The Noh Plays of Japan Read online

  KOMACHI

  Buddha's worshipful body, you say? But I could see no writing on it, nor any figure carved. I thought it was only a tree-stump.

  PRIEST

  Even the little black tree on the hillside

  When it has put its blossoms on

  Cannot be hid;

  And think you that this tree

  Cut fivefold in the fashion of Buddha's holy form

  Shall not make manifest its power?

  KOMACHI

  I too am a poor withered bough.

  But there are flowers at my heart,†

  Good enough, maybe, for an offering.

  But why is this called Buddha's body?

  PRIEST

  Hear then! This Stūpa is the Body of the Diamond Lord.* It is the symbol of his incarnation.

  KOMACHI

  And in what elements did he choose to manifest his body?

  PRIEST

  Earth, water, wind, fire, and space.

  KOMACHI

  Of these five man also is compounded. Where then is the difference?

  PRIEST

  The forms are the same, but not the virtue.

  KOMACHI

  And what is the virtue of the Stūpa?

  PRIEST

  "He that has looked once upon the Stūpa, shall escape forever from the Three Paths of Evil."†

  KOMACHI

  "One thought can sow salvation in the heart."‡ Is that of less price?

  SECOND PRIEST

  If your heart has seen salvation, how comes it that you linger in the World?

  KOMACHI

  It is my body that lingers, for my heart left it long ago.

  PRIEST

  You have no heart at all, or you would have known the Body of Buddha.

  KOMACHI

  It was because I knew it that I came to see it!

  SECOND PRIEST

  And knowing what you know, you sprawled upon it without a word of prayer?

  KOMACHI

  It was on the ground already. What harm could it get by my resting on it?

  PRIEST

  It was an act of discord.*

  KOMACHI

  Sometimes from discord salvation springs.

  SECOND PRIEST

  From the malice of Daiba...†

  KOMACHI

  As from the mercy of Kwannon.‡

  PRIEST

  From the folly of Handoku...§

  KOMACHI

  As from the wisdom of Monju.++

  SECOND PRIEST

  That which is called Evil

  KOMACHI

  Is Good.

  PRIEST

  That which is called Illusion

  KOMACHI

  Is Salvation.*

  SECOND PRIEST

  For Salvation

  KOMACHI

  Cannot be planted like a tree.

  PRIEST

  And the Heart's Mirror

  KOMACHI

  Hangs in the void.

  CHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI,)

  "Nothing is real. Between Buddha and Man

  Is no distinction, but a seeming of difference planned

  For the welfare of the humble, the ill-instructed,

  Whom he has vowed to save.

  Sin itself may be the ladder of salvation."

  So she spoke, eagerly; and the priests,

  "A saint, a saint is this decrepit, outcast soul."

  And bending their heads to the ground,

  Three times did homage before her.

  KOMACHI

  I now emboldened

  Recite a riddle, a jesting song.

  "Were I in Heaven

  The Stūpa were an ill seat;

  But here, in the world without,

  What harm is done?"*

  CHORUS

  The priests would have rebuked her;

  But they have found their match.

  PRIEST

  Who are you? Pray tell us the name you had, and we will pray for you when you are dead.

  KOMACHI

  Shame covers me when I speak my name; but if you will pray for me, I will try to tell you. This is my name; write it down in your prayer-list: I am the ruins of Komachi, daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, Governor of the land of Dewa.

  PRIESTS

  Oh piteous, piteous! Is this

  Komachi that once

  Was a bright flower,

  Komachi the beautiful, whose dark brows

  Linked like young moons;

  Her face white-farded ever;

  Whose many, many damask robes

  Filled cedar-scented halls?

  KOMACHI

  I made verses in our speech

  And in the speech of the foreign Court.

  CHORUS

  The cup she held at the feast

  Like gentle moonlight dropped its glint on her sleeve.

  Oh how fell she from splendour,

  How came the white of winter

  To crown her head?

  Where are gone the lovely locks, double-twined, The coils of jet?

  Lank wisps, scant curls wither now On wilted flesh;

  And twin-arches, moth-brows tinge no more

  With the hue of far hills. "Oh cover, cover

  From the creeping light of dawn

  Silted seaweed locks that of a hundred years

  Lack now but one.

  Oh hide me from my shame."

  (KOMACHI hides her face.)

  CHORUS (speaking for the PRIEST)

  What is it you carry in the wallet string at your neck?

  KOMACHI

  Death may come today—or hunger tomorrow. A few beans and a cake of millet: That is what I carry in my bag.

  CHORUS

  And in the wallet on your back?

  KOMACHI

  A garment stained with dust and sweat.

  CHORUS

  And in the basket on your arm?

  KOMACHI

  Sagittaries white and black.

