Roles
There are four major categories of Noh performers: shite, waki, kyōgen, and hayashi.
- Shite (仕手, シテ). In plays where the shite appears first as a human and then as a ghost, the first role is known as the maeshite and the later as the nochishite.
- Shitetsure (仕手連れ, シテヅレ). The shite's companion. Sometimes shitetsure is abbreviated to tsure (連れ, ツレ), although this term refers to both the shitetsure and the wakitsure.
- Kōken (後見) are stage hands, usually one to three people.
- Jiutai (地謡) is the chorus, usually comprising six to eight people.
- Waki (脇, ワキ) performs the role that is the counterpart or foil of the shite.
- Wakitsure (脇連れ, ワキヅレ) or Waki-tsure is the companion of the waki.
- Kyōgen (狂言) perform the aikyōgen (相狂言) interludes during plays. Kyōgen actors also perform in separate plays between individual noh plays.
- Hayashi (囃子) or hayashi-kata (囃子方) are the instrumentalists who play the four instruments used in Noh theater: the transverse flute (笛, fue?), hip drum (大鼓, ōtsuzumi?) or ōkawa (大皮?), the shoulder-drum (小鼓, kotsuzumi?), and the stick-drum (太鼓, taiko ?). The flute used for noh is specifically called nōkan or nohkan (能管?).
A typical Noh play always involve the chorus, the orchestra, and at least one shite and one waki actor.
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