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Actors
There are about 1500 professional Noh actors in Japan today, and the art form
continues to thrive. Actors begin their training as young children,
traditionally at the age of three.
The five extant schools of Noh shite acting are the Kanze (観世), Hōshō (宝生),
Komparu (金春), Kita (喜多), and Kongō (金剛) schools. Each school has a leading
family known as the sōke, and the head of each family is entitled to create new
plays or edit existing songs.
The society of Noh strictly protects the traditions passed down from their
ancestors (see iemoto). However, several secret documents of the Kanze school
written by Zeami, and of the Komparu school written by Zenchiku have been
diffused throughout the community of scholars of Japanese theater.
Actors normally follow a strict progression through the course of their lives
from roles considered the most basic to those considered the most complex or
difficult; the role of Yoshitsune in Funa Benkei is one of the most prominent
roles a child actor performs in Noh.
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