Zeami’s 'Hagoromo' in Brazilian interartistic practices

Abstract

This article examines the ‘tropicalization’ of the Western transcultural representations of traditional Japanese Noh theatre developed by some of the most important Brazilian contemporary writers and artists. This essay therefore focuses on the intrincate intertextual and interart relations between Haroldo de Campos (São Paulo, 1929-2003), Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, 1937-1980), Nuno Ramos (São Paulo, 1960) and Zeami Motokiyo (Japan, 1363-1443). I carry out, on the one hand, an evaluative analysis of the specificities and the contributions of the São Paulo’s concrete poet and translator unorthodox, creative and transformative ‘transcreation’ of Hagoromo (The Feather Mantle), one of the most popular Noh plays, attibuted to Zeami Motokiyo, at the crossroads of different art and literary forms. On the other hand, I examine the literary and performative association that Campos and Oiticica invoke between the parangolés (a famous series by the carioca artist) and the hagoromo and also the relationships between the hagoromo and Ramos’s experimental painting and writing.