Japanese Theater (Winter 2013) Week 4b

HUMOR IN KYÔGEN

I. What makes Kyôgen funny?
A. Carolyn Haynes’ article on “Parody in Kyôgen” analyzes two kinds of humor:

1. Paradigmatic: Plays that take accepted notions and push them to extremes
a. e.g. Universal Salvation (Tako, Semi)

2. Syntagmatic:  Plays that reverse your usual expectations about roles or style

a. role reversal: masters and servants, husbands and wives, gods and human beings.
1) ge-koku-jô (low overthrows the high)

b. Style versus content:

1) eg. chanting in Delicious Poison

B. Other elements of what makes Kyôgen funny

1. Visuals:

a. masks:

b. costumes:
c. miming:

2. Language

a. formal style:

b. onomatopoeia

1) eg. “zarari, zarari” for ripping the scroll, and "garari, chin" for breaking the tea bowl in Delicious Poison

2) eg. nonsense words as the two servants sit in unison   

c. verbal play

1) puns, but humorous ones (eg. confusing “person/rusu” and “poison/busu” in Delicious Poison)
2) poetic catalogues (eg. Komachi and the Hundred Nights lists fruits and nuts; in Mushrooms, priest counts all the different kinds of mushrooms)
3) allusive variations: allude to famous poems, but change a word or two to make funny, or recontextualize the poem so the meaning is different

II. Makura Monogurui (Pillow Madness)

A. Example of paradigmatic

B. Use of Noh style: mostly refers to the Noh play Matsukaze

1. Visually:

a. old man image
b. compare to Hanjo
2. Performance:

3. Text:

a. Allusive variation:

1) poem: from the Kokinshû, first Imperial Anthology of Poetry

2) classical stories:

3) noh plays: Matsukaze
b. dominant image:

1) katami (momento):

c. word play:

1) sasa no harimakura:
sasa no ha = branch of bamboo
harimakura = paper-mache pillow

2) catalogue of pillows
d. re-enactment of a memory:

III Tako (The Octopus) as maikyôgen (dance kyôgen) parodying mugen Noh

A. Syntagmatic:  Carrying Buddhist concepts conveyed in Noh to ludicrous extremes.

B. Karmic retribution:

1. Cicada (Semi): eaten by a crow

2. Hamaguri: clam suffering in roasting hell

2. Tokoro:  a potato (saved by becoming a snack for a priest)

4. Not responsible for their fate (unlike human beings):

C. Universal salvation:  the idea in Buddhism that even nonsentient beings, like plants, can attain salvation

D. Main plot structure of Kyogen noh parodies "dream vision" noh about warriors

1. re-enacts final battle scene in "hell," but here "hell" is exactly like everyday life for insects, plants, and animals

E. Word play:  

III. Class Discussion on Owls and Thunderbolt

A. What kind (category) of Noh are they parodying: deity? warrior? female? present time/madwoman? exorcism? Is it syntagmatic or paradigmatic parody?

B. What elements reverse your expectations?

C.What kinds of humor, visual and linguistic, do you see?

D. What appears to be the attitude toward the supernatural (spirits and deities) and towards religious figures such as Mountain Priests?

 

 

 

 

 

 

J