Premodern Japanese Ghosts Week 6a Outline: Intro to Kyogen
I. Intro to Late Muromachi and Edo, historical period behind Kyogen
A. Civil war (1468-1603)
B. Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1868)1. sengoku jidai: (The Warring States Period)
2. gekokujô: the low overthrows the high
a. Zeami as an example of social mobility
2. Influence on Kyogen:
"Kyogen, written by and for people who had gone from a lower position in society to a higher one, celebrated the wit and cunning with which they had made such an advance." (William LaFleur, The Karma of Words, p. 142)1. Rigid hierarchies, Neo-Confucian values
a. Samurai
b. Peasants
c. Artisans
d. Merchants
2. Influence on Noh and Kyogen
a. Noh as ritual theater
b. Kyogen as comic counterpart to Noh
"This is Kyogen" video
A. Who wears masks? Who doesn't?
1.
2.
III. Carolyn Haynes: two forms of parody in Kyogen
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A. Taking an accepted concept and pushing it to extremes (PARADIGMATIC)
1. Style appears to be serious like Noh, but content is silly or risqué.
B. Reversing usual expectations (SYNTAGMATIC)
1. gekokujô: the low overthrows the high
a. masters/servants, husbands/wives, deities/human beings
C. Other elements of humor
2. Language
a. onomatopoeia (creaking sound: gara-gara-gara; sawing: zoka-zoka-zoka; pouring sake into a cup: dobu-dobu-dobu
b. puns
c. literary allusions and catalogues
IV. Views of Hell in Kyôgen
A. Review of Hell Scrolls (12-13th c.)
1.
B. Review of Hell in Noh plays (14-17th c.)
1.
C. Hell in Kyogen: both kinds of hell but funny
1. King Emma (Enma, Yama) plays (reversal of expectations--syntagmatic)
a. What would you expect King Emma to be like from the Hell Scrolls and stories?
b. What is he like in Kyôgen plays?
c. What is the view of the Rokudô/Hell in these plays?
1) e.g. Asaina
(AKA Asahina)
Performance by Izumi family troupe (Izumi Junko playing King Emma)
Nomura Mansai performing as Asahina
Image of Shigeyama troupe performing Asahina
click here for Asahina meets Jizo and Emma
2) e.g. Bird Catcher in Hell (Esashi Jô)
The bird catcher, Kiyoyori, dies and meets King Enma (Yama) at the Crossroads of the Six Paths. He demonstrates how he catches and roasts birds for King Enma and his demons, and the birds are so delicious Enma lets him go back to the world of the living for 3 more years.
2. Maikyôgen Dance Plays (pushing an idea to its extreme--paradigmatic)
a. Karmic retribution: carries idea of karmic retribution to silly extremes
1) e.g. The Potato (Tokoro): potato that is saved from roasting in hell by being eaten as a snack by a priest
The Clam (Hamaguri): clam suffering in various hells of heat
b. Universal Salvation
1) eg. The Cicada (Semi)
a) basic structure: dream vision Noh
b) basic plot:
c) parody allusions to classical literature"In Shinano famous bridges hang between high peaks. Famous too the noodles that hang in disarray at Sarashina, where the moon lingers over Mt. Asama." p. 286 (parodying Tales of Ise)
"Beneath a tree, the empty shell of a cicada who's shed its skin. If only I might see once more the vanished lady herself!" p. 288-89 (from Tale of Genji)
d) onomatopoeia: "kururi, kururi, kuru kuri kuru kurureba"
e) visual humor
f) speed/pacing
f ) reenactment of death and torture in hellThe waki asks him to confess, "Tell me in detail of your sins, they will dissolve in confession"
The cicada replies, "I'll tell you about the inescapable torments I suffer"
"A flock of crows spread their wings at dusk and swooped down faster than a kite. One grabbed me, crying, "I'll crush you whole!" He opened his filthy maw and crushed me to bits. My fellow cicadas hid among leaves or fled to rotten trees, and there wasn't a soul to help me." (289)
"And now to speak of my torments in hell, as was my way in the world of the living, I light on treetops but now their branches turn to swords and tear through my body. I fly into the air, but fierce black mountain spiders have spread their webs wide across the entire expanse and I'm caught in a net of a thousand ropes wrapped round and round, round and round and round and when the sun goes down, I'm dinner for a horned owl. Oh misery, this is the retribution for my sins this agony night and noon." (289-90)
Nomura Mansai performing the dance section above (acting out his torments in hell)
cf to Kiyotsune, where the main character dances his experience in the Ashura hell:
"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."
g. Here tortures in hell = tortures in life (allegorical view of hell)
1) unlike humans, clams or cicadas cannot really be responsible for their fate
1. Emma Kyôgen
a.
b.
2. Mai (dance) kyôgen
a.
b.
IV. Kyôgen plays about yamabushi mountain priests and exorcisms, deities and demons
A. Two kinds of yamabushi mountain priests
1. Tricksters
a. The Snail (Kagyu): Servant (Tarokaja) sent to the market to get snails (delicacy) for dinner, but doesn’t know what they are; is tricked by yamabushi to think he is “the mother of all snails.”
b. Persimmon Yamabushi (Kaki Yamabushi): mountain priest sneaks into a garden to steal persimmons; gets caught by owner up in the tree and is forced to perform silly acts
Shigeyama Family first half, second half
Yamabushi trying to get persimmons
Yamabushi caught by owner of the house
2. Incompetent exorcists
a. Owls (viewed on “This is Kyogen”; also here)
b. Mushrooms (Kusabira) video
cf. to Aoi no Ue (entrance of Kohijiri at 23:30)
3. Why is it okay to make fun of Mountain Priests?
B. Deities and Demons
1. Neck-Pulling (Kubi-Hiki) video
2. Kaminari video
3. What kind of demon is this? Is this view of deities in Thunderbolt and demons in Neck-Pullingsurprising?
Images of the Hundred Demon Night Parade
Discussion questions:
A. Mushrooms (Kusabira), Thunderbolt (Kaminari), Yao
1. Using types of kyogen plots discussed in class (King Emma, mai (dance) kyogen ghost, yamabushi exorcists, demons and deities) what type is this play? Is it parodying a category of Noh (deity, warrior, female ghost, misc, demon)? Can you point to a specific play? Provide support for your answer with quotations + page numbers.
