ABSTRACT
There are four types of traditional Japanese drama: Nō, Kyōgen, Bunraku and Kabuki. Traditional Japanese dance (Koten Buyo) is based on Nō, combined with dancing elements from Kabuki. Of course another view might be that all traditional drama has its roots in dancing, which can be considered its original source. Nō was brought to perfection by a man called Zeami, who in his series of treatises on art called the Fushikaden (Style and the flower) introduces the concept of Hana. Hana, originally meaning “flower” in Japanese, is used to signify the splendor of art expressed by a dancer in a stage performance. Zeami makes a further distinction between Jibun no Hana, “the seasonal Hana”, and Makoto no Hana, “the true Hana”. The seasonal Hana is the natural beauty of youth that appears in a dancer in his or her teens and twenties. It is the flower that blossoms by itself and is revealed through art. By contrast, the true Hana appears only in middle-aged dancers whose art has reached maturity and is said to be a more internal type of beauty.
