This book traces the history of noh and kyōgen, the first major Japanese theatrical arts. Going beyond P. G. O'Neill's Early Nō Drama of 1958, it covers the full period of noh's medieval development and includes a chapter dedicated to the comic art of kyōgen, which has often been left in noh's shadow. It is based on contemporary research in Japan, Asia, Europe and America, and embraces current ideas of theatre history, providing a richly contextualized account which looks closely at theatrical forms and genres as they arose.

The masked drama of noh, with its ghosts, chanting and music, and its use in Japanese films, has been the object of modern international interest. However, audiences are often confused as to what noh actually is. This book attempts to answer where noh came from, what it was like in its day, and what it was for. To that end, it contains sections which discuss a number of prominent noh plays in their period and challenges established approaches. It also contains the first detailed study in English of the kyōgen repertoire of the sixteenth-century.

本书追溯了能和京源的历史，它们是日本最早的主要戏剧艺术。本书超越了P. G. O'Neill于1958年出版的《早期能剧》，涵盖了能的整个中世纪发展时期，并有一章专门论述了京源的喜剧艺术，它常常被置于能的阴影之下。该书以日本、亚洲、欧洲和美国的当代研究为基础，包含了当前的戏剧史观念，提供了一个丰富的背景说明，密切关注戏剧形式和流派的产生。

能的面具剧，包括鬼魂、吟唱和音乐，以及它在日本电影中的应用，一直是现代国际社会关注的对象。然而，观众往往对能的实际内容感到困惑。本书试图回答能的来源，它在当时是什么样的，以及它的目的是什么。为此，本书包含了一些章节，讨论了当时一些著名的能剧，并对既定的方法提出了挑战。本书还包含了对16世纪京源剧目的首次详细英文研究。