Born into a life of acting and dance with a traveling theater troupe in 14th-century Japan, 12-year old Oniyasha has one problem-he doesn’t know what the point of any of it is. Why must I step with the left foot here instead of the right? Why is one performance good and another, bad? Why do people dance at all? It all seems perfectly arbitrary, until a chance encounter in a run-down shack sets him down a path to revolutionizing the art form and influencing much of Japanese culture to come.A fictionalized account of the early life of Zeami Motokiyo (Oniyasha), the founder of modern Noh theater-the world’s oldest surviving theater art-this coming-of-age artist’s journey vividly brings to life a man far ahead of his time during one of Japan’s most culturally and socially vibrant eras.
Deeply moved by Oniyasha’s act in the second round of the shogun’s competition, Zojiro concedes the match. With the decisive final round looming, Oniyasha struggles to decide on a piece to perform, and hits upon a radical idea—one it turns out Zojiro shares: a joint production. Things immediately go off the rails when Zojiro’s troupe chafes at the thought of Oniyasha telling them what to do, but Zojiro swallows his pride and convinces them to give it a shot. With tensions still high, Inomaru takes Zojiro and Oniyasha on an excursion to the nearby lake so they can work on the script.