2. What other kinds of humor do you see? Visual humor? Linguistic humor (i.e. onomatopoeia, puns etc)? Stage actions? How do the plays use this humor to make fun of religion? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).
3. What elements reverse your expectations given what you know about Noh? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).
4. What do these plays say about the common people's view of the supernatural (ghosts and deities) and exorcism specialists such as yamabushi mountain priests? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).
Week 6b Introduction to Yokai
I. Yôkai (bewitching apparitions)
A. Term invented by Meiji scholar Inoue Enryô (1858-1919) in an attempt to rid Japan of "superstition" and bring "Civilization and Enlightenment" (image)
B. Difference between yôkai and ghosts (not always clear)
| CATEGORY 1 | CATEGORY 2 (INTERMEDIATE) |
CATEGORY 3 |
Yôkai (creatures Subcategory: Demons (oni) fit in here, although not called yôkai until much later |
Living people who transform themselves into demons, serpents, tengu, etc.using spells and incantations |
Ghosts (people who onryô
|
C. Yôkai begin with late Heian and medieval stories about Night Parades of 100 Demons (Hyakki Yakô or Yagyô, then develop through illustration in Edo period
1. Japanese Tales:
#74 "The Invisible Man" (99-101)
#168 "No Night to be Out Courting" (237-39)
#169 "Lump Off, Lump On" (239-40)
#170 "Take Good Look" (241)2. Late medieval (16th-17th century) emaki illustrated scrolls of Hyakki Yakô (eg. Hyaki Yakô no Zu)
3. Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788) specialized in Hyakki Yakô encyclopedias, resulted in proliferation of a wide variety of yôkai (Toriyama Sekien "catalogs" local yôkai, in the process apparently creating many new kinds because there was such a demand for his work)
D. Examples of medieval to early modern yôkai
1. Ryû (dragons) (can sometimes be shape-shifters; control rain) and serpents (women/men who are jealous can transform into fire-breathing serpents)
2. Tengu (mountain goblins, either falcon-like or long-nosed; can sometimes be shape-shifters)
3. Kappa (green water sprites, Edo period development)
4. Yamamba (2) (the mountain hag), a kind of supernatural earth-mother demon. Later becomes associated with hag of Adachigahara, but originally a more ambivalent figure. Sometimes paired with one-eyed Yamawarawa (mountain boy).
Bakemono ("things that change"):
1. Shape-shifter animals (henge): foxes (kitsune), tanuki racoon dogs (sometimes confused with mujina badgers) and bakeneko/nekomata (2) cats, inugami dogs who can change shape and bewitch you. Note that stories about foxes, tanuki and mujina date to the medieval period; inugami overlap wtih foxes; bakeneko are later, dating to the 17th century.
2. Ordinary objects that have come alive
Scooby Doo: Tsukumogami 1, Tsukumogami 2
Very old and/or discarded utensils and household objects such as umbrellas, paper lanterns, sandals, teapots, etc. are thought to become animated if proper rituals of gratitude for their long-service are not performed. Late medieval development that becomes popular in the Edo period. This is mainly a visual category with many amusing illustrations from the Edo period in particular; there are not many stories about tsukomogami.
Other examples of yôkai: images (many, many examples of yôkai on the internet)
E. Amabie as an example of an obscure yôkai that takes hold globally in response to current conditions (discussed this first class, just briefly review here)
a. Amabie first appears off the coast of Higo in Kumamoto prefecture in 1846
1) From the poster (kawaraban) of the original:
Every night something brightly lit would appear in the sea of Higo. When a local official went out to take a look, something like what is in the picture here appeared and said, "I live in the sea and am called Amabie. For the next six years, there will be abundant harvests throughout the provinces, but disease will spread, so make haste to copy [an image of] me and show it to the people." So saying, it returned back into the sea. The image on the right [actually on the left in the image] is what was copied by the official and brought to Edo.
b. "Apotropaeic": having the power to ward off evil influences or bad luck.
1. Images and texts reproduced for their apotropaic effects go back to the earliest period of Japanese religion. Eg. Blood pool hell sutra
c. Mizuki Shigeru's 1986 image
Mizuki Productions posted on Twitter 3/17/20:
This is an “Amabie.” We took a photo of Mizuki Shigeru’s original drawing. It’s a being…closer in nature to a divine entity than a Yôkai. In the Edo Period, it appeared in the sea off of Kumamoto and instructed, “If pestilence spreads, draw my image and quickly show it to everyone.” With that, its figure disappeared back into the sea. May it rid us of the current pandemic.
https://twitter.com/mizukipro/status/1239818518536704001
d. Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Twitter image posted 4/8/20
1) Warning; STOP! shiranai uchi ni, hiromechau kara (Because it spreads before you know it)
e. What anxieties and issues do images of Amabie address?
Video: Amabie (a new Noh play, first performed 12/2020)
f. What anxieties and issues do images of Amabie address? How does the noh play contribute? What does the noh need to add for the Amabie yôkai to work as theater?