Traditional Japanese Literature

by Haruo Shirane

  THEATRICAL ELEMENTS

  The shite, or protagonist, is often a supernatural being such as a ghost, plant spirit, deity, or demon. Most nō plays center on the shite’s words and deeds—that is, his or her telling of a story, usually about the shite’s own past, in the form of a monologue and dance. The characters subordinate to the shite are called shite-tsure (companions to the shite) or simply tsure. In two-act plays, the shite in the first act is called the mae-shite (or mae-jite [shite before]), and in the second act, the nochi-shite (or nochi-jite [shite after]). The nochi-shite usually appears in a different costume, signifying the revelation of his or her true identity, and sometimes even as a different character altogether.

  The waki is the character opposite—although not necessarily antagonistic to—the shite. When the shite is a supernatural being, the waki is usually a traveling monk who listens to the shite’s retelling of the past. But when the shite is a living warrior, the waki is most often a warrior of the opposing camp. Unlike the shite, the waki is always a living person. The characters subordinate to the waki, often their retainers or traveling companions, are called waki-tsure (or waki-zure). The ai or ai-kyōgen is a minor character in a nō play, such as a local villager, who might provide the waki, and thus the audience, with a relatively colloquial, prose recapitulation of what the shite has already recounted in poetry. In some plays, especially those written in the late Muromachi period, comical characters appear during the acts as, for example, in Ataka. These characters are also called ai.

  The chorus consists of six to ten members who sit motionless throughout the play on the right side of the stage and do not have a specific role in the play. Sometimes they chant the words of one or another of the characters, and at other times they describe the scene. The main nō stage is a square about nineteen by nineteen feet. During a performance, the actors usually enter and exit the stage along the bridgeway (hashigakari) to the left. Nō never uses painted scenery or backdrops. The setting is depicted only verbally, and many plays have no stage props at all. Others have only a symbolic prop used for the most significant element of a play’s setting. When placed on the bare stage, this prop attracts the audience’s attention and becomes the play’s focal point. The characters sometimes hold swords, rosaries, or willow boughs that signify that the holder is crazed (as with the mother in Sumida River). All performers carry fans, which are sometimes used as substitutes for other props, such as a writing brush, a saké flask, or a knife.

  Most actors wear masks, although the waki and waki-tsure, who always portray living male characters, never do. A performer without a mask must never show any facial expression or use makeup; he is expected to use his own face as if it were a mask. Except for some masks that are made for specific characters (such as the shite’s mask in Kagekiyo), most masks represent generic types. For example, waka-onna masks, which show a young female face, are used for both the female saltmaker in Pining Wind (Matsukaze) and Lady Rokujō in Shrine in the Fields.

  Demon masks, with their ferocious faces and large, protruding eyes, express fierce supernatural power, while masks of human characters (including ghosts), whose feelings and emotions are often the focus of a play, usually display a static and rather neutral expression instead of a specific emotion. These masks are paradoxically said to be both “nonexpressive” and “limitlessly expressive,” since the expression appears to change according to the angle of a performer’s face. The actor’s unchanging “face” also encourages audience members to project onto his mask the emotional content that they detect from the chanting. Interestingly, the nō masks are slightly smaller than the human faces they cover, revealing the tip of the performer’s lower jaw and thus disrupting the audience’s full immersion in dramatic illusion.

  Nō costumes are famous for their splendor and exquisite beauty. Most are made of stiff, heavy materials that are folded around the performer’s body like origami. A lighter kimono, made from a translucent fabric and with long, wide sleeves, is sometimes worn over these costumes. Thus, just as masks conceal the actor’s facial individuality, so the costumes conceal his physical individuality. The beauty and expressiveness of his performance thus are not in the particular features of his own face and body but in the grace and expressiveness of his movements.

  Movements on the nō stage are strictly choreographed and are generally very slow and highly stylized. Weeping, for example, is expressed merely by slowly lifting one hand toward the eyes and then lowering it again. This strict economy of movement infuses each gesture with meaning. One step forward can express joy, resolution, or any other feeling that seems to fit the context. The fundamental basis for the dances and gestures of nō is the standing posture (kamae) and a stylized manner of walking called hakobi. Shite actors play characters of both sexes, with gender expressed by subtle variations of the angles of the performer’s limbs and, above all, by the way he stands and walks. Differences in age, social status, and mental state are indicated similarly. Because so much emphasis is placed on a simple movement like walking, nō has often been characterized as “the art of walking.”

  Diagram of a nō stage.

  Dance in nō is performed to musical accompaniment, by either the musicians alone or the musicians and chorus together. In many plays, dances set to the chanting of the chorus appear in the kuse section and at the end of the play. The dance in the kuse section consists mostly of abstract movements. Because they do not have any fixed meanings, dances can be interpreted according to the general context or to that of the lines that accompany them, in much the same way that a single nō mask can project a broad range of emotions. By contrast, the dance at the end of the play usually includes many specifically representational movements that mimetically render the words of the text. Dances set to instrumental music generally are abstract as well and usually are similar in both movement and music. The same series of movements can appear in a rapid, exuberant “deity dance” (kami-mai), an elegant and gentle dance (chū-no-mai), or a tranquil and meditative dance (jo-no-mai), depending on the tempo and mood of otherwise very similar music. As with the masks, these dances, too, are generic. The same chū-no-mai, for example, is performed by a noble youth in Atsumori and by the female saltmaker in Pining Wind.

