Zeami Motokiyo Biography

Zeami Motokiyo (c.1363-c.1443)

Arguably the greatest playwright of Japanese Noh theatre, Zeami’s involvement in the art form began from birth. Zeami’s father, Kan’ami Kiyotsugu (c.1333-c.1384) was a leader of one of the four main theatre troupes in Japan and was considered a tremendous innovator who contributed to the current state of Noh. Kan’ami “emphasized the rhythmic nature of the musical accompaniment, developed greater use of mime acting, and correlated dance and musical elements more closely with a dramatic plot” (Worthen 141). As a child, Zeami began his training by performing small rolls in Kan’ami’s productions and was quickly regarded as a child prodigy. Zeami especially impressed the shogun (military dictator of Japan) Yoshimitsu, and soon after the two became very close friends (and lovers). Zeami’s relationship with Yoshimitsu not only saved Kan’ami’s troupe but also helped his own plays to be produced throughout Japan.

After Kan’ami passed away, Zeami at age twenty took over the leadership role of the troupe and acted as its “resident playwright,” stage director, and his plays' protagonist (shite) -and it soon became the most influential in Japan. “Kan’ami’s innovations were explored and formalized by Zeami, who wrote or revised more than 100 of the 241 plays that make up the Noh repertoire and described the philosophical, aesthetic, and practical goals of Noh performance in several theoretical essays” (Worthen 141). During the peak of his career Zeami wrote the “Fushi kaden” (c.1418), which was a type of manual for his successors and other theatre practitioners written in order to preserve the high standards of Noh.

Toward the end of his life Zeami was greeted by unfamiliar hardship and sadness. Yoshimitsu, before his sudden death, would soon break ties with Zeami and favor a rival Noh actor. Zeami, after the death of his wife, the marriage of his daughter, and the flight of his son to a secluded monastery, also unexpectedly lost his favorite son and successor Motomasa to illness. In 1434, Zeami (while seventy-two years old) was banished from Kyoto to Sado Island. The government left no written explanation for his banishment. Before his banishment, Zeami was able to pass on the “Fushi kaden” and other manuscripts to his son-in-law. It is unknown when, where, and how Zeami died, but it is assumed that he died of natural causes on Sado Island when he was eighty-one years old.