was a Japanese

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

actor, author, and musician during the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

. Born in

Iga Province was a province of Japan located in what is today part of western Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Iga" in . Its abbreviated name was . Iga is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. Under the ''Engishiki'' cl ...

, Kan'ami also went by and . He is the father of the well-known playwright .

Theater

Kan'ami's career began in Obata, Nabari-shi, Mie when he founded a

sarugaku was a form of theatre popular in Japan during the 11th to 14th centuries. One of its predecessors was a , a form of entertainment reminiscent of the modern-day circus, consisting mostly of acrobatics, juggling, and pantomime, sometimes combined w ...

theater group in the

Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...

region on the main Honshu island. The troupe moved to

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

and formed the Yuzaki theater company, which would become the school of

theater. He grew in popularity and began making trips to

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

to give performances. In 1374, the

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the third ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (). Yoshimitsu was ...

was in the audience of a performance and was so impressed by it that he became Kan'ami's patron. Kan'ami was the first playwright to incorporate the

Kusemai ''Kusemai'' (曲舞, くせまい)　is a dance-like art form originating from medieval Japan (roughly, the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods). It was particularly popular during Japan's Nanboku Period (CE1336-1392) up through the end of the rest o ...

song and dance style and

Dengaku were rustic Japanese celebrations that can be classified into two types: that developed as a musical accompaniment to rice planting observances, and the dances that developed in conjunction with . The celebrated for rice planting was perform ...

dances from rustic harvest celebrations. He trained his son

Zeami Motokiyo (c. 1363 – c. 1443), also called , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor, and playwright. His father, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan'ami was also skill ...

in his style, and his son eventually succeeded him as director of the Kanze school of Noh. Kan'ami died in

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

Notable works

*'' Sotoba Komachi'' *''Ji'nen koji'' *''Shiino shōshō'' *''

Matsukaze is a play of the third category, the woman's mode, by Kan'ami, revised by Zeami Motokiyo. One of the most highly regarded of Noh plays, it is mentioned more than any other in Zeami's own writings, and is depicted numerous times in the visual art ...

'' *''

Motomezuka ''Motomezuka'' () is a Noh play of the fourth category, written by Kan'ami and revised by Zeami. The name is either a corruption of, or a pun on, ''Otomezuka'' ("The Maiden's Grave"), the original story from episode 147 of ''Yamato Monogatari''. ...

'' *'' Eguchi''

Theater

Notable works

Further reading