Traditional Japanese Literature

by Haruo Shirane

sashitaraba yoki

  a handle in the moon,

  uchiwa kana

  it makes a good fan!

  [Introductions and translations by H. Mack Horton]

  1. Zeami lists the play’s title in his treatise Five Sounds (Go-on), but without mentioning its author. Because Zeami refers in this treatise to the author whenever he mentions a play that is not his own, the extant version of Lady Aoi is most likely his revision.

  2. In The Tale of Genji, Suzaku is Genji’s elder brother.

  3. The six organs of perception are eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

  4. A reference to a famous parable in the Lotus Sutra: a fire once broke out in the home of a wealthy man. His children, absorbed in their play, did not understand the danger and would not listen when he warned them to get out of the house. He then told them that waiting for them outside the gate were a cart drawn by sheep, another drawn by deer, and a third drawn by oxen. Beguiled by this trick, the children rushed out of the burning house. This parable allegorizes Buddha’s various “expedient” doctrines for saving mankind.

  5. Genji’s affections had earlier shifted to Yūgao (Evening Faces), whom Rokujō’s wandering spirit had killed, before carrying out a similar attack on Aoi. Yūgao was staying in a shabby house, with yūgao flowers clinging to the eaves, in a squalid alley.

  6. Jijū Chūnagon, Shirakawadono shichihyakushu, no. 688: “I know not how to escape my lovelorn thoughts. It is like a broken-down cart, this sad heart of mine!”

  7. The six worlds (or realms)—those of heavenly creatures, human beings, fighting demons, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings—through which a soul, unless enlightened, must transmigrate eternally according to the merits or demerits of its deeds done in successive lives.

  8. Viviparous birth (for example, humans), oviparous birth (for example, birds), birth from moisture (for example, worms, mosquitoes), and apparitional birth—that is, sudden birth—by spontaneous generation, without any apparent cause. These are the ancient Indian classifications for all sentient beings.

  9. An allusion to a passage in the Vimalakirti Sutra (J. Yuima-kyō): “How should a bodhisattva regard sentient beings? Like … a cloud in the sky, like a bubble on the water …; like the [frail] core of a plantain tree …—thus does a bodhisattva regard sentient beings.”

  10. An echo from Bo Juyi’s line: “The glory of yesterday declines today.”

  11. Refers to the day of the incident involving Rokujō’s cart.

  12. Kii, Horikawa hyakushū, no. 767: “I must get up at dawn to see the morning glory in flower, whose beauty will be gone before the sun begins to shine.”

  13. Refers to a poem by Owari, Shinkokinshū, Love 5, no. 1401: “Remembering my harshness to others, I will not grieve my lot; this is a retribution that has come while I am still alive.”

  14. This refers to “beating the new wife,” a Muromachi-period custom in which, when a man remarried, his divorced wife or her relatives would vent their anger by forcing their way into her former husband’s home and beating his new wife.

  15. From a verse in the Dai-Shōgon-ron: “Man’s self is like dried-up wood, his anger a flaming fire; before the fire destroys another, it first consumes its own self.”

  16. The nine categories of consciousness in Buddhist psychology: the five sense perceptions (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), the conscious mind, the two different aspects of the subconscious mind, and the undefiled consciousness.

  17. The ten “vehicles” of spiritual disciplines that, according to Buddhist doctrine, carry one to nirvana.

  18. Yoga, a Sanskrit word meaning “union,” refers to perfect union of oneself with the Buddha, and thus with ultimate truth, attained by properly regulating one’s mind and body.

  19. The Three Mysteries are body, speech, and mind. To attain the state of yoga, one forms the mystic hand gestures known as mudras (yogas of the body), recites mantras (yogas of speech), and mentally visualizes the Buddha (the yoga of mind).

  20. The Nara-period originator of mountain asceticism (shugendō).

  21. Referring to a range of mountains called Ōmine, extending more than thirty miles in Yamato and Kii Provinces. It contains several high peaks above five thousand feet, and the head temple of mountain asceticism is located there. Those who have undergone mortification and asceticism in these mountains and have been initiated into the mysteries of the sect are regarded as master ascetics, and their prayers and invocations are said to possess superhuman powers. The holy man in the present play is such an accomplished master.