  The chanting styles of nō are divided into speech (kotoba) and song (fushi), with the speech actually more intoned than spoken. Song can be further subdivided into “congruent song” (hyōshi ai), which is chanted in a steady rhythm, keeping precise time with the drums, and “noncongruent song” (hyōshi awazu), which incorporates prolonged grace notes into important phrases and is not chanted in measured time. There also are two modes of singing: a “dynamic mode” (tsuyogin or gōgin) and a “melodic mode” (yowagin or wagin). The dynamic mode is generally used for the roles of warriors and demons, and the melodic mode is reserved for female and elderly roles. In many plays, however, the same character may use both modes. For example, in Kiyotsune, even though the shite chants mainly in the dynamic mode, he frequently switches to the melodic mode (in segments indicated, for example, as ge-no-ei, kakeai, jō-no-ei, or uta) in order to convey two different aspects of the same character: warrior and loving husband.

  Except for the preceding modes, which were introduced only after the Tokugawa period, the distinctions in chanting styles, as well as the rhythmic patterns and the degree of regularity of the syllabic meter, are necessary for distinguishing subsections (shōdan) of plays. In the following translations, the names of subsections are indicated in parentheses preceding the text. Each subsection has its own pattern of musical structure and/or content, which remains consistent from play to play. For example, the subsection called the nanori is a self-introduction by a character and is chanted mostly in the speech style, while a kuse is a congruent song with narrative elements that starts in a lower register and then moves to a higher one.

  Instrumental music accompanies the dances and some of the chanting, as well as the entrance and exit of the characters. The music is provided by on
e flute and three different types of drums, each played by a single musician. With this dominance of percussion instruments, the music of nō consists more of silence than of sound. In fact, silence (ma [“interval” or “gap”]) is traditionally regarded as the principal element of nō music. The sounds of the instruments, as well as the intermittent cries of the drummers, are introduced in order to interrupt the flow of time in nō plays and to make the silence between sounds all the more noticeable.

  Among the several ways in which nō plays are categorized, the one most widely used today is the “five categories,” which generally are differentiated according to the type of shite. The first category is the “deity play” (waki-nō or kami-nō), in which a deity explains the origin of a shrine, or a related legend, and celebrates the peaceful reign of an emperor. The second is the “warrior play” (shura-nō), in which the ghost of a warrior, now tormented in the hellish realm of constant battle known as the shura realm, reenacts a battle scene from his previous life. The third is the “woman play” (kazura-mono), whose protagonists are mostly elegant female figures, including the ghosts of women or female plant spirits. The “fourth-category plays” (yobanme-mono), also referred to as “miscellaneous plays” (zō mono), include all plays that do not fit into any of the other four categories, including plays about mad people, living warriors, or the spirits of the dead who linger in this world because of their excessive attachments. The fifth category is “demon plays” (oni-nō), also called “ending plays” (kiri-nō), in which the protagonists usually are demons.

  This categorization scheme originated in the late seventeenth century. From that time until the present, a formal program for a nō-play performance usually includes one play from each of the five categories, performed in the preceding order, with a kyōgen play between each nō play. Today, however, performances in this full formal configuration are staged only on special occasions, such as New Year’s Day.

  Many nō plays draw on and allude to classical texts like The Tales of Ise, The Tale of Genji, or folk legends of such famous figures as Ono no Komachi. Since classical texts were largely disseminated through medieval commentaries, many plays also reflect contemporary interpretations of their source material. In addition, playwrights often introduced their own new twists to familiar narratives. Indeed, the mugen-nō structure gave playwrights the perfect format for such reinterpretations, as famous episodes could be subjectively reconstrued through the personal recollections of a ghost.

  Nō plays are also interlarded with citations from famous poems and classic tales. Atsumori, for example, offers an analogy between its eponymous hero, who is a character from The Tales of the Heike, and the protagonist of The Tale of Genji; similarly, the crazed mother in Sumida River compares herself with the nobleman protagonist of The Tales of Ise. Such heavy dependence on classical allusions is especially noticeable in Zeami’s and Zenchiku’s plays and suggests an audience with a high level of literary erudition. In fact, the most popular literary activity at the time in high society—also practiced, to some extent, even among commoners—was the composition of linked verses (renga), which required the participants to allude constantly to a wide range of earlier literary works. It was in such a cultural milieu that nō developed.

  The following plays are presented in chronological order, so as to give some sense of the historical development of the genre.

