'Noh' or Accomplishment: A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound
Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, 1916. Hardcover, true first edition. Condition is VG, with bumps and wear to corners of blue buckram covered boards. Contents are clean and unmarked and binding is square and secure. A very nice copy of this exceedingly scarce First Edition of this title... no others for sale online at the moment of this posting! Protected by cover made by previous owner wrapped in mylar.
"The Noh is unquestionably one of the great arts in the world, and it is quite possibly one of the most recondite. . . .
In the Noh we find an art built upon the god-dance, or upon some local legend of spiritual apparition, or, later, on gestes of war and feats of history; an art of splendid posture, of dancing and chanting, and of acting that is not mimetic. . . .
If one has the habit of reading plays and imagining their setting, it will not be difficult to imagine the Noh stage--different as it is from our own. . . . It is a symbolic stage, a drama of masks. . . . It is a stage where every subsidiary art is bent precisely upon holding the faintest shade of a difference; where the poet may even be silent while the gestures consecrated by four centuries of usage show meaning."
--Ezra Pound, from the Introduction
Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound present the history, explain the nuances, and even provide samples of Noh plays. They do so with passion, reverence, and an uncanny depth of perception--all of which proves that they, like all Noh performers, did indeed "work in pure spirit."
In Noh, the arrangement of the pieces is called Ban-gumi. A Shugen, or congratulatory piece, must come first. Then, in order, follow the Shura, or battle-piece; Kazura, or Onna-mono, pieces about women; Oni-No, or the Noh of spirits; and a piece that has some bearing on the moral duties of man, Jin, Gi, Rei, Chi, Shin--that is, Compassion, Righteousness, Politeness, Wisdom, and Faithfulness. Finally, another Shugen is performed.
These elements are all discussed here in depth, with examples of each.
Ernest Fenollosa's commentary on Noh is especially noteworthy. Indeed, "Professor Fenollosa knew more of the subject than any one who has yet written in our tongue," coauthor Ezra Pound declared.