Another characteristic of Zenchiku’s style can be found in Nonomiya’s ending, which suggests that the ghost of Lady Rokujō may not attain buddhahood after all. At the end of many of his other plays, ghosts do not relinquish their earthly desires and thus fail to attain buddhahood. This type of ending may have resulted from the decreasing emphasis on one of no’s original religious purposes: chinkon, the pacification of the unsettled spirits of the dead.
Characters in Order of Appearance
A MONK
waki
A LADY (waka-onna mask)
mae-shite
A VILLAGER
ai
THE GHOST OF THE CONSORT, Lady Rokujō (waka-onna mask)
nochi-shite
Act 1
Stage attendant places a model of a torii (shrine gate) with a brushwood fence to either side of it at front center stage. To nanori-bue music, the Monk enters, stands at the shite spot, and faces the audience.
MONK: (nanori) I am a monk who is visiting all the provinces. Of late I have been in the capital and have seen each of the capital’s famed places and ancient sites. Now that autumn is drawing to its close, I think I shall go and see Sagano111 while at its charming best.112 When I asked someone about these woods, he said this old site is that of Nonomiya113 or some such place, and so I shall have a look in passing.
Moves to the center, stands in front of the torii.
MONK:
(unnamed) Having come to these woods,
I see that the rough-hewn log torii114
And the low brushwood fence
Have not changed from long ago, (Kneels, puts hands together as in prayer.)
But how can this be?
Never mind, for I am glad
Of this chance to come and worship.
(uta) Ise’s sacred fence forms no barrier,115
Straight is the Way of the Law’s teaching,
And straight is the way I came to see this holy shrine.116
How clear is the twilight, and clear my heart!
How clear is the twilight, and clear my heart! (Stands, moves to the waki spot, and sits.)
To shidai music, Lady enters, holding a branch of leaves in her left hand, and stands at the shite spot.
LADY:117
(shidai) Nonomiya, so used to flowers,
O Nonomiya, so used to flowers,
What will become of you when autumn has passed?118 (Faces audience.)
(sashi) Then will the lonesome autumn end
And at last my sleeves wither with dew.119
In the dusk I am broken.
The shades of my heart,
Like all flowers, fade,
Destined, alas, to decline! (Still facing audience.)
(sage-uta) No one knows, but this day each year
I return to these traces of the past.
(age-uta) As autumn deepens and bitter winds blow
In these woods of Nonomiya,
As autumn deepens and bitter winds blow
In these woods of my soul,
The deeply dyed shades of my heart
Vanish, then returning,
I think of long ago, but
What of this grass robe of longing I wear,
These lingering thoughts of the past
I bring to this transient world, (Moves slightly to right center.)
to which I return again with bitter rue,
return again and again with bitter rue!120
Monk remains sitting while Lady stands.
MONK: (mondō) In the shade of this grove as I ponder the past, my heart clear, a glamorous121 lady suddenly appears. What person might this be?
LADY: Who am I, you ask? I should ask you the same. This is the Shrine in the Fields, where long ago the appointed Ise priestess would temporarily reside. Though later this practice came to an end, still on the seventh day of the long month,122 on this day, each year, as I think of long ago, (Faces audience.)
Unknown to others
I come to clean this shrine
And serve the gods here, (Faces Monk.)
Where a wandering stranger has now come
And caused offense,123 so
Quickly, quickly, take your leave!
MONK: (kakeai) No, no, I mean no offense, but I am indeed a wanderer with no certain future in this uncertain world which I’ve renounced. Well now, each year on this day you come to these ruins and ponder the past. What is the reason for this?
LADY: Shining Genji visited here on the seventh day of the long month, this very day, and pushed through the sacred fence a small branch of sakaki124 he had brought, whereas the Consort125 quickly replied with this poem that day:
No cedar marks this sacred fence,
So why have you mistakenly broken a branch of sakaki?
MONK:
Quite an elegant leaf of verse,
And the branch of sakaki you hold now,
Its color is unchanged from long ago!
LADY:
Color unchanged from long ago—a clever thought,
But only the sakaki remains unchanged
In the immutable shadowed
In act 1, Lady Rokujō’s ghost retells the story of the past to the traveling monk in front of the shrine gate. (From Meiji-Period Nō Illustrations by Tsukioka Kōgyo, in the Hōsei University Kōzan Bunko Collection)
MONK:
Path of this grove as fall comes to its close
LADY:
And the autumn leaves turn and scatter,
Turn and scatter;
MONK:
And the reeded plain too,
CHORUS:
(age-uta) Withers, Nonomiya grown wild with weeds,
Nonomiya has grown wild with weeds. (She moves in front of the torii, bends one knee, and lays down a leaf.)
Here, to these ruins
Where my heart is drawn in longing, (Stands.)
That seventh day of the long month
Has come round again.