  22. Taizō-kai (Womb World, All-Embracing Realm) is a view of the sentient world, including all states of existence, from buddhas to devils, as embraced in the infinite love of the Great Sun Buddha (Mahavairocana), of whom all sentient beings are manifestations. The pictorial representation of this view is one of the most important mandala of Esoteric Buddhism. The other is the Kongō-kai (Diamond World), representing the powers and works of the Great Sun Buddha’s supreme wisdom, which is likened to a diamond, since it is immutable and can destroy the attachments of mortals.

  23. The Buddhist paradise is said to be adorned with seven jewels (treasures).

  24. Endurance of all insults and injuries from others. The Lotus Sutra says, “The garment of the Buddha is the spirit of meekness and forbearance.”

  25. Myōō (vidyaraja [wisdom kings]) are manifestations of the Great Sun Buddha. They assume features of terrible anger in order to quell the rebellious spirits of men and demons. The five mentioned here are especially venerated in Esoteric Buddhism. Gōzanze (Trailokya) Myōō sits in the east, has three faces and eight arms expressing great anger, and destroys the three vices of covetousness, anger, and folly. Gundari-yasha (Kundali-yaksa) Myōō sits in the south, has one face and eight arms, and destroys all angry spirits and devils. Daiitoku (Yamantaka) Myōō sits in the west; has six faces, six arms, and six feet; rides a great white ox; and carries various weapons in his hands to destroy all poisonous serpents and evil dragons. Kongō-yasha (Vajra-yaksa) Myōō sits in the north, enveloped in flames, has three faces and six arms, carries various weapons in his hands, and destroys all fierce yaksa (demons). Finally, the Great Holy One—that is, Fudō Myōō (Acalanatha, the Immovable One)—sits in the center, expressing great anger; he is in reality a form that Dainichi Nyorai (Mahavairocana Tathagata) takes in order to conquer all evil spirits. His right hand clasps a sword, which symbolizes the infinite wisdom of the Great Sun Buddha, and his left hand holds a lasso, which symbolizes the Buddha’s supreme compassion. He stands on a rock, amid flames.

  26. A romanized transcription of a dharani, a passage of Sanskrit that, in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist sutras, is left untranslated because it would lose the mystical power of its sounds. This dharani is a formula for subduing evil spirits and is used in exorcism by a devotee of Fudō Myōō. A very rough translation might read: “Homage to all indestructible ones. Wrathful destroyer of evil, may you crush the evil demons within our hearts!”

  27. The latter half of Fudō Myōō’s vow, which was often cited by mountain ascetics in their prayers.

  28. Buddhas are said to be born into the world periodically, but very infrequently, in order to benefit human beings by teaching them the path to enlightenment. Thus “the buddha that once was” refers to the buddha of the current period—that is, the historical buddha Shakyamuni, who, being dead, “has now passed on”—while “the buddha that shall be” refers to the coming Buddha Maitreya (J. Miroku), who, according to Shakyamuni Buddha’s prophecy, will not be born in the world for many aeons to come.

  29. Human birth is regarded as a very rare and precious opportunity to hear and practice Buddhism, attain enlightenment, and thus save oneself from the otherwise endless round of rebirth and suffering known as samsara. Thus the human body is the “seed” of enlightenment, to be nurtured, not squandered. The monks are saying that they have responded to this poignant realization by renouncing the world and taking monastic vows, as signal
ed by their clerical garb.

  30. The tsuki-zerifu (arrival speech) is taken from the version of Sotoha Komachi found in Yōkyokushū, SNKBZ 59:116–127.

  31. This is a partial paraphrase of a famous poem in the Kokinshū (no. 938), attributed to Ono no Komachi and, if its prose prelude is to be believed, written in response to the eminent early Heian poet Funya no Yasuhide (fl. ca. 860), who had playfully invited her to go away with him to the provinces. It reads: “Steeped in misery, a forlorn, floating plant, I would break off from my root; if there were but a coaxing current I believe I’d drift away.”

  32. The Toba Tomb of Love (Toba no Koi-zuka) memorializes Lady Kesa (J. Kesa Gozen), a twelfth-century Heian noblewoman who sacrificed her own life to save those of her mother and husband.

  33. The stupa on which Komachi is sitting would not be a full-size tower but, rather, a replica: either a small, sculpted wooden stupa or else a tall, slim wooden board meant to stand upright as a grave marker and typically carved into a stupa-like shape at the top. Either would typically have sacred Sanskrit characters carved or painted onto its surface. The stupa appears to have slid down into a leaning or fallen position.

