Week 1b Shamanic Buddhism and Noh
Some basic knowledge of Buddhism as it was understood in medieval Japan.
I. Where do you go after you die?
A. Original Buddha’s response
B. Mahayana Buddhism's Six Paths or Realms of Reincarnation (Rokudô)
1. Heaven (six or more levels)
2. Humans
3. Animals and Plants
4. (or 2) Mayhem (Warriors/Ashura)
5. Hungry Ghosts
6. Hell (six or more levels)
C. Three main categories:
1. Heaven
2. Material world: Humans and Animals
3. The lower three paths: Mayhem, Hungry Ghosts, Hell
D. Where are Noh ghosts in the Six Paths (Rokudô)?
1.Lower three paths
a. warrior ghosts (ashura) are in Mayhem (Ashura Hell) reliving their final battle over and over again.
image of Mayhem/Ashura Hell
eg. Atsumori
b. female ghosts are understood to be in hell specific to those who are obsessed with a passionate attachment
1) example of the Sword Forest Hell
eg. Izutsu, Kinuta
E. Warrior and woman ghosts are mainly what kind of ghost?
1. muenbotoke: ghosts that have no one to pray for them
D. Once you're in the lower three paths, how do you get out of them?
1. Difficult to depend on self and ghosts often have no family to pray for them; usually need intercession of priest.
a.
For non-demonic ghosts: chanting Amida Buddha's name (nenbutsu) or the Lotus Sutra
b. For demonic ghosts or spirits: stronger pacification/exorcism prayers are necessary
II. Comparative Views of Hell and Salvation
A. Monotheistic position: depending on your sect, either a large or a very large percentage of the world will end up burning in hell for eternity
B. Buddhist position: Universal salvation: some people may be in hell temporarily, but ultimately everyone will be saved/enlightened
1. Why?
a. everyone has a spark of “Buddha Nature” that can be cultivated
b. you have countless lifetimes to get it right
III. Comparative views on Good and Evil
Definition of dualism: good and evil are clearly distinguishable
Definition of non-dualism:
although on the level of material reality there appear to be differences
between, for example, good and evil or enlightenment and passionate
attachments, ultimately, if we could see it from the Buddha's point of view (for example), there is no difference.
A. Monotheistic position is dualistic: 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, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones
a. In fantasy fiction, a few characters are allowed to choose between good and evil (or have a backstory that explains their choice), but there are also usually characters that are simply one-dimensionally evil (trolls, ogres, white walkers, wights, etc.)
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. Kurozuka/Adachigahara: there may be a struggle, but even a demon can achieve enlightenment if given the right help
IV. More on relationship of Shamanic Buddhism in Noh
A. Five categories of Noh plays plus Okina
Okina (ritual)
1. god or deity plays (waki-nô)
a. eg. Kamo
2. warrior plays (shura-mono)
a. eg. Atsumori
3. women plays (kazura-mono, lit. “wig” plays)
a. eg. Izutsu
4. miscellaneous plays (yonbanme-mono, lit. category 4 plays; or genzai mono, present-time plays)
a. eg. Kinuta, Miidera, Shunkan
5. final or demon noh (kiri-nô or oni-nô)
a. eg. Kurozuka/Adachigahara, Yamamba
B. Relationship of
play categories with historical evelopment of Noh
Okina-Sanbaso dance
(image)
1. Deity plays:
calling down deities
2. Demon plays:
exorcising demons
3. Warrior and Woman plays:
pacifying Heike war dead (ashura) and muenbotoke
V. Elements of Noh
Theater's origins in Shamanic ritual:
A. There are three main ways that Noh manifests elements of folk religion:
1. PLOT STRUCTURE
2. