Catalog of Shōdan: Spoken
Kaikō
Voice
Non-congruent
The chant known as kaikō is performed by the waki at the beginning of a first-category Noh play. The text typically celebrates a patron or current event and remains unrelated to the play's plot. Kaikō was commonly performed, for instance, at public ceremonies during the Edo Shogunate, at venues such as the Imperial Palace and the Honganji Temple. They were crafted by scholars of the Shogunate, court nobles or temple priests. Contemporary performances of kaikō are extremely rare. The text of the example below was composed by Prof. Reiko Yamanaka for a performance commemorating the opening of the relocated Kyoto City University of Arts.