  34. An allusion to a famous waka by Ono no Komachi, Kokinshū, no. 797: “What fades away, its color unseen, is the flower of the heart of those of this world.” Komachi’s “flower(s) of the heart” can mean “the heart of a person of refined aesthetic sensibilities,” “a fickle heart,” or the hidden blossom of an enlightened mind, all of which resonate here. “Flower,” as suggested in the following line, can also denote the offering flowers presented to the Buddha at altars and thus prefigures the final image of “offering up a flower to the Buddha.”

  35. According to Esoteric Shingon, the enlightened bodhisattva Vajrasattva (J. Kongōsatta) compiled the teachings of Mahavairocana (J. Dainichi), the cosmic buddha who vowed to save all sentient beings from samsaric suffering. Vajrasattva then temporarily hid Mahavairocana’s teachings for safekeeping in an iron stupa in southern India. The stupa is thus regarded as a samaya-gyō (unification body), a concrete manifestation of Mahavairocana’s compassionate vow.

  36. Each tier of a five-tier stupa represents one of the “five great elements”—earth, water, fire, wind, and space—that, in Buddhist cosmology, constitute the material world, including the human body.

  37. “Mind” (J. kokoro) here can also mean “meaning” or “content.” “Merit” refers to actions, both physical and mental, that are conducive to the attainment of enlightenment. Venerating a representation of the Buddha or an enlightened human being is considered meritorious, and disrespecting such representations or persons is unmeritorious.

  38. The three lower realms are the hungry-ghost realm, the animal realm, and the hell realm, in which sentient beings’ suffering is most intense.

  39. “Arousing the essence of enlightened mind for a single instant is superior [in merit] to erecting a hundred thousand stupas” (cited in the Manbō jinshin saichō busshin hōyō [Essentials of Buddha-Mind of Myriad Phenomena, Profound and Exalted]).

  40. That is, renounced the world and became a nun.

  41. In gyakuen (backward karmic connection), perverse actions such as rejecting the Buddhist teachings and reviling Buddhist teachers become the occasion for glimpsing the enlightened mind, coming to understand and practice the Buddhist teachings, and (eventually) attaining enlightenment.

  42. Daiba (Skt. Devadatta), a cousin and disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha, attempted to assassinate the Buddha and was reborn in hell as a result. Nevertheless, in the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha prophesies even Devadatta’s eventual attainment of buddhahood and describes how in lives past Devadatta helped Shakyamuni Buddha’s spiritual development toward buddhahood. Thus it is possible to view Devadatta as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Kannon (Skt. Avalokiteshvara), the embodiment of compassion.

  43. Handoku (Shurihandoku; Skt. Cudapanthaka) was the Buddha’s most dim-witted disciple, who was nevertheless able to attain enlightenment by following the Buddha’s instructions. Monju (Monjushiri; Skt. Manjushri) is a bodhisattva regarded as the embodiment of transcendent knowing.

  44. Enlightenment (J. bodai; Skt. bodhi) in Mahayana Buddhism refers to a supremely lucid and naturally compassionate state of mind eternally free of the suffering of “the passions” (desire, aggression, ignorance, and so on). From a relative viewpoint, the emotional “defilements” of the passions may appear to obstruct enlightenment, but the more sophisticated perspective of absolute truth reveals that actually they are, in essence, expressions of enlightened mind itself, as Chinese Zen master Huineng (J. Enō, 638–713) proclaims in fascicle 26 of the Rokuso hōbōdan-gyō (Luyi-zu-da-shi fa bao tan jing [The Dharma-Treasure Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, ca. 820]): “If you practice [transcendent knowing] for a single instant, your dharma-body will be the same as [that of] the Buddha. Good friends, the very passions are themselves bodhi.”

  45. The foregoing discussion of the nature of bodhi reenacts an episode found in both the Keitoku dentōroku (Jingde chuan deng lu [The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, 1004]) and the Dharma-Treasure Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. A monk at the Zen temple where Huineng lived, who was thought to be the most advanced of the Fifth Patriarch’s disciples, wrote the poem: “The body is the bodhi tree; the mind like a clear mirror-on-a-stand. Time and time again, diligently wipe it; do not let there be upon it any dust.” In response, Huineng, a lowly disciple who was young and illiterate, dictated the following poem: “Bodhi, at its root, is not a tree; nor yet is mind a mirror-on-a-stand. Since from the start no single thing exists, from what surface could one wipe off any dust?” This led to the Fifth Patriarch’s selecting Huineng as his dharma heir.

