II. Sugawara no Michizane Revisited: Raiden (The God of Thunder and Lightening)

A. Three texts:

1. Kitano Tenjin Engi (The Origins of the Kitano Deity) scroll (late 13th c.)

2. Retelling of KTE in Taiheiki (Record of the Great Pacification) (about 1372)

3. Noh play Raiden based on Taiheiki (late 14th-early 15th c.)

B. Kitano Tenjin Engi (image 1, image 2)

  1. Authorship/patronage of Kitano Tenjin Engi

a. Kitano Shrine, Enrakuji Temple (headquarters of Tendai Buddhism on Mt. Hiei in Kyoto)

b. connection between Kitano Shrine and Enrakuji?

2. Goal

a. What is an engi? Why were they written?

b. What appears to be the goal of this engi?

3. Note: treating Kitano Tenjin Engi and version in Taiheiki as the same

C. Noh play Raiden

1. Structure

2. Period (late 13-early 14th c.)

3. Authorship/Patronage

a. Kitano Shrine, Enrakuji Temple


4. Goal

III. Comparison of Kitano Tenjin Engi/Taiheiki and Noh play with 10th c. history and oracles

A. Not long after his death in 903, Michizane appears to Hosshô-bô (13th head abbot of Enrakuji temple) and advises him of his plan to attack the palace.

1. tries to get Hosshô-bô to promise not to go if called upon by the Emperor

B. Michizane attacks the palace as the God of Thunder and Lightening (Raiden)

1. Tokihira's remonstration and Michizane's response

2. Differences from historical account?

a.

b.

C. Emperor calls three times for Hosshô-bô to come exorcise Michizane from the palace and Hosshô-bô responds to his call.

1. Uses 1000-armed Kannon mantra from the Lotus Sutra to chase Michizane from room to room until he gives up in exhaustion

[Images]

2. Emperor gives proclamation that elevates and deifies Michizane

3. Differences from historical account?

a.

b.

D. What is the conflict in the Noh play?

1. What is the usual conflict in a Noh play?

2. What does Michizane do in first half?

3. What is the conflict here?

a. "Until yesterday the Minister Sugawara has been a subject blessed by imperial favor, but now his internal grace of Buddha and his external sense of loyalty are not well balanced." (443)

4. How is Michizane pacified?

D. How do the Noh and Kitano Tenjin Engi/Taiheiki differ from 10th c. versions?

 
1. Historical differences (mentioned above)

2. What is the conflict in the 10th c. oracles? What is the conflict for Michizane now?

3. How is Emperor Daigo dealt with differently?

4. How is Tokihira treated differently?

5. Is Hosshô-bô mentioned in 10th c. accounts?

4. How might patronage issues have caused changes?

a. Hosshô-bô

b. Emperor/Fujiwara shift 

III. Two views of Hell (review)

A. Hell Screens (literal place)

1. stereotyped/nonpersonal

 

B. Noh plays (non-literal/attenuated)

1. personalized

2. psychological state

3. allegory

 

C. Examples of Hell in Noh

1. Kinuta (The Fulling Block): a woman pounds a fulling block to express her anger at her absent husband; is tortured by it in Hell

"Tears shed by me in wrong attachment
Fall upon the block and lo!
They leap up in little flames;
My smouldering passion turns to smoke
and chokes my throat.
I would cry, but I can find no voice."

2.Akogi: a fisherman whose sin of taking life is compounded by having poached on sacred Shinto fishing grounds. The fish, net, and water become instruments of his suffering.

3. Kiyotsune: a Heike warrior relives his last battle over and over again in the Realm of Mayhem (Shura or Ashura):

"Where'er I turn in the Ashura world
The trees are foes, arrows the falling rain,
Sharp swords strew the ground,
The hills are iron castles,
The clouds are battle-penants,
Enemies thrust with their proud blades,
Hate flashing in their eyes."

A. Review of analysis behind warrior plays

1. Author
2. Patronage
3. Audience
4. Goal

a. Aesthetics
b. Didacticism

1) origins of warrior ghosts (ashura)
2) conflict trying to resolve

A. Group of stories from the battles of Yashima and Dan-no-ura from Tale of the Heike

1. Usual main character in warrior noh is Heike warrior (losing side)

2. Here Minamoto no Yoshitsune (hero of the winning side) as main character

B. Plot of Noh

1. Structure of the play: Dream Vision Noh (concealed shamanic pacification)

a. disguised as local person (old fisherman), but has too intimate a knowledge of the past

b. finally identifies true self, through a pun on his name:  field marshal Yoshitsune


the spring night
tide will soon ebb low, near dawn:
then comes the hour of the Ashuras.
Then I shall tell my name.
But whether I do so or not,
in this sad life's field marshal your dream:
wake not nor let it fade,
wake not nor let your dream fade!


c. returns in second half in his true form to reneact a famous battle

d. vanishes like a dream

C. View of hell (Realm of Ashura/Mayhem)

Who today is my Ashura foe?
...On the mind's eye bursts Dan-no-Ura
that mighty sea fight whence I now come
back to this world, back to birth and death.
The sea and mountains quake.
From the ships, war howls;
ashore, shields like waves;
glinting, moonstruck,
the fire of swords;
salt-side mirrored,
helmet stars.
Water and sky,
sky running on in cloud billows,
thundering crash, counterclash,
the fleet's struggle, sally, retreat
lift and plunge, rage on
until the spring night waves yield dawn.
Foemen the eye saw were flocking gulls,
war howls the ear heard,
wind down the shore through the tall pines rushing
wind down the shore through the tall pines raging;
a morning gale, no more. (JND pp. 342-43)