With on-stage action bringing together song, dance, music and mime in a singular and elegant drama, the Nō Theater aims at "soothing man’s heart" through the representation of the purity of thought and feelings. Ever since the Shōgun era (14th – 16th centuries) this form of classical Japanese theater has melded folk influences and sacred Shintō dances in a stylized array of characters and situations. Within precisely coded scenic spaces, flautists, percussionists, chorus and actor-dancers solemnly bring to life the tragic tension of episodes that pass sometimes thanks to comic interludes.