It is very useful to see the arts when people want to understand different cultures because arts strongly reflect the values of the country. We can find fairly exclusive forms of arts in Japanese traditional art. Although the meaning of "traditional" tend to be perceived as just "old," and Japanese traditional arts are still very important and popular for their ordinary lives as an entertainment. The three styles of Japanese theater arts show the most remarkable uniqueness.

The first example of Japanese traditional art is Kabuki, which is widely known by many foreign people as one of the most remarkable theater style of Japan. Kabuki was formed in the seventeenth century, and it was the most popular entertainment at that time in Japan. The one uniqueness of the style is the clothes that Kabuki actors wear. They dress in colorful clothes called kimono, and each color has a special meaning depending on what they play. For example, when the theme of the play is about ghosts, the main actor always wears a white-featured Kimono. Blue kimono stands for the feeling of sadness. Therefore, the audience can realize what the story or a scene is about from the color of Kimono.

The other characteristic is music and sound effects that are played during the performance. There are approximately fifteen to twenty big band members and singers for both, and they play music on the back of the stage. The musical band uses very interesting instruments that are different from what we have today. For instance, they use Shamisen that corresponds to a guitar in western countries, for playing melody. A Japanese hand drum called Tsuzumi is used as a rhythmical instrument. The musicians and singers play music while looking at the score book, and the music is very exciting and also helps to make the Kabuki play stand out. The sound effects are a very important part of the theater style. There is a specialized person called Kuroko, and his role in the play is to make sounds. When Kabuki actors move to and fro on the stage, Kuroko make sounds of the motion by using pieces of wood. Kuroko have to concentrate on the actors' motions to make sound effects with the best timing. With the very interesting style of the play, Kabuki is still popular for order people in Japan.

Japanese people think of the other kind of theater play called Noh as the oldest art in Japan. It is true that Noh was developed in the fourteenth century, and it is as old as Shakespeare in England. They say that Noh is the basic form of theater style in Japan, that is, the other styles of play, Kabuki for example, were developed from Noh. Therefore, both styles are almost the same, but there are big differences between these two styles.

The noticeable difference is that the number of people who perform Noh at one time is much less than Kabuki. The actors are about four to six, and they rarely move fast on the stage. The music band or the singers are only four people although they use the same instruments as Kabuki. However, it is a very amazing fact that they do not read score books; in other words, singers memorize all the lyrics, and musicians play the music as the actors move. The interesting aspect of a Noh play is the unique masks. All Noh actors put on special wooden masks on the stage, and the masks are very colorful. The color of a mask is very important. As Noh players mainly act as gods or devils and monsters rather than humans, the masks are very scary and ugly. The theme of Noh play is always about madness, sadness and isolation, so the audiences easily get bored. As a result, Noh play is not as attractive as Kabuki.

The last example of Japanese traditional theater art is called Bunraku, which was a very popular entertainment for people in the eighteenth century.

This form is often considered to be the ultimate style of theater art in Japan because Bunraku has both elements of Kabuki and Noh. For example, the beauties of colorful and bright clothes originate from Kabuki, and the musical form is exactly same as Noh. However, the characteristic of this kind of play is that all actors and actresses are not humans but dolls. What humans do is to control the dolls with music. This is extremely hard work, more than we think, because controllers must move dolls that are twenty pounds from behind a big table. Moreover, the doll has a very complex structure. However, even when the dolls move fast or dance, the controllers move "small actors" precisely as if they were real humans. The story is narrated by a reader called Kodanshi, and he pretends to be all players during the performance. Therefore, the reader always changes his voice spontaneously. With the great skill of the reader's expression, the audiences never feel that something is wrong. Rather, they get excitement from him.

It is clear that Japanese culture has very distinct types of theater arts. Both Kabuki and Bunraku are deeply rooted in the Noh; however each one shows different features in playing style. Unfortunately, the numbers of Japanese people who are willing to engage in those traditions are decreasing year by year. Japanese must take pride in their inherited culture and hand it down to the next generation.