The island has more than thirty Noh stages. Sado was a place of exile, and the exiles brought the arts of the capital with them—Zeami himself, the great master of Noh, was banished here. The theatre took root, and it took root not in palaces but in village life: Noh stages stand in the grounds of ordinary shrines, and at festival time the villagers themselves dance. They are not professionals. They have simply kept it going for centuries. In summer comes the firelight Noh. Braziers are lit, and the dancing happens in near-darkness, the flames throwing light up onto the carved masks so that the still wooden faces seem to shift and feel. Somewhere beyond the stage, the sound of the sea. An art driven out of the capital survived at its margins. Sometimes the center forgets and the far edge remembers. Sado is one of the places where that happened, and where it is happening still.