EA 190 Class Outline Week 4

I. Bibliography assignment (look at prompt again)

For your next due date, you need to give me a longer, more specific description of what you want to do. For many of you this means you pick a particular text or film or director to research. You need to demonstrate to me that you have found at least a couple of sources so I know that you can do it. If you are comparing actual performances/films etc, I need to know that you have access to the primary materials.

Upload by dropbox by class time.

II. Comparative Assignment 1 for class in two weeks.

Let me know if you are presenting individually or in groups.You can add comments on the Sign up sheet.

Upload by dropbox by noon on the day of the presentation (May 10) -- let me know if there are special media requirements.

III. Requirements (grading rubric)

INTRO TO CLASS AND VOTE: Everyone seems to have agreed in the forum that Macbeth has free will and could have chosen not to go down the path of evil. Before we go any further today, what do you think about Washizu? Does he have a choice?

Note that most scholars and critics of Throne of Blood have argued against free will for Washizu.

Donald Richie makes this argument most succinctly in his introduction to The Throne of Blood: “The characters have no future. Cause and effect is the only law. Freedom does not exist.”

We will think about this question more closely today.

IV. Comparison of Macbeth and Throne of Blood: Characters

A. Act 1 Scene 2 (Battle Report to Duncan/Battle Report to Tsuzuki)

Macbeth

Ross describing Act 1 Scene 2 battle reports: "As thick as tale/came post with post/and every one did bear/thy praises in his kingdom’s great defense/ and poured them down before him."     (I, 3, 101-104, p. 21)

Think about while watching (4:30): how does Kurosawa convey this line visually through editing?

Characters (family name first; name used in film in caps):
1. Duncan: TSUZUKI Kuniharu

2. Malcolm/Donalbain: Tsuzuki KUNIMARU

3. Macduff: Odagura NORIYASU

4. Macdonwald, Thane of Cawdor: FUJIMAKI (4th Garrison)

5. King of Norway (also a bit of King Edward at the end): INUI

6. Scottish Nobles (Ross, Angus, Lennox): unnamed samurai

B. Act 1 Scene 3 (Macbeth and Banquo meet Weird Sisters/Washizu and Miki meet Forest Hag, 2:00)

1. Macbeth: WASHIZU Taketoki

2. Banquo: MIKI Yoshiaki

3. Weird Sisters: Forest Hag/Crone

C. Act 1 Scene 5 (Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to kill Duncan/Asaji urges Washizu to kill Tsuzuki 27:37)

1. Lady Macbeth: Washizu ASAJI

D. Act 2 Scene 1/Act 3 Scene 1 (Intros Banquo's son Fleance and Banquo soliloquy on whether Macbeth has "played most foully" to become king/ Argument between Miki and his son on whether to trust Washizu 1:05:30)

1. Fleance (Banquo's son): Miki YOSHITERU

E. What characters are left out of the story? Why do you think they were left out? What characters have been added?

IV. Comparison of Macbeth and Throne of Blood: Plot

A. Chart comparing scenes

1. What plot elements are left out or changed? Why do you think they were left out? What has been added?

2. How do the changes in the plot between the two versions change our understanding of the motivations of the characters?

a. Duncan versus Tsuzuki Kuniharu

b. Banquo versus Miki

c. Lady Macbeth versus Asaji

3. Are you more or less sympathetic with these characters? Why?

V Introduction to Buddhism

A. Basic Premises

1. Perception of this world as SAMSARA (constant flow, movement, change)

2. Belief in reincarnation

3. Belief in karma (the law of causality, that our actions, good and bad, cause effects)

IMAGE: cartoon about Karma and reincarnation

 

 

B. Problem of Passionate Attachments

1. They cause karma and therefore rebirth (basically karma = attachments).

C. Why isn't reincarnation/rebirth seen as good?

1. Multiple lives can include long stints in hell or as a cockroach.

The Six "Paths" of Reincarnation (Rokudō):

