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==Stage Design==
==Stage Design==
[[File:Nationalnohtheater.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The main stage at the [[National Noh Theatre]] in Sendagaya, Tokyo.]]
[[File:Nationalnohtheater.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The main stage at the [[National Noh Theatre]] in Sendagaya, Tokyo.]]
The Noh stage, much smaller than that of kabuki or the typical Western-style proscenium stage, follows a standard design. A bridgeway (''hashigakari'') which provides the chief avenue for actors' entrances and exits runs at an angle, connecting with the main portion of the stage at the rear half of stage right. The main portion of the stage is a square, with pillars at the four corners, and a painting of a pine tree on the rear wall. This painted pine, supposedly a reference to the Yôgô Pine (''yôgô no matsu''<!--影向の松--> of [[Kasuga Shrine]]),<ref>Richard Schechner, ''Performance Studies: An Introduction'', Routledge (2002), 61.</ref> along with others standing along the bridge, help evoke the sense of being not in a theater, but in a natural setting, such as a forest clearing, and thus enhancing the sense of a spiritual place, where one might be visited by spirits or visions. Further, the pine, as an evergreen tree which does not lose its leaves in winter but remains strong, represents a sense of the eternal, and the notion that the very same tree might witness events in a given place over many centuries, thus linking the present of the audience to the present of the characters, and, in the case of ''mugen Noh'', to the past (the present of the spirits' lives) as well.
The Noh stage, much smaller than that of kabuki or the typical Western-style proscenium stage, follows a standard design. A bridgeway (''hashigakari'') which provides the chief avenue for actors' entrances and exits runs at an angle, connecting with the main portion of the stage at the rear of stage right. The main portion of the stage is a square, with pillars at the four corners, and a painting of a pine tree on the rear wall. This painted pine, supposedly a reference to the Yôgô Pine (''yôgô no matsu''<!--影向の松--> of [[Kasuga Shrine]]),<ref name=schechner>Richard Schechner, ''Performance Studies: An Introduction'', Routledge (2002), 61.</ref> along with others standing along the bridge, help evoke the sense of being not in a theater, but in a natural setting, such as a forest clearing, and thus enhancing the sense of a spiritual place, where one might be visited by spirits or visions. Further, the pine, as an evergreen tree which does not lose its leaves in winter but remains strong, represents a sense of the eternal, and the notion that the very same tree might witness events in a given place over many centuries, thus linking the present of the audience to the present of the characters, and, in the case of ''mugen Noh'', to the past (the present of the spirits' lives) as well.
Earthenware jugs arranged under the stage floor capture and reverberate sound, allowing actors' foot-stomps and jumps to produce resounding audible sound.<ref name=schechner/>
Noh was traditionally performed outdoors, with Noh stages often being free-standing structures located at [[Shinto shrines]]; though often located indoors today, Noh stages retain the architectural form of those free-standing structures, and continue to bear their own roofs.
Noh was traditionally performed outdoors, with Noh stages often being free-standing structures located at [[Shinto shrines]]; though often located indoors today, Noh stages retain the architectural form of those free-standing structures, and continue to bear their own roofs.