Japanese Ghosts Week 5b Outline:

I. Review: Rokujô in Tale of Genji

A. Rokujô as male ideal's antithesis

1. Her negative qualities:

2. How she fares in the novel:

3. What she represents (negative and positive):

4. Psychological complexity:

a. Herself

b. Genji

c.Her victims

II. Shamanic elements in Aoi no Ue [images; see also Slide Show]

A. Basic Plot: Rokujô, Aoi no Ue, shamaness (Teruhi); famous mountain priest (Yokawa no Kohijiri)

B. Structure of the play

1. "Present time" (genzai) Noh -- events happen in real time.

2. Fourth category play (but could be fifth category "Demon" play): overt shamanic exorcism

p. 99-100 "Following the steps of En no Gyôja, he scaled the peak symbolic of the sacred spheres of Taizô [Womb Realm] and Kongô [Diamond Realm], brushing away the dew sparkling as Seven Jewels, a robe of meek endurance to shield him from defilements, and fingering his red-wood beads, sarari, sarari, so he chants a prayer."
 

C. Plot elements

1. Why does Rokujo appear?

D. Use of Mantras

a. Namaku, Samanda, Basarada

b. The vow of Fudô Myôô: "He who heeds my sermon attains perfect wisdom, he who knows my mind attains the Buddha form."

E. Is the ritual successful? (image)
 

F. Visual elements

1. costuming

2. demon stick

A. Think about why there are differences using Critical Analysis questions:

1. author/patron:

 Tale of Genji:

Aoi no Ue:

2. audience:

Tale of Genji:

Aoi no Ue:


3. goal:

Tale of Genji:

Aoi no Ue:


B. List of Differences in the Noh play

1. What is the central conflict?

ToG:

AnU:

a. ambivalence

b. Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra

1) three carts represent the three possible vehicles of Buddhist enlightenment; the large cart drawn by the ox represents the “Great Vehicle” of Mahayana Buddhism

2) images in the play: carts/carriages/vehicles, wheels of karmic retribution

“Riding the Three Vehicles of the Law
Others may escape the Burning House.
Mine is but a cart
In ruins like Yugao's house;
I know not how to flee my passion.
Like an ox-drawn cart, this weary world
Rolls endlessly on the wheels of retribution.
Like wheels of a cart forever turning
Are birth and death in all living things;
Six Worlds and Four Births
You must journey;
Strive as you will, there is no escape.” (p. 93)


Why the difference?


2. Does Rokujô kill Aoi no Ue?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

3. Is Rokujô alive or dead?

ToG:

AnU:

pg. 95: I am the ghost of Princess Rokujô. In those olden day when I walked the world, on spring mornings I was invited to the flower feasts of the Palace, and on autumn nights I viewed the moon in the royal garden….Fallen in life, I am today no more than a morning-glory that withers with the rising of the sun.”

p. 97: “Even were I living, our love is already an old tale, never to be revived even in a dream.”

Summary: Why the difference?

4. Is Rokujô conscious of what she is doing?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

5. Who does Rokujô appear to? Does Genji appear?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

6. Does Rokujô get enlightenment?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

7. Summary

1. Changes in Buddhism: Universal Salvation
2. Feminist understanding of issues

A. Differences from Tale of Genji and Aoi no Ue

1. Structure of the play: Dream Vision Noh


a. Ghost appears as local villager
b. Interacts with priest, priest becomes suspicious and asks more questions, identifies self as ghost
c. Second half of play returns in true form (perhaps in a dream vision) and reenacts story through song and dance


2. Disguised or implicit shamanic ritual

3. Other elements of Shamanism

a. Sakaki (evergreen) branch
p. 210: "Only the sakaki is unchanged, for autumn darkens over woodland paths and alas the golden leaves have fallen."

b. Attachment to place
p. 208: "Secretly each year on this day, I again seek out the long-lost past at the Wildwood shrine."

c. Embarrassment/shame
p. 211: " I have no wish to vex you with my name, unworthy as I am. I am ashamed."


4. Why does Rokujô come back? What are the two conflicts here?

a.  Desire/anger

1) ambivalence

2) cf. emotions to Aoi no ue

a) carriage imagery

p. 213: "Still bitter at heart, I ride my carriage round and round. How long must I go on?"

3) Is she conscious?

p. 209: "But why do I so long for those old days in the confusion of my mind? That world is lost. It does not greet me here, and I am bitter at this journeying."

p. 213:  "Help me dispel, I pray, my wrongful clinging!"

4) repetition compulsion

b. Shinto/Buddhism

p. 208 Priest: "The sacred fence of Ise does not part the Gods from the Buddhas, and the way runs straight for the teaching of the holy Law."

p. 212: Chorus: "Aloft, among the trees, an evening moon sheds its pallid light on two rough pillars: the torii she approaches now, and melts away into the torii, yes, she is gone."

B. How does Rokujô get released from her passionate attachments?

1. Carriage imagery

a. Kamo festival carriage:

(p. 212) "At the Wildwood Shrine a carriage decked with all the flowers of fall brings me round again to times gone by."

(p. 213) "Still bitter at heart, I ride my carriage round and round. How long must I go on?"

b. Mahayana Vehicle:

(p. 214) "As in and out the torii she goes, one fears those Gods may righteously reject her travels on the road of birth and death. Now she steps into her carriage. May she at long last find her way forever out the Burning Mansion's gate."

C. Why is Rokujô treated so sympathetically? Why do we get to hear her side of the story?