The next generation of Noh actors perform a dramatic dance in Shibuya.

In Shibuya, which continues to evolve for the future and attracts attention from both within Japan and overseas, young Noh performers who will shoulder the future of Noh, a performing art with a history of about 650 years, will gather to connect the worlds of modern and tradition.

"Shibuya Noh," which started in 2019, is a project that aims to provide a place for young Noh performers to hone their skills and for audiences to support the performers for many years to come. This year, the performers themselves will select the pieces and will perform with enthusiasm.

The first night will feature the Kanze school's dramatic and fast-paced "Jinen Koji," in which Jinen Koji, a sermonist for temple construction, dances as he is asked to do in exchange for returning a child taken away by a human trafficker. The second night will feature the Konparu school's "Yutaka Shaku-no-mai," in which an old man who collects seawater tells a traveling monk about the history of Rokujogawara-in, eventually appears as the spirit of the Emperor's son, Minamoto no Toru, and dances gracefully under the moonlight, recounting the glories of the past. The third night will feature the Kongo school's "Kyozuka," a performance of a young woman who is proposed to by two men but cannot decide and takes her own life, suffering in the eight great hells as she is tortured by the souls of the men and the birds of hell. The final night will feature four nights of Shimai and Maibayashi performances by the five shite schools, as well as Kyogen performances by Okura school's Shigeyama Senzaburo.