Heavens
Human realm
Animal realm
Ashura (Warrior) Hell
Hungry Ghosts
Hells

D. Goal of Buddhism

1. To break cycle of death and rebirth (achieve Nirvana)

E. Question of free will in Buddhism

1. The historical Buddha argued we can only depend on ourselves (jiriki) to follow the eight-fold path to enlightenment.

2. But by the medieval period in Japan, it was understood that there are Buddhist deities (Amida, Jizo, Kannon) who have achieved enlightment, and could have gone into Nirvana, but instead compassionately vowed to stay in this world to help human beings. If you pray to them (or someone else prays for you) you will be reincarnated in one of the Buddhist heavens where it is easier to attain enlightenment (less temptation). This is known as tariki, literally "dependence on the other."

3. Different sects of medieval Japanese Buddhism put more emphasis on jiriki or tariki. But usually involves both.

4. To free yourself from passionate attachments that hold you in thrall and attain enlightenment you must make a choice (the first step on the eight-fold path). Even if a Buddhist priest or deity is helping you, you still need to choose to accept that help.

Sword Tree Hell

 

F. How does this work in Noh theater?

1. In Noh plays, ghosts return to this world because of lingering attachments to traumatic events that occured in the past. Warrior ghosts are trapped in a specific hell for those prone to violence, the Ashura Warrior Hell, where they have to fight their battles to the death, over and over and over again. As in the Sword Tree story it is a psychological hell: no one is forcing them to do this, they are simply overcome with obsessive bloodlust, and cannot free themselves.

In the Noh plays about famous medieval warriors, the warrior ghosts appear in this world in the hope of getting help from Buddhist priests. The priests pray to Buddhist deities on their behalf.

On stage, the ghost reenacts their final battle (once again) but this time, with the help of the prayers of the priest, the ghost is able to choose to stop the cycle of violence, and thus attain enlightenment and release.

Ashura Hell

Warrior Noh: Yashima (the ghost of Minamoto Yoshitsune reenacts the Battle of Ichinotani)

Final battle from warrior Noh Atsumori (the ghost of the young Heike warrior Atsumori reenacts his final battle, in which he is killed by the Taira warrior Kumagai)

VI. Buddhism and Theme in Throne of Blood

A. What is the main theme of Throne of Blood? How is this influenced by Buddhism?

1. Three main points:

a. Ambition

b. Violence

c. Samurai

B. Where does Kurosawa get this basically Buddhist theme of the cycle of karma from in Macbeth?

1.7.1-28 [p. 69]

If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence and catch
With his surcease success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgement here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught,return
To plague the inventor. This even handed justice commends
the ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips."

III.4. 151 [p. 100]

"It will have blood they say, blood will have blood."

C. What is missing in terms of Buddhism?

1. Does anyone pray in this film?

a. If you truly believed in hell, would this be a viable religious position?

D. Influence of twentieth century philosophical movements

1. Existentialist philosophy

Wikipedia: In Existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude," or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.[6]

In a lecture delivered in 1945, Jean Paul Sartre, one of the founders of Existentialism, described existentialism as "the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism." In other words, if there are no gods, and we are alone in this world, how should we live our lives?

2. Nihilism:

Wikipedia:

Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.[1] Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived....The term is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop upon realising there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws.[2]

 

E. What is the effect of Kurosawa creating a story about medieval samurai, but removing all references to the compassionate influence of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that would have been the norm in the medieval period?

