A profound experience, thanks to remarkable generosity of Miya, she kindly invited me to attend a private Noh Theatre lesson she had recently begun taking at the national Noh Theatre in Tokyo. She was undertaking this lessons under the venerable Noboru Sano, to learn the chanting, singing elements of Noh.

The environment was everything one would expect from a theatre associated with such tradition. We entered a private room, adorned in the Noh style, and waited while other students finished what appeared to be stoic, strict instruction. I had the privilege of watching Miya’s lesson and the atmosphere felt reverent, but hypnotic and completely memorable. My expectation conjured a picture of Noboru Sano as a great sensei, and someone austere in that, which was perhaps reflected in the environs. However, with me dressed all in pink, and Miya telling him about my work, his humility, hospitality and humour were remarkable. We joked, he gave me gifts, and then adapted the lesson to tell me all about Noh, show me dances, songs, movements, and we shared so much in common in terms of approach to our work, which was surprising and not, given the sense of play he seemed to feel came from the rigour and discipline of his 50 years acting and performing. In time he suggested we even collaborate in the future, melding a talking performance with a Noh dance / movement performance, even playing with improvisation. What an amazing man, and in our conversations, translated through Miya, I learned a great deal, about paradox, instinct, intention, repetition, discipline, immediacy, presence.

An article on him https://timelesstokyo.com/experttips/noh.html