  [All nō introductions by Akiko Takeuchi]

  Subsections

  According to Styles

  Primary Speech Styles

  katari

  story narration

  yomimono

  recitation

  mondō

  question and answer

  nanori

  self-introduction

  tsuki-zerifu

  arrival speech

  Noncongruent Song Styles

  ei

  chanted poem

  ge-no-ei

  waka recited in the lower register

  jō-no-ei

  waka recited in the upper register

  issei

  song in regular 7/5 meter mostly in the upper register, typically chanted right after the entrance of a character

  kakeai

  segment chanted alternately by two characters

  kudoki

  song sung mostly in the lower register, expressing lament or sorrow

  kuri

  short segment sung mostly in the high register, incorporating the highest pitch (also called kuri) and prolonged grace notes

  kudoki-guri

  kuri just before kudoki

  nanori-guri

  kuri that delivers a character’s self-introduction

  sashi

  song that starts in the upper register, narrating a scene in a relatively plain rhythm and melody

  waka

  recitation of a waka just after a dance

  Congruent Song Styles

  uta

  song in regular 7/5 meter

  age-uta

  song sung in the upper and middle registers

  sage-uta

  song sung in the middle and low registers

  dan-uta

  song starting in the fashion of age-uta but developing into a different pattern

  chū-noriji

  song sung in vigorous chū-nori rhythm, in which each syllable matches a half beat; typically used in the ending scene of a warrior play

  kiri

  simple song sung in the middle register with almost no grace notes, at the end of a play

  kuse

  song with narrative elements, which starts in the low register and then moves to a higher one

  noriji

  song sung in ōnori rhythm, characterized by an especially steady, rhythmical beat, with each syllable lasting a whole beat

  rongi

  segment chanted alternately by characters (or a character and a chorus)

  shidai

  short song in regular meter, starting in the upper register and ending in the lower one

  Subsections that do not fit the preceding categories are listed as “unnamed.”

  LADY AOI (AOI NO UE)

  Anonymous, revised by Zeami

  Lady Aoi is the oldest of the numerous nō plays that draw on The Tale of Genji. In the nō treatise Conversations on Sarugaku (Sarugakudangi), Zeami recalls watching the play performed by Inuō (d. 1413), a senior sarugaku performer from Ōmi Province. The text included here is probably Zeami’s revision of a play that was originally written for Inuō’s troupe.1 Since the play still preserves what are regarded as basic characteristics of nō theater from Ōmi Province—such as a female demon as the protagonist and a struggle between a monk and a vengeful spirit—Zeami’s contribution was probably rather minor and may have been largely limited to refinements in phrasing.

  The play is based on a famous episode in The Tale of Genji, in the “Heartvine” (Aoi) chapter, in which the young Genji has an affair with Lady Rokujō, a widow of the late crown prince known for her sophistication and beauty. Before long, his visits to her become less frequent, and she feels deeply wounded, particularly since their relationship has come to be widely known. Nevertheless, on the day before the Kamo Festival, she decides to view the procession, hoping to secretly glimpse Genji. In order to conceal her identity, she appears in an inconspicuous carriage, which is roughly pushed to the back of the crowd by Aoi’s drunken male attendants (who do in fact recognize Rokujō) to give their own mistress a front-row view. Genji passes Rokujō without noticing her half-wrecked carriage, instead acknowledging Lady Aoi, his principal wife, who is pregnant with his first child. Soon thereafter, Aoi is possessed by an evil spirit, which later kills her shortly after she has given birth to Genji’s son. The evil spirit turns out to be the jealous and vengeful spirit of Lady Rokujō, which, without her conscious knowledge, had wandered from her body and attacked her rival.

  In the first act of the play, Teruhi, a shaman who summons “possessing spirits” (mononoke) with the twang
ing of a bow, identifies the possessing spirit as that of Lady Rokujō. In the second act, the holy man of Yokawa, a renowned mountain ascetic, dispels the possessing spirit. A careful comparison with Genji reveals how freely the play has adapted its original material. There is scarcely any direct citation from the original text except in one section (the kudoki), which refers to some well-known chapter titles. Aoi’s pregnancy, one reason for her vulnerability and for Rokujō’s jealousy, is not mentioned at all in the play. The shaman does not appear in the original, in which the spirit of Lady Rokujō speaks with Aoi’s voice directly to Genji and various monks. Neither does the mountain ascetic play a significant role in the original. In Genji, the spirit, far from being conquered by a monk, finally succeeds in killing Aoi, and even after Rokujō’s own death, her spirit continues to torment and kill Genji’s other wives.

  Several tales contemporaneous with this play depict exorcisms of vengeful spirits in a surprisingly similar manner, suggesting that the play followed an existing pattern of exorcism tales and borrowed the names of characters from Genji. On the one hand, because the text of Genji was largely inaccessible to the general population, the play is written in such a way as to entertain even those who might not be familiar with the original. On the other hand, the text of the play repeatedly refers to a carriage and to the humiliation associated with it (without recounting the incident itself), which allows those familiar with the original Genji episode to appreciate these cryptic allusions to Lady Rokujō’s carriage.