Somehow so makeshift, (Looks at fence.)
This little brushwood fence,
This transient dwelling. (Looks through the torii.)
Now, too, in the faint light
Of the fire from the watchman’s hut (Sees the fire to the right.)
You can see the inmost glow
Of my heart’s longing revealed. (Moves to the shite spot.)
Ah, the lonely shrine, (She gazes forward.)
How lonely is this shrine! (Moves to center and sits.)
(kuri) Now, this Consort was the wife
Of the Kiritsubo emperor’s younger brother,
Known as the Former Crown Prince,
Who for a time prospered as a colorful, fragrant flower,
Their love never shallow; but
LADY (still sitting):
(sashi) “Those who meet must surely part,”126
As the old saying goes, and so
CHORUS:
Should I wonder now at this world of dreams?
No, I should have known; but
So soon, he left me behind.
LADY:
I could not weep forever, my tears like shimmering dew,
CHORUS:
Then Shining Genji,
Stealthily he forced his way
To see her, but
LADY (still sitting):
What became of his heart
CHORUS:
As the bond between us broke?
(kuse) But how moving, indeed,
Making his way o’er the moors
To distant Nonomiya
Because he could not disfavor her altogether.
The autumn flowers all faded,
The insects’ voices too have died away,
Even the sound of the wind blowing in the pines,
Along his lonely path, autumn sorrows know no end.
Thus he came to this place,
And how touching the
Inmost feelings of his heart
As he poured out his love in
Words like s
o many dewdrops.
LADY:
Then at the Katsura lustration127
CHORUS:
The sacred white strands
Afloat upon the waves, and
Myself, like floating grass, with
No one to rely upon, my heart
Drawn by the water’s current:128
Who will think to ask when I’ve gone to Ise
If Suzuka River’s waves129 wet my sleeves or not?130
Leaving these words,
Mother and child together,
Though it was unprecedented,131
Followed the road to the Take capital,132
Her heart heavy with regret. (Still sitting.)
(rongi) I see, just hearing your words,
You are no ordinary person,
With no ordinary air about you.
Please tell me your name.
LADY:
Even though I tell you my name,
How ashamed this worthless one,
But surely in time it will be known
To others outside this grove, and so
If you must know,
That name belongs to one who is no more.
Oh, mourn for me!
CHORUS:
“One who is no more,” I hear—how strange.
Well then, that one who passed so vainly from this world,
LADY:
Only her name so long remaining—
CHORUS:
The Consort
LADY (to Monk):
Is me!
CHORUS:
She says, the autumn wind at dusk, (Stands.)
And the evening moon’s pale light (Looks to the right.)
Winnowing through the grove, (Moves forward.)
In the darkness near the twin pillars (Gazes at the torii.)
Of the rough-hewn log torii standing, (Moves back slightly.)
She vanishes! Leaving no trace, (Lowers face and quietly exits.)
She vanishes!
Interlude
Villager passes by and, in response to the Monk’s request for information, relates the brief relationship between the Shining Genji and Lady Rokujō and the story of Genji’s visit to her at Nonomiya. When the Monk tells him about the mysterious lady he has just met, the Villager opines that she must be the ghost of Lady Rokujō, advises the Monk to pray for the repose of her spirit, and exits.
Act 2
MONK (still sitting):
(age-uta) My sleeve spread,
In the shadow of this grove these robes of moss,
In the shadow of this grove these robes of moss
Match the color of this grass mat,133
And, my thoughts reaching out through the night,
I mourn her memory,
I mourn her memory.
To issei music, the Consort enters as if riding in a carriage. She moves to the shite spot and faces the audience.
CONSORT:
(ge-no-ei) To Nonomiya turns the carriage decked with
All the flowers of fall, as I too return to long ago.
MONK (to Consort):
(kakeai) How strange! In the pale moonlight
The faint sound of a carriage approaching;
An unexpected sight I see: a wickerwork carriage
With its blind lowered. Now there can be no doubt;
Are you then the Consort?
And even so, what kind of carriage might this be?
CONSORT (to Monk):
“What kind of carriage?” you ask,
And so I recall the past—
The Kamo Festival and the carriage brawl.134
Not knowing whose carriage belonged to whom,
MONK:
All lined up in narrow rows;
CONSORT:
Among the onlookers’ carriages was that of
The highly favored Lady Aoi.135
MONK:
Saying “Make way for the lady’s carriage!”
They push people aside, raising a racket,
CONSORT:
But there is no place to put
Even my small carriage,
I answered, and so we held our ground, (Looks around to the right.)
MONK:
When front and back of my carriage
CONSORT:
They rushed, (Moves forward.)
CHORUS:
(uta) Seizing the wheel shafts and shoving (With sleeve upturned, mimes with fan.)
My carriage behind her attendants’ carriage, (Moves to the back as if pushed.)
