Utaibon
Utai-bon（1937）The Noh Drama, Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai, Tokyo [EN]
- 14-15The text of the Noh plays are called utai-bon (singing book). Out of the some 800 of them which existed prior to 1868, the year of the Imperial Restoration when the socio-economic foundations of the Noh were rudely shattered, only about 200 of the best have survived to this day and are actually played.
- 15These utai-bon fall into five general categories, and a formal Noh program plays them all according to a prescribed order.