Kanze Motoyoshi

Kanze Motoyoshi was the second son of the founder of the Noh theatre form, Zeami, and was an influential Noh performer and playwright in his own right.

Zeami's Sandô ("The Three Paths") was written in 1423 specifically for Motoyoshi as a transmission of secrets of the art of playwriting. There are no known records, however, of plays which Motoyoshi then wrote. He did, however, play a role in compiling Zeami's memoirs, Sarugaku dangi ("Conversations on Sarugaku"), before retiring from the stage and taking the tonsure in 1430. His elder brother, Kanze Motomasa, who had succeeded Zeami as head of the Kanze school/troupe, died in 1432, however, after which it is believed Motoyoshi may have returned to the theatre.

References

• Thomas Hare, Zeami Performance Notes, Columbia University Press (2008), 151.