Gigaku

Gigaku (伎楽), also known as kure-gaku (呉楽), refers to a genre of masked drama-dance performance, imported into Japan during the Asuka period. This form of masked dance drama declined by the Kamakura period and became essentially extinct, although there are modern attempts at revival. It had influences on a number of Japanese performance arts such as Noh, bugaku, and kyōgen theatres and shishimai performances.