There are about 1500 professional Noh actors in Japan today, and the art form continues to thrive. The five extant schools of Noh acting are the Kanze (??), Hosho (??), Komparu (??), Kita (??), and Kongo (??) schools. Each school has a leading family known as Soh-ke, and the head of each family is entitled to create new plays or edit already existing songs. The society of Noh actors is quite feudalistic, and strictly protects the traditions passed down from their ancestors.

All Noh plays are spiritually based on an idea called 'Yugen', meaning subtle and profound spirit. Noh truly represents’ the Japanese culture of finding beauty in subtlety and formality.

Famous Noh Plays

:: Aoi no uye ("Court Lady Aoi")
:: Hagoromo ("The Feather Mantle")
:: Matsukaze ("Pining Wind")