Aioi: leaves laden with words

Anna Murray

Aioi: story and song

There has long been a connection between Irish literature and Noh, most famously in Yeats’ use of the form for plays such as At Hawk’s Well.

While on the surface the earthy informality of early Irish storytelling and the extreme ritual of Noh seem vastly disconnected, there are in fact deeper-rooted connections.

Both traditions explore the points at which our natural world and that of the supernatural collide, using the natural world as its setting. Both revel in providing sketches of images, moments and scenes, allowing the listener’s imagination to fully engage. In the words of Kuno Meyer, Irish poetry is

“a succession of pictures and images which the poet, like an impressionist, calls up before us by light and skillful touches”

The same could be said of Noh, and indeed it recalls Jan Kott’s description of Noh as

“‘gestures frozen in their final moments’”

or Zeami’s famous description of yugen, or hidden beauty:

“‘snow in a silver bowl”

Laura Sampson, Noh performer and storyteller, tells the Japanese and Irish stories that inspire
Aioi: leaves laden with words.

Watch Laura perform Aioi with QME here.