  CHORUS

  Tattered cloak,*

  KOMACHI

  Broken hat...

  CHORUS

  She cannot hide her face from our eyes; And how her limbs

  KOMACHI

  From rain and dew, hoar-frost and snow?

  CHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI while she mimes the actions they describe)

  Not rags enough to wipe the tears from my eyes!

  Now, wandering along the roads

  I beg an alms of those that pass.

  And when they will not give,

  An evil rage, a very madness possesses me.

  My voice changes. Oh terrible!

  KOMACHI (thrusting her hat under the PRIESTS' noses and shrieking at them menacingly)

  Grr! You priests, give me something: give me something...Ah!

  PRIEST

  What do you want?

  KOMACHI

  Let me go to Komachi.†

  PRIEST

  But you told us you were Komachi. What folly is this you are talking?

  KOMACHI

  No, no...Komachi was very beautiful.

  Many letters came to her, many messages—

  Thick as raindrops out of a black summer sky.

  But she sent no answer, not even an empty word.

  And now in punishment she has grown old:

  She has lived a hundred years—

  I love her, oh I love her!

  PRIEST

  You love Komachi? Say then, whose spirit has possessed you?

  KOMACHI

  There were many who set their hearts on her,

  But among them all

  It was Shōshō who loved her best,

  Shii no Shōshō of the Deep Grass.*

  CHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI, i. e. for the spirit of Shōshō)

  The wheel goes back; I live again through the cycle of my woes.

  Again I travel to the shaft-bench.

  The sun...what hour does he show?

  Dusk...Alone in the moonlight

&
nbsp; I must go my way.

  Though the watchmen of the barriers

  Stand across my path,

  They shall not stop me!

  (Attendants robe KOMACHI in the Court hat and traveling-cloak of Shōshō.)

  Look, I go!

  KOMACHI

  Lifting the white skirts of my trailing dress,

  CHORUS (speaking for KOMACHI, while she, dressed as her lover Shōshō, mimes the night-journey)

  Pulling down over my ears the tall, nodding hat,

  Tying over my head the long sleeves of my hunting cloak,

  Hidden from the eyes of men,

  In moonlight, in darkness,

  On rainy nights I traveled; on windy nights,

  Under a shower of leaves; when the snow was deep,

  KOMACHI

  And when water dripped at the roof-eaves—tok, tok...

  CHORUS

  Swiftly, swiftly coming and going, coming and going...

  One night, two nights, three nights,

  Ten nights (and this was harvest night)...

  I never saw her, yet I traveled;

  Faithful as the cock who marks each day the dawn,

  I carved my marks on the bench.

  I was to come a hundred times;

  There lacked but one...

  KOMACHI (feeling the death-agony of Shōshō)

  My eyes dazzle. Oh the pain, the pain!

  CHORUS

  Oh the pain! and desperate,

  Before the last night had come,

  He died—Shii no Shosho the Captain.

  (Speaking for KOMACHI, who is now no longer possessed by Shōshō's spirit.)

  Was it his spirit that possessed me,

  Was it his anger that broke my wits?

  If this be so, let me pray for the life hereafter,

  Where alone is comfort;

  Piling high the sands*

  Till I be burnished as gold.†

  See, I offer my flower† to Buddha,

  I hold it in both hands.

  Oh may He lead me into the Path of Truth,

  Into the Path of Truth.

  Footnotes

  * The Tairas.

  † The Minamotos, who came into power at the end of the twelfth century.

  ‡ The journey to look for her father.

  § Tōtōmi is written with characters meaning “distant estuary.” The whole passage is full of double-meanings which cannot be rendered.

  * The Capital.

  * Quotation from the Parable Chapter of the Hokkekyo.

  * A Chinese Pegasus. The proverb says, "Even Kirin, when he was old, was outstripped by hacks." Seami quotes this proverb, Works, p. 9.

  * "Le vieux guerrier avengle, assis devant sa cabane d'exilé, mime son dernier combat de gestes incertains et tremblants" (Péri).

  † Yoshitsune.

  * Po Chū-i’s Works, iii. 13.

  † Alluding partly to the fact that he is snow-covered, partly to his grey hairs.

  ‡ Kefu, "today."

  * Buddhist ordinances, such as hospitality to priests.

  * Food of the poorest peasants.

  * After Shakyamuni left the palace, he served the Rishi of the mountains.

  * Using words from a poem by Michizane (845-903 A.D.).

  † For Japanese football, see p. 231. A different interpretation has lately been suggested by Mr. Suzuki.

  * I.e. Tokiyori.

  * Hōjō no Tokiyori ruled at Kamakura from 1246 till 1256. He then became a priest and traveled through the country incognito in order to acquaint himself with the needs of his subjects.

