Lines of flight: intersubjective training across intercultures as the basis for a comparison between Japanese nô and Chinese jingju (‘Beijing opera’)

Abstract

Intersubjectivity offers a methodology for the comparison of performance training in Chinese jingju and Japanese nô. By connecting intersubjectivity with the concept of the rhizome, the article suggests that intercultural encounters arise from the intertwining of two subjectivities, the master and the student, neither of which totalise the theatrical form. The paper illustrates the limits and opportunities this methodology affords through an interrogation of personal experiences of training. In particular, it focuses on the deployment and channelling of energy (qi/ki) through the body. It is suggested that intersubjectivity enables concrete points of comparative reference to be offered, but also the specificities of one’s own training to be accounted for.

Keywords:

• jingju
• nô
• interculturalism
• intersubjectivity
• comparative

Notes

¹ There are five main actor shite schools (シテ方) in Nô: Kanze (観世), Hôshô (宝生), Komparu (金春), Kongô (金剛) and Kita (喜多). Supporting Waki actors and musicians also have different schools.

² Dong Weixian suggests that there might be as many as 80 liupai in Jingju, though this seems a little generous (see Dong 1981).

³ Important insights concerning technique in Nô can be found in Bethe and Brazell (1982), Komparu (1983) and Griffiths (1998). For an excellent overview of jiben gong, see Li (2010, pp. 55‒81). The significance of cosmological ideas to the principles of jingju movement is discussed in Riley (1997).

⁴ For a translation of Zeami’s writings, see Zeami (1984), De Poorter (2002) and Hare (2008).

⁵ See, for example, the-Noh.com(2010).

⁶ The fourth of the five canons, fa (法), is sometimes written as fa (发), used specifically to refer to a number of skilled, technical movements used for expression, such as shuaifa (甩发), which involves swinging a long tuft of hair around the head to express distraction or agitation.

⁷ The term ‘shikake’ is used by the Kita, Hôshô and Kongô schools. In the Kanze school, this movement is called ‘sashikomi’ (さし込み), and in the Komparu school, it is called ‘sashi’ (さし).