Noh Stage in the Forest

42 Teraike-kamimachi, Toyoma-machi, Tome-shi, Miyagi, Japan
1996.05
Noh stage
498.21m2

Noh Performance was first established in the 16th Century Japan. Toyama city of Miyagi Province is known for its unique style of Noh performance, called Toyama Noh, handed down to the present from the era of Edo. This project was executed for the performance of Toyama Noh in a forest. The fundamental concept to the project is to liberate and integrate the Noh stage with the wooden environment. Typically, the Noh stage is treated as a performance stage that is found independently within the overall architectural function. This treatment of the Noh stage was first introduced in the Meiji Era up to the present days. However, the very origin of Noh, as a performance, was purely inside nature where wind traveled along with the performance. The Noh stage represents the world of death where as the audience seating area represents world of life. By placing Shirasu stones outside of the stage yet in between the two spaces of stage and audience seatings that are covered by a single roof, a clear separation of the two worlds is reinforced. In this project, we have aimed to reproduce the Noh in its original styles. Instead of building a piece of architecture for the performance of Noh, the aim was, instead, to make a garden for the performance. Between the garden and the city is a vertical partition structured by consistently-rhythmed cedar slats. On the other side of cedar, one tends to acknowledge this cultural performance via building silhouette. Through this ambiguous separation of two zones, a liberation of space within the boundary occurs with its concealment where a conscious for the spatial depth is undoubtedly sensed.