The Flowering Spirit: Classic Teachings on the Art of No Book

The other reviews are somewhat misleading--at least one refers to Wilson's book that combines a translation of FUSHI KADEN (transmitting the flower) with the warrior play Atsumori. This work by the French Japanologist René Sieffert is a longer and more varied collection, a good one-volume introduction to noh. The present volume contains a translation of FUSHI KADEN and other selections from Zeami's theoretical writings--for which readers of English will now want to refer to Tom Hare's Zeami: Performance notes. It then presents a classic program of noh--more than one can now see in one day. 1: A god" noh play IWAFUNE, followed by a kyogen comedy about a god of stone (ISHIGAMI). 2: A warrior noh (SANEMORI) followed by the comedy BUAKU. 3: A woman noh (YUGAO, based on Genji), followed by the comedy KAGYU (the snail). 4: A miscellaneous fourth-type play SEMIMARU followed by the comedy OBA GA SAKE (auntie's rice wine). 5: A final (fifth-type) demon play SESSHOSEKI ("The killing stone"). A handy collection. Sieffert also published a very large collection of noh and kyogen translations in two volumes.