sarugaku

Sarugaku is a traditional form of Japanese theater blending music, dance, and comic skits. It originated in the Heian period as itinerant performances for urban audiences, temples, and the court, developed by groups known as sarugakusha. The name, literally monkey music, reflects the lively, popular character of the early art, though the exact origin is unclear.

The form absorbed a range of performing arts, especially dengaku (field music) and comic dance, and traveled across the archipelago. Performers used narrative mime, song, and instrumental accompaniment to produce adaptable entertainments suitable for different venues.

In the Muromachi period, leading practitioners such as Kan'ami and his son Zeami refined sarugaku into a more stylized, philosophically oriented theatre. This maturation produced Noh, which retained many sarugaku elements—structure, movement, and stagecraft—while introducing masks, a formal repertory, and an emphasis on subtle mood and spiritual themes. The comic and popular strands persisted in Kyogen, a separate form performed in vernacular language and often as interludes to Noh.

Sarugaku's influence on Japanese theater is substantial: it provided the techniques, repertory, and performative principles that shaped Noh and Kyogen. Zeami's treatises, including Fushikaden (The Flowering Spirit), articulated the aesthetic foundations of the art and its evolution beyond the Muromachi era.