Noh is a masked, chanted dance-drama of Japan, refined in the fourteenth century and one of the world's oldest continuously performed theatrical traditions. Its principal actor, often masked, moves in slow, stylized steps while a chorus and small ensemble carry the story. Shaped by the actor-playwright Zeami under shogunal patronage, prized for the subtle grace its admirers call yūgen, and long the ceremonial theater of the samurai class, Noh survives today as a recognized heritage of humanity.
The mask is carved once, and after that it cannot smile or weep. Yet watch closely as the actor lowers his head, and the still wooden face seems to darken into sorrow; watch him raise it toward the lamps, and the same face appears to brighten and even smile. Nothing has moved but the angle and the light. In Noh the actor's own face stays hidden all evening, and the less it shows, the more the audience is made to feel. A theater that conceals its faces and slows its bodies almost to stillness has been called, by those who love it, the most expressive stage in the world.