Published on Jan. 14, 2015 : The Denki Shimbun (The Electric Daily News)
Shojiro Matsuura
Chairman of JANSI

Along the traditional dishes on New Year’s Day this year, the visit of unexpected and very welcome guests added to the delight of the wonderful aroma from an exquisite brewage of spiced sake. The three guests were Noh performers. Actually, our son-in-law happens to be a Noh performer in a certain school, which is how this surprise came about.

We have one son and one daughter, and it has been our custom for many years now to enjoy the New Year’s Day dinner together with both of their families. The school, to which our son-in-law belongs, holds a ceremony at the school’s Noh theater to sing the first Noh songs of the year as part of their traditional ceremony on New Year’s Day. Checking the time when his ceremony would end, we arranged to begin our meal. As we were waiting, he phoned about the time we thought he would be back and said, “I know this is kind of sudden, but would it be all right if a couple of friends come by too?”

In all, there were nine of us. With three being Noh performers, the conversation naturally drifted to the subject of Noh. All three reached the age of forty, when one is supposed to be free from vacillation, several years ago, and will soon reach the age of fifty, when one comes to know the will of heaven, as the Confucius saying goes. They currently form part of the Noh theatre world underpinning and will soon enter a period when they will awaken to their responsibility for shouldering this community in the future. That time will put each of them to the test, calling into account their assessment of Noh.

Evaluation of a performer is determined by which Noh plays a performer is able to do. While there are some differences among the different schools, performers are evaluated by doing, in accordance by difficulty of degree, several plays predetermined from among the numerous plays which have continued to be performed in the tradition since the Muromachi period (1392-1573).

One play, which holds a particularly important place in the Noh tradition, is “Okina.” This ancient composition, of which it is said “Okina is Noh but not ordinary Noh” is a dance for devotedly praying and celebrating that “peace reigns over the world, the nation is stabilized by peace, and crops are abundantly produced.” In the past, it was permitted to be played only by the head of the school, but, now, a full-fledged Noh performer is allowed to perform the dance once in his life. A Noh performer who accomplishes this successfully will then finally be designated as a collective certification of the intangible cultural asset holder in the art of Noh. For a Noh performer who has found the art to be his calling, this play is the requisite hurdle.

When Okina is to be played, the performer purifies himself by abstaining from eating meat, drinking alcohol and any other inappropriate behavior for ten days before the performance. The process of preparation is prescribed in exceeding detail, such that each point of preparation is laid out so meticulously that not even a gap of one minute is left open until the performance is over. To ask “Why is everything set out in such a manner?” in regard to the preparation and movements of the dance is probably not of much use. Even if one did understand their significance, a person might still question how effective all that is in having an audience perceive the true significance of the dance amidst a subtle and profound atmosphere.

More properly, it is during the preparation for purification by abstinence and the accumulation of practice until one faces Okina that primary importance is placed on devoted and repeated practice itself so as to master the way the tradition is executed. The pursuit of sincerity and integrity in performing the dance are key in getting through the door.

Altering the point of view slightly, isn’t the process of this dance a process of quality assurance in the arts? And, that process is not an analytical one in the field of modern technology, but a process which has honed the overall integrity and equilibrium within a historical tradition.

In recent times, great importance has been attached to quality assurance for ensuring safety in work within the field of nuclear power. At times, rigorous quality assurance activities have been a considerable burden for those in the field. Nevertheless, the fundamental and practical goal of safety assurance has been for peace to reign over the world and the nation to be stabilized by peace. If at all possible, we should also assay that quality assurance activities be carried out as are conducted in approaching the Okina dance.

With nuclear technology, there is still no historical accumulation of experience such that it might be called a tradition. In accumulating empiricism, a reliable technological tradition must be developed. The foundation for such a tradition is the pursuit of technological sincerity and integrity and their accumulation. Is not the root of quality assurance today the same as in times past?

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