Japan to Push Noh Master Zeami’s Fushikaden for UNESCO Listing

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Culture

Nov 25, 2025 12:51 (JST)

Tokyo, Nov. 25 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s culture ministry said Tuesday it will recommend “Fushikaden,” Noh master Zeami’s 15th-century treatise on the traditional Japanese theater performances, for inscription on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.

The government will soon submit a formal application to UNESCO. The Executive Board of the U.N. agency is expected to review the bid in spring 2027.

In the seven-volume Fushikaden, Zeami, a seminal figure who helped establish the classical form of Noh masked dramas featuring dances and songs, described the essence of Noh through a metaphor of a flower.

The nomination covers three of the seven produced in the first half of the 15th century and passed down by the head of the Kanze school of Noh, including two that were written by Zeami himself. The two are believed to be among the world’s oldest surviving autographed manuscripts of an acting theory, according to the ministry.

The application to the ministry was filed by Kanze Bunko in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, which preserves cultural assets related to the Kanze school head.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press