Japanese Theater

Week 1a Outline

I. Info for index card

NAME

Phone number (where message can be left)

Preferred email (for class email list)

Why are you taking this class (tell me something about yourself)

II. Introduction to the class website

A. navigating website

B. Requirements

C. Images, Reading and Discussion Questions

III. Intro to Japanese history materials

A. General Timeline, Edo Period Timeline

B. WWW links

IV. Intro to Noh Theater (video)

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Introduction to Japanese Religions

I. Intro to Shamanism

A. What is shamanism? Who or what is a shaman?
1. A shaman conjures spirits into or out of human beings (and may themselves be spirit-possessed)
a. cf. modern day "channelling" and exorcisms

B. Shamanic World View

1. Familiar human (material) world

2. Spiritual World
.
C. What can shamans do?
.

1.

2.

3.

D. How do they do it?

1. Achieve a trance state by:

a. rhythmical sounds (strumming a catalpa bow; Noh drums and flute)

b. dance

c. torimono

Image: Japanese female shaman (miko) with torimono

Image: Shinto priests with sakaki branches for purification

E. Two forms of trance

1. Dream vision travel (out of body experience)

2. Possession

 

F. In a state of possession they speak for deities or spirits to express their wishes:

1. Kamikuchi (for deity)

2. Ikikuchi (for living spirit)

3. Shinikuchi (for dead spirit)

G. Although originally shamans in Japan appear to have been mainly female, after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, male Buddhist ascetics took over the job of exorcising angry spirits.

1. Exorcising ascetics in Noh plays: often Yamabushi "mountain ascetics" or Esoteric Buddhist priests who have gained power through spiritual practices (meditation and ascetic discipline of the body)

Images: modern Japanese yamabushi

.

II. Native Deities

A. What are kami and what do they look like?

1.  Began as any numinous manifestation (hierophany) of the sacred, mainly in natural phenomena (similar to nature deities throughout Asia)

a. Therefore can take on a wide variety of forms and characteristics (Catalpa Bow, p. 35)

2. What all forms of Kami share:

a. Move between this (material) world and the spiritual world

b. Why do they appear in this world?

 

B. When do they take on human-like form?

    1. First statues and images from around 9th century.

    a. QUOTE: "The belief that the kami have any permanent or true form which they can manifest to human senses is late, and derivative from Buddhist iconography." (Catalpa Bow, p. 38)

C. Visible Forms (some of these "kami" have merged with Buddhist deities)
 

1. Aristocratic men/women

IMAGE of Hachiman and female attendants
2. Sacred old man, okina

.IMAGE of okina in Noh

IMAGE of Sumiyoshi deity (patron deity of poetry) appearing to the poet Fujiwara Teika　in a dream as okina

3. Serpents, snakes, dragons ("native" deities of India/China/Japan, some now defend Buddhism)

IMAGE of a Naga Dragon King 龍王(the five or eight Naga Dragon Kings are often called upon in Noh plays to defeat demons)

(Click here and here for more info in English on serpents and dragons in Asia and Japan)

 

4. Demons and ferocious native deities, some converted to Buddhism、for example, the Five Guardian (Mantra/ Knowledge/Enlightenment) Kings Myo-o 明王　

.

IMAGE of Guardian Kings (often called upon in Noh plays to defeat demons)

(Click here for more info in English on Myo-o)

(Click here for more info on Fudo Myo-o, the central deity of the five)

5. Lightening/Thunder and Wind Deities (raijin雷神/kaminari雷; fujin 風神)
IMAGES of thunder/lightening and wind deities
IMAGES in Noh play Kamo

(Click here for more information on thunder and wind deities)

III. Spirits

A. Tama ("soul": modern Japanese tamashii)

1.  "An entity which resides in some host, to which it imparts life and vitality..." (Catalpa Bow, p. 43)

a. Ikiryô (living spirit)

b. Shiryô (dead spirit)

B. What should happen to tama after they leave the body for good?

1. Shinto thinking: ujigami (the communal ancestral spirit/kami)


2. Buddhist thinking: jôbutsu (becoming a Buddha)

 

IV 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. Goal of Buddhism

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

 

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

1. Multiple lives

D. Problem of Passionate Attachments

1. They cause karma and therefore rebirth

2. You can end up as a hungry ghost or in hell

3. In Noh, ghosts return to this world because of lingering attachments to traumatic events that occured in the past. They hope to get help from Buddhist priests in resolving those attachments and getting release so they can reincarnate appropriately.

E. Mahayana (Great Vehicle) Buddhism

1. Historical Buddha (5th c. BCE) argued for 8-Fold Path, self-dependence

2. Mahayana Buddhism (1st c. CE) depends on help of deities: Amida Buddha, Kannon, Jizo

3. The Lotus Sutra: main sutra of Mahayana Buddhism, was itself seen as a vehicle for salvation when recited

Images: Amida Buddha, Kannon and Jizo bodhisattvas

(Click for more on Buddhas and Bodhisattvas)

F. Shamanic Buddhism in Adachigahara

1. Structured overtly as a shamanic exorcism ritual by Buddhist priests. Here the main character is not a ghost but a demonic spirit.

 

a. Use of mantras and dharani (Buddhist spells)

1)  Recites incantations in pseudo-Sanskrit 
2) Calling upon Buddhist deities such as Guardian Kings, Fudô Myôô, Dragon Kings

b. Use of rosary beads, mudras (ritual hand gestures)

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (due Thursday 1/8) Noh plays: Kinuta (The Fulling Block) and Izutsu(The Well Curb)

(SEE COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR DIRECTIONS)

1. How does the structure and other elements of these two plays appear to be related to shamanic rituals? List all the ways you can see. Note that Kinuta incorporates a pacification ritual in the dramatic present (genzai); Izutsu presents a concealed pacification that occurs in a dream vision (mugen).

2. How does the shite character appear in the first half versus the second half of the play (see also images by clicking on the play names above)? Who is the waki character and what is his relationship to the shite? Why does the shite character disappear in the end? Has the shite gotten what it wanted?