Week 1b Buddhism and Noh
I. Intro
A. Five categories of Noh plays
1. kami-nô or waki nô (deity plays)
eg. Kamo
2. shura-mono (warrior plays)
eg. Atsumori, Yashima
3. kazura-mono (“wig” plays, i.e. woman plays)
eg. Izutsu
4. yonbanme-mono (miscellaneous plays, often
set in the dramatic present [genzai noh])
eg. Kinuta, Sumidagawa
5. kiri-nô or oni-nô (“final” plays or "demon"
plays)
eg. Adachigahara, Dôjôji, Yamamba
B. Relationship of
play categories with development of Noh
OKINA ritual
1. Deity plays:
2. Demon plays:
a. Adachigahara
b. Kinuta
3. Warrior and Woman plays:
II. Relationship of Buddhism and Shinto
A. Three main concepts important to understanding religion behind Noh
1. Expedient means or
appropriate modes (hôben)
2. Universal
Salvation
3. Non-dualism
B. Problem after the introduction of Buddhism: how to incorporate the native deities
1. Doctrine of expedient means and the Lotus of the Good Law (Lotus
Sutra)
a. Definition: Buddhist deities will use whatever means necessary to
get us to enlightenment
b.
Original situation: developed in India around the first century B.C.E.
1)
Explains why there were numerous competing forms of Buddhism and argues for the
Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) form of
Buddhism as the most advanced.
2. The Lotus Sutra Parable of the Burning House
In
this allegorical story, the
Buddha tempts his three children who are playing in a burning house (this
sinful world) with promises of three carriages (the three "vehicles" or forms of Buddhism). When they emerge from the house, however,
instead of the promised separate carriages he gives them one large carriage (the one Great Bodhisattva Vehicle of Mahâyâna Buddhism).
IMAGES
3. How was the doctrine of
Expedient Means used to incorporate local/native religions and gods into
Buddhism?
a. How were local gods (kami)
understood?
1)
4. Doctrine of honji suijaku
a. Definition: Buddhas
as original source (honji), Kami as manifestations (suijaku)
b. The Buddhist
deities “dim their radiance and mingle with the dust and grime of this material
world” manifesting as kami in order to prepare the way for Buddhism.
IMAGES
E. Influence of Buddhism on
Shamanic World
view
Shamanic two-world cosmos (material
and spiritual world) transformed into Buddhist six worlds:
1. Heavens (at least six levels)
2. Humans
3. Animals
4. Mayhem or Ashura Hell (angry warrior spirits battling it out)
5. Hungry Ghosts (gaki)
6. Hells (at least six several levels)
Images: hell
(1), hell (2), hungry ghost (1)
, hungry ghost (2)
F. Where are Noh ghosts in this system?
1.Lower three paths
a. warrior ghosts
image of Mayhem/Ashura Hell
eg. Atsumori
b. female ghosts
eg. Izutsu/Kinuta
image of the Sword Forest Hell
c. warrior and female ghosts are mainly what kind of ghost?
muenbotoke (a spirit that has no "link" to anyone, no one to do prayers for them)
G. Doctrine of Universal
Salvation
1. All living beings have the possibility of becoming
Buddha because they contain a spark of "Buddha
nature"
2. Difference from monotheistic religions:
a. Judaism-Christianity-Islam:
plot ramifications: GOOD versus EVIL
b. Buddhism:
plot ramifications: no such thing as unredeemable evil
H. Non-Dualism of Good and Evil
A. Monotheistic position: there is good and evil in the world, they are opposites. Ultimately good will triumph and evil will be vanquished in a final apocalyptic battle. Evildoers will be sent off to eternal punishment.
1. e.g. Lord of the Rings
B. Buddhist position: there is no ultimate distinction between good and evil --from our limited perspective of a single lifetime we cannot tell anyway.
1. e.g. Adachigahara: there may be a struggle, but even Rokujo achieves enlightenment
III. Noh
Theater and Buddhist Shamanism
A. There are three main ways that Nô manifests elements of folk religion:
1. PLOT STRUCTURE
2. RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS AS CONTENT
3. VISUAL ELEMENTS
TODAY concentrating on Plot Structure
B. DEMON PLAYS (basic plot = overt shamanic exorcism)
a. Ghost/demon appears in human form in first half
b. In second half, appears in true form and priests use all their power to convert it to Buddhism, or failing that, at least defeat it and send it away
egs. Adachigahara; Dojoji (late)
B. DREAM VISION NOH (mûgen Noh) that are concealed versions of shamanistic Buddhist rituals:
1. Ordinary person appears to
traveling priest
2. Turns out to be a ghost or deity
a. If Ghost:
1). Re-enacts traumatic events
2) Priest recites Lotus Sutra
and/or performs other pacification/exorcism rituals
3) Ghost achieves enlightenment
b. What Noh ghosts want
1) Release from passionate
attachment
2) Enlightenment
3) Therapeutic:
a) Re-enactment
b) Ritual prayers
c. If Deity:
1) Re-enacts founding of
shrine, or important story associated with shrine
2) Does a dance that provides
blessings/fertility etc. on the
country, people, and ruler
B. What Noh ghosts/deities look
like in the first half of the play
1. Ordinary people
a. Why?
C. What Noh ghosts/deities look
like in second half of play:
2. Powerful godhood (image
1)
a. Very frightening
b. Embodied
Discussion of Adachigahara, Kinuta, Izutsu
FOR YOUR PLAY:
1. What category of play is it?
2. What is the main conflict or tension in the play? How is it resolved?
3. 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).
4. 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)?
5. Who is the waki
character and what is his relationship to the shite?
6. Why does the shite character
disappear in the end? Has the shite gotten what it wanted?