Noh

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the fourteenth century, making it Japan's oldest major theatrical art still regularly performed today. Noh plays are typically based on tales from traditional literature featuring a supernatural being transformed into a human hero who narrates the story, and the form integrates masks, costumes and stage properties within a dance-based performance requiring highly trained actors and musicians. Emotion is conveyed chiefly through stylized, conventional gestures, while the tradition's iconic masks represent specific roles such as ghosts, women, deities and demons, and the whole art is highly codified and regulated by the iemoto system of hereditary schools, emphasizing tradition over innovation. The broader category nogaku encompasses both Noh and the comic kyogen plays traditionally interspersed between Noh plays in a full program, though today an abbreviated program of two Noh plays with one kyogen piece is more common.