude in a Noh program.
This performance opens with Motomasa’s Sumida Gawa (Sumida River), which inspired Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River. The Grand Master portrays the mad woman who seeks her lost child. A conman tries to sell a sculpture to comic effect in the Kyogen, Busshi (The Fake Sculptor), and the program ends with the exquisite lion dance in Shakkyo (The Stone Bridge).
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Noh Sumida Gawa (Sumida River)
Lead part (Shite, the mother of Umewaka-maru) Kiyokazu Kanze
The companion of Shite (Ko-kata, the ghost of Umewaka-maru) Shigeteru Fujinami
Supporting part (Waki, a ferryman) Tsuneyoshi Mori
Supporting part (Waki-tsure, a traveler) Jotaro Mori
Flute (Fue) Ichikazu Sugi
Shoulder drum (Ko-tsuzumi) Seiichi Iida
Large hand drum (O-tsuzumi) Hirotada Kamei
Supervision and arrangement (Koken) Yoshinobu Kanze, Kimitake Ueda
Chorus (Jiutai) Hisahiro Oka, Motoharu Yoshii, Fumihisa Onishi, Masashi Nomura, Nobuyuki Kizuki, Toshiya Kaneko, Yoshimaru Sekine, Hironoshin Inoue
Running time: 70 minutes
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Kyogen Busshi (The Fake Sculptor)
Lead part (Shite, Sculptor of Buddhist images) Yasutaro Yamamoto
Supporting part (Ado, Country man) Noritaka Yamamoto
Running time: 20 minutes
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Half-Noh Shakkyo (The Stone Bridge)
O-Jishi (Kogaki: name of a special variant performance)
Lead part (Shite, White-Lion) Shigehiko Fujinami
The companion of Shite (Tsure, Red-Lion) Kojiro Sumi, Yoshinari Shimizu, Takanobu Sakaguchi
Supporting part (Waki, Priest) Jotaro Mori
Flute (Fue) Ichikazu Sugi
Shoulder drum (Ko-tsuzumi) Yukihiko Yokoyama
Large hand drum (O-tsuzumi) Hirotada Kamei
Stick drum (Taiko) Motonori Kanze
Supervision and arrangement (Koken) Takahiro Ueda, Masashi Nomura
Chorus (Jiutai) Yoshinobu Kanze, Kimitake Ueda, Motoharu Yoshii, Fumihisa Onishi, Nobuyuki Kizuki, Toshiya Kaneko, Yoshimaru Sekine, Hironoshin Inoue
Running time: 25 minutes
Support provided by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), J.C.C. Fund of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group).
Kanze Noh Theatre’s participation in the Lincoln Center Festival is sponsored by the Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) and the Agency of Cultural Affairs (Government of Japan).
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Also in This Series
Performed in Japanese with English supertitles
Venue Accessibility
- Large-print programs
- Captioning with English supertitles
- Braille programs
- Wheelchair-accessible seating
- Assistive listening devices
For questions about accessibility or to request an accommodation, please contact access@lincolncenter.org or 212.875.5375.
For ticketing information and general questions, please call 212.721.6500.