So that I was powerless to see anything
But my own powerless position. (Suppresses tears.)
Alas, as I consider it, (Circles stage.)
In all things one can never escape
Retribution for the sins of former lives.
Still turning round and round
In this ox-drawn carriage of sorrow,
Returning again and again,
How long must this go on?136
Oh, dispel the darkness of my delusion! (Faces Monk, joining her palms in supplication.)
Dispel the darkness of my delusion!
CONSORT (faces audience):
(ei) I recall the past,
My flowered sleeves (Moves to the shite spot.)
CHORUS:
I toss to the moon,
And the past returns.
(Dance: jo-no-mai)
Consort performs a very tranquil jo-no-mai dance and continues to dance and mime as the text resumes.
CONSORT (in the shite spot, raises fan):
(waka) Might the moon above Nonomiya too
Remember the past?
CHORUS:
The lonely light of the moon
Shimmers in the dew beneath the trees,
Shimmers in the dew beneath the trees
CONSORT:
(nori-ji) Where once I too like the dew
Stayed so long ago, and, oh (Points forward, moves forward, and looks to left and right.)
CHORUS:
The look of that garden,
CONSORT:
Like no other,
CHORUS:
Seems so fleeting, (Nears the fence.)
CONSORT:
And so makeshift the brushwood fence
CHORUS:
From which he wipes the dewdrops, (Brushes away dew with fan.)
He and I, like this world of dreams, (Follows after Genji’s visage through the torii.)
Only aging remnants. (Points with fan and moves to corner, then looks down.)
Who is it I await?
As the pine cricket cries shrill,
And the wind blusters and blows (Fanning with both hands, moves forward.)
Through the night at Nonomiya, (Gazes through the torii.)
How I long for long ago! (Suppressing tears, moves back.)
(Dance: ha-no-mai)
Consort performs a brief ha-no-mai dance.
CHORUS:
(nori-ji) In and out of the torii gate (Points to the torii with fan.)
Graced by the divine wind of Ise (Moves forward.)
She goes, perhaps feeling rejected by the gods (Holds torii pillar with left hand.)
For treading the path of death and rebirth; (Puts right foot through torii.)
She mounts again her carriage, (Stamps foot.)
And will she leave the Burning Mansion’s gate?137 (Faces audience.)
The Burning Mansion’s gate?
Faces right center, turns out sleeve, then stamps.
[Translated by Jack Stoneman]
COMIC THEATER (KYŌGEN)
Of the traditional performance arts, gagaku from the ancient period, nō and kyōgen from the medieval period, and joruri (puppet theater) and kabuki from the Tokugawa period, kyōgen remains the easiest for modern audiences and nonspecialists to understand. The simple stage, the limited number of character actors, the straightforward acting, the humor, and a language close to modern Japanese make it an easily accessible performance art. Of all the traditional performat
ive arts, kyōgen, a Chinese compound meaning “crazy words,” is the only one devoted to comedy.
Both nō and kyōgen originated from the earlier dramatic forms known as sarugaku and dengaku, which included mime and improvisational comedy. Nō dropped the comic dimension and turned into a serious form incorporating song and dance. Kyōgen, by contrast, maintained its comic roots and emphasis on mime. Kyōgen as we now know it began in the Northern and Southern Courts period (1336–1392) and achieved maturity in the Muromachi period. About 80 percent of the more than one hundred kyōgen plays mentioned in the Tenshō kyōgen bon (1578), the only Muromachi text that describes kyōgen in detail, are close in content to those performed today.
In the Northern and Southern Courts period, the nobility and the large shrine-temple institutions, both of which relied on the private estate (shōen) system for their economic base, finally collapsed and were replaced by a new samurai class represented by the Ashikaga bakufu. In the process, a number of new cultural forms such as kyōgen emerged, not from aristocratic or court society in the capital, as most of the earlier cultural forms had, but from the villages and the life of urban commoners.
By Zeami’s (1363?–1443?) day, nō plays alternated with kyōgen on the same stage. Kyōgen actors performed the ai-kyōgen (supplementary dialogue or meta-commentary) in the nō, and Sanbasō (one of the three old men) in the Okina (Old Man) nō play was performed by a kyōgen actor. Kyōgen actors were attached to nō troupes and also formed professional houses or families. The Ōkura school arose in the late Muromachi period, and in the Tokugawa period, when no and kyōgen were officially patronized by the Tokugawa bakufu, two more schools, the Izumi and the Sagi, based on the iemoto (house) system, became prominent. In the Tokugawa period, kyōgen became a form of classical theater, with the plays written down and acted according to each school’s performance traditions. Ōkura Toraakira’s Ōkura Toraakirabon (1642) was the first collection of scripts. With the Meiji Restoration, the Sagi school disappeared, but the Ōkura and Izumi schools have continued to this day.
Traditional Japanese Literature Page 69