VII. Influence of Noh in Throne of Blood

Video start times from Throne of Blood:

opening and closing chanting: 2:00-4:30

Opening scene with hag: starts 9:00; Washizu shoots arrow at 11:10; finds hag at 12:00 to 19:30, then lost in fog

Scenes with Asaji: 27:50 (initial discussion), 42:20 (setting up and following through on plan)

Scene at Banquet hall: 1:08:20

Second scene with hag: 1: 24:16

Asaji mad scene: 1:38:20

Final scene with arrows: 1:42

Video Clips from Noh theater:

Noh intro: Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan: Noh (spinning wheel at 3:00)

Full performance of Adachigahara/Kurozuka without subtitles

Adachigahara/Kurozuka images

Yamamba images

Selection of clips; first one is final battle from Atsumori, second from Aoi no Ue

Tamura clip

Yashimaimages

A. Thematics: Modified Buddhist theme from Warrior Noh plays

1. As noted above, Throne of Blood incorporates a Buddhist view of violence, passion, and karma that is similar to that presented in Noh (particularly Warrior Noh plays), but without the consolation of compassionate deities. These views are presented in poetic passages that are chanted in the Noh style, framing the opening and closing, as well as being used at key points in the film narrative.

2. Opening and closing chants (click here for complete list of chanting in film)

Video: 2:00

見よ妄執の城の址
魂魄未だ住むごとし
それ熱心の修羅の道
昔も今もかわりなし

Vocabulary:
熱心の修羅の道 nesshin no shura no michi: the path of Ashura who are overcome with passion (bloodlust)

Subtitles:
Look upon the ruins of the castle of delusion
haunted only now by the spirits of those who perished.
A scene of carnage born of consuming desire,
never changing now and throughout eternity.

Screenplay:
Behold the ruins of a castle inhabited by deep-rooted delusion,
perpetually haunted by spirits.
The ruins show the fate of demonic men with treacherous desires.
Life is the same now as in ancient times.

Alternative translation:
Behold, the ruins of a castle of deep-rooted delusion,
haunted even now by spirits/the souls [of men who followed]
this Ashura path of bloodlust;
in the present, as in the past, nothing has changed.

NOTE: By using the phrase "shura no michi" ("this Ashura path of bloodlust" or "the path of warrior demons overcome by bloodlust) Kurosawa is explictly identifying the "Way of the Samurai" with "is replacing the path of the samurai (bushidō)

 

FINAL CHANT [English screenplay p. 134; Japanese screenplay, 175; but not in the film; film simply repeats the opening chant]

寄せ手見えしは
風の葦
鬨の音と聞こえしは
松の風
それ熱心の修羅の道
昔も今もかわりなし

English screenplay:
The attacking force was none other than
the rustling reeds in the breeze.
The war cries were none other than
a breeze in the pine tree.
The ruins show the fate of demonic men with treacherous desires.
Life is the same now as in ancient times.

Alternative:
The attacking force we saw:
reeds in the wind.
The sounds of war we heard:
wind in the pines.
This is the Ashura path of bloodlust:
in the present, as in the past, nothing has changed.  

Note: the first four lines echo a common ending in a second category Warrior Noh play (Shuramono), whereby the reenacted battle performed on stage by the warrior ghost, turns out to have been a dream.

Example from the Warrior Noh Play Yashima

In the final scene, the Minamoto warrior Yoshitsune reenacts the battle of Yashima, which took place at sea:

水や空
空行くも又雲の波の
討ち合ひ刺し違ふる
船車の駆げ引き
浮沈むとせし程に
春の夜の波より明けて
敵と見えし
群れゐるかもめ
鬨の声と聞こえしは
通風なりけり高松の
朝嵐とぞ成りにけり

Sea and sky
mixed in waves of clouds
rising and falling
we grapple boats
stabbing and striking, until
the spring dawn breaks through the waves
and the enemies we saw:
a flock of seagulls;
the sounds of war we heard:
a bay wind sighing through tall pines,
remnants of a morning storm.

Nishino Haruo, ed. Yōkyoku Hyakuban (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1998), 459.

Yashima images

Selection of Noh clips; first one is final battle from Atsumori

3. Opening and closing chanted Noh style frames the movie as a dream vision about Ashura Warriors caught in a cycle of violence. Why do you think Kurosawa decided to simply repeat the opening chant?

