Zeami Writes the Fūshikaden and Later Treatises

Zeami began the first sections of the Fūshikaden around 1400, drawing on the teaching of his father Kan’ami and his own experience in sarugaku performance. He added further sections over time. The broader period also includes separate works: the Shikadō in 1419, a discussion of the two arts and three types of performance in 1420, and the Kakyō in 1424.

The Fūshikaden follows a performer through changing ages. At seven, the child should develop singing and movement without excessive correction. Around seventeen or eighteen, the breaking voice and altered body remove the attractiveness of childhood performance. Zeami urges continued practice within the voice’s available range. Success as a young performer therefore supplies no guarantee of mature skill.

His term hana, or flower, concerns the effect a performance has on its spectators. Training must preserve interest as the performer, role and occasion change. In discussing elderly characters, he warns that simply bending the back and knees can make a portrayal dull; restrained movement must still carry theatrical interest.

These writings joined instruction about voice, movement and role-making to judgments about audiences and the passing on of an art. They supplied later performers with a vocabulary for discussing what could be taught and what had to be learned through practice. Their successive additions also preserve changes in Zeami’s thinking across his career.