The Noh Theater

I went to the Noh theater in my neighborhood in Koshigaya city. This Noh theater is the only Noh theater in Saitama prefecture. The first time I went, the weather was good and I got a good look around. The theater is pretty small and was pretty empty, since there wasn't anything going on that day. There are rooms there that people use for tea ceremony and calligraphy and such, but there weren't any such classes there the first time I went. There were, however, a few people in Hanataen, the imitation Japanese garden that's in back of the theater.

I say imitation, but I thought it was pretty impressive. In fact, I didn't really think it was an imitation. According to my host mother, though, an authentic Japanese garden can only be one that was owned by an actual samurai family. There are a few still preserved around the Tokyo area, but most of the gardens you see around here were apparently made later to imitate those gardens. It was strange for me to think of it that way, since "gardens" aren't exactly something you would think can become extinct. It's something like the idea that a castle isn't a real castle unless it was built in a century prior to the 20th. If all the castles in the world were suddenly destroyed in a series of catastrophes, then there would be no more castles in the world. Even if someone built a castle from the ground up, it wouldn't be a real castle because, well, it wouldn't. How could it be authentic? The age of castles is past and the very function of a castle is now useless. In short, the castle would only be built for perks and for the bragging rights. The same goes, I guess, for the authentic Japanese garden.


Anyways, back to the Noh theater. I managed to get an interview with the manager of the staff at the theater, and also with a calligraphy teacher/artist who happened to have a class there when I was interviewing the first guy. I'll translate the two interviews and add a link to the actual interviews later. They're in Japanese, but if you wanna listen, feel free.