4. Can samurai like Washizu escape the cycle of violence?

a. Buddhism always assumes that you have a choice (free will), that allows you to choose detachment and the path of enlightenment rather than obsessive attachment and the cycle of reincarnation. But it also usually assumes you will have compassionate help to make that choice.

Q: If Kurosawa understood this, what does it mean for whether Washizu has free will or is fated to make the decisions he does?

Q: Given the post-war context, what might Kurosawa be saying about the Way of the Samurai by creating this dream vision of warrior life in medieval Japan?

B. Formal look of Noh

1. Masks to indicate character types (Summer of Shakespeare 10:29)

Masks: The-Noh.com, Japanese Theater page

Asaji: Shakumi, Fukai 1, Fukai 2, Masugami/Masukami 1, Masugami 2, Hashihime

Hag: Rojo Komachi, Yamamba

Miki's Ghost: Chujo 1, Chujo 2 (note that although the face is like the mask, it is a later Edo period style ghost)

Washizu: Heida/Heita 1, Yorimasa

Q: What is the effect of using Noh masks to indicate characters?

2. Movement style: sliding step and the unmoving seated position, then sudden furious movement accompanied by flute and percussion from Noh.

Listen for sound of Asaji's sliding step (42:30)

Scene of Asaji waiting while Washizu kills Duncan (44:30)

Q: How does this effect our sense of Asaji as a character?

3. Noh stage used as model for fortress interiors (27:43)

Q: Effect of extreme minimalism? Interior versus exterior?

C. Pacing

1. Jo-ha-kyu (slow opening, intermediate development, fast finish)

a. both the structure of the film as a whole, and the movement of particular characters (especially Asaji)

D. Incorporates a short section from a Noh play

1. During the Banquet scene, a warrior performs a section from the Noh play Tamura.

Photo story of Tamura.

a. Similar to Hamlet staging a play to "catch the conscience of the king."

シテ詞「いかに鬼神もたしかに聞け。 

昔もさるためしあり。 

千方といひし逆臣に仕へし鬼も。 

E. Representation of Hag Character taken from Noh plays Kurozuka and Yamamba

1. Opening scene (starts 9) of Washizu and Miki lost in Spiderweb Forest and meeting Hag

Kurozuka versus Throne of Blood

Later in Kurozuka:

a. How is the presentation of the hag in Throne of Blood similar to the Noh play Kurozuka?

b. How do we read the spinning wheel in the Noh play versus the film? (Noh 3:10, film 12)

c. Is there any attempt to exorcise the demonic spirit (referred to as a mononoke, or possessing spirit)?

d. How are the skulls read differently in the Noh play versus Throne of Blood?

2. Second Scene of Washizu visiting the Hag: Yamamba (the Mountain Crone)

Second scene with hag: 1: 24:16

Hag character appears to shift to Yamamba, a supernatural earth mother/deity/crone making her mountain rounds, and to ghosts of male warriors.

Photo story of Yamamba

Yamamba images

a. Yamamba in the Noh play is supernaturally powerful, but not demonic (man-eating) like the hag of Kurozuka, and demonstrates a profound understanding of Buddhism. Is this reflected in the image of the forest hag in Throne of Blood?

2. Warrior figures from Warrior Noh: Yashima

We will look at this more in your questions for this next week.

Forum question to think about this week:

Compare the Forest Hag in Throne of Blood to the Weird Sisters in Macbeth. Is the Hag/Forest Crone in Throne of Blood unambiguously evil in the same way as the Weird Sisters? Why or why not? Do you think she has more responsibility or less responsibility for Washizu's actions compared to the Weird Sisters and Macbeth? Cite scenes and pg. #s to support your points.

Next week:

Will think about comparison of characters, especially Macbeth/Washizu, Lady Macbeth/Asaji, Weird Sisters/Hag. Discussion questions focus on this.

Will also spend time on Neo-Confucianism and the development of Bushido (Way of the Warrior), and how these ideas, intersecting with the historical context of early post-war Japan, are represented in Throne of Blood.