  46. “This” refers to the stupa.

  47. “Supreme Bliss” (J. Gokuraku), also known as the Western Pure Land, is the buddha-field of the Amida Buddha. The waka turns on a pun involving soto wa (outside) and sotowa (sotoba [stupa]).

  48. The preceding exchange between Komachi and the chorus appears only in the texts of the so-called Shimo-gakari schools (Konparu, Kongō, and Kita schools) of nō.

  49. Komachi’s age is given as one hundred. However, this passage makes a pun on the fact that if the character momo (one hundred) were “one short”—that is, lacking its top brushstroke, which resembles the one-stroke character hito (one)—it would then not only be one short of a hundred but also now form the character shiro (white [hair]). This conceit underscores the retribution in which Komachi suffered through one year of increasingly onerous life for each of the ninety-nine nights to which she once subjected her suitor Fukakusa no Shōshō.

  50. Kuwai roots, an edible rootstalk grown in rice paddies, were regarded as coarse fare, the kind of food an indigent might eat.

  51. A carriage-shaft bench was a stool used for getting into and out of an ox-drawn carriage and also a stand on which to rest the shafts of the carriage. According to the tale on which this play is based, a man (Shōshō) is smitten by the charms of a woman (Komachi), but she rebuffs him, declaring that only after he has come and slept on her shaft bench for a hundred consecutive nights will she agree to see him. The man keeps a tally of the nights, each dawn recording his visit by leaving a new mark on the shaft bench.

  52. Barrier guards (sekimori) were soldiers placed at strategic checkpoints along major thoroughfares to stop and inspect travelers.

  53. The image of hitching up his clean white trousers (hakama) to keep them free of mud is of a young, elegant, manly figure.

  54. The Shōshō throws his sleeve (which is extremely long and broad) over his head in order to hide his face. He folds his tall court hat over to one side to indicate the informal, private nature of his excursion.

  55. The image of piling up sand, grain by grain, is one of untiringly and sincerely continuing to practice meritorious actions.

  56. In Conversations on Sarugaku (Sarugakudangi), the play is referred to as Zeami’s own. However, i
n one of Zeami’s treatises, Books on Playwriting (Sakunō-sho), he explains that the rongi section of the play was borrowed from an older version of Tōei. Nonetheless, the sashi-sageuta-ageuta sequence is thought to derive from an independent song composed by his father Kan’ami: in The Five Sounds (Go-on), Zeami cites a phrase from this sequence as an example of his father’s compositions.

  57. Ama, translated here as “fisherperson,” includes, besides saltmakers, divers who gather seaweed and shellfish.

  58. This was the way the play was appreciated by Zeami’s son-in-law Zenchiku (1405?–1470?) and Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481), a monk famous for his poems written in Chinese.

  59. Nakamura Itaru, “Matsukaze no henbō: Muromachi makki shodenpon wo chūshin ni,” Kokubungaku: Gengo to bungei, no. 78 (1974).

  60. Yamanaka Reiko, “Nyotainō ni okeru ‘Zeami-fū’ no kakuritsu: Matsukaze no hatashita yakuwari,” Nō: Kenkyū to hyōron, no. 14 (1986).

  61. The opening shidai, nanori, and tsukizerifu are from a manuscript in the hand of Konparu Zenpō (1454–1532). The mondō that follows is the Ai shimai tsuke version published by Itō Masayoshi (Yōkyokushū 3, SNKS, 239–240). The rest of the play is based on NKBT.

  62. Saigoku, a vague term for the region west of Kyoto and along the Inland Sea.

  63. Saltmakers cut seaweed offshore or raked it up from the beach and then repeatedly poured brine over it. Next, they burned this salt-saturated seaweed, mixed the ashes with water, let the ashes settle, and skimmed off the salt solution. Only then did they boil down this elaborately prepared brine.

  64. If the monk were a relative of the two sisters, he would have a natural duty to comfort their spirits. Since he is not, he could choose to pass on without doing so.

  65. The pine that stands “in sign” of the sisters’ memory “leaves a green autumn” because it alone remains green amid the red autumn foliage.

  66. Shin-no-issei music, which is normally reserved for the entrance of the shite in a god play and which probably dates from about 1700, underscores the exceptional beauty and purity of the two sisters, who are dressed mainly in white.