  * Sanskrit; Jap. sotoba.

  † See p. xxxi.

  ‡ Now generally called Kayoi Komachi.

  * The Koyasan is not so remote as most mountain temples.

  * See p. 85.

  * Seami, writing c. 1430, says: “Komachi was once a long play. After the words ‘Who are those,’ etc., there used to be a long lyric passage” (Works, p. 240).

  † “Heart flowers,” kokoro no hana, is a synonym for “poetry.”

  * Vajrasattva, himself an emanation of Vairochana, the principal Buddha of the Shingon Sect. 1 From the Nirvana Sūtra.

  † From the Nirvāna Sūtra.

  ‡ From the Avatamsaka Sūtra.

  * Lit. "discordant karma."

  † A wicked disciple who in the end attained to Illumination. Also called Datta; cp.Kumasaka, p. 31.

  ‡ The Goddess of Mercy.

  § A disciple so witless that he could not recite a single verse of Scripture.

  * God of Wisdom.

  * From the Nirvana Sūtra.

  * The riddle depends on a pun between sotoba and soto wa, "without" "outside."

  * The words which follow suggest the plight of her lover Shōshō when he traveled to her house “a hundred nights all but one,” to cut his notch on the bench.

  † The spirit of her lover Shōshō has now entirely possessed her: this "possession-scene" lasts very much longer on the stage than the brief words would suggest.

  * Fukagusa the name of his native place, means "deep grass."

  * See Hokkekyō, II. 18.

  * The color of the saints in heaven.

  † Her "heart-flower," i.e. poetic talent.

  NOTE ON UKAI

  SEAMI tells us (Works,p. 228) that this play was written by Enami no Sayemon. "But as I removed bad passages and added good ones, I consider the play to be really my work" (p. 230).

  On p. 227 he points out that the same play on words occurs in Ukaithree times, and suggests how one passage might be amended. The text of the play which we possess today still contains the passages which Seami ridiculed, so that it must be Enami no Sayemon's version which has survived, while Seami's amended text is lost.

  It is well known that Buddhism forbids the taking of life, especially by cruel means or for sport. The cormorant-fisher's trade had long been considered particularly wicked, as is shown by an early folksong:*

  "Woe to the cormorant-fisher

  Who binds the heads of his cormorants

  And slays the tortoise whose span is ten thousand eons!

  In this life he may do well enough,

  But what will become of him at his next birth?"

  This song, which is at least as old as the twelfth century, and may be much earlier, seems to be the seed from which the Noh play Ukai grew.

  UKAI

  (THE CORMORANT-FISHER)

  By Enami No Sayemon (c. 1400).

  PERSONS

  PRIEST

  FISHER

  SECOND PRIEST CHORUS

  YAMA, KING OF HELL

  PRIEST

  I am a priest from Kiyosumi in Awa. I have never yet seen the country of Kai, so now I am minded to go there on pilgrimage.

  (Describing the journey.)

  On the foam of white waves

  From Kiyosumi in the land of Awa riding

  To Mutsura I come; to the Hill of Kamakura,

  Lamentably tattered, yet because the World

  Is mine no longer, unashamed on borrowed bed,

  Mattress of straw, to lie till the bell swings

  Above my pillow. Away, away! For dawn

  Is on the hemp-fields of Tsuru. Now the noonday sun

  Hangs high above us as we cross the hills.

  Now to the village of Isawa we come.

  Let us lie down and rest awhile in the shelter of this shrine.

  (The FISHER comes along the hashigakari towards the stage carrying a lighted torch.)

  FISHER

  When the fisher's torch is quenched

  What lamp shall guide him on the dark road that lies before?

  Truly, if the World had tasked me hardly

  I might be minded to leave it, but this bird-fishing,

  Cruel though it be in the wanton taking of life away,

  Is a pleasant trade to ply

  Afloat on summer streams.

  I have heard it told that Yūshi and Hakuyō vowed their love-vows b
y the moon, and were changed to wedded stars of heaven. And even today the high ones of the earth are grieved by moonless nights. Only I grow weary of her shining and welcome nights of darkness. But when the torches on the boats burn low,

  Then, in the dreadful darkness comes repentance

  Of the crime that is my trade,

  My sinful sustenance; and life thus lived

  Is loathsome then.

  Yet I would live, and soon

  Bent on my oar I push between the waves

  To ply my hateful trade.

  I will go up to the chapel as I am wont to do, and give my cormorants rest (Seeing the PRIESTS.) What, have travelers entered here?

  PRIEST

  We are pilgrim-priests. We asked for lodging in the village. But they told us that it was not lawful for them to receive us, so we lay down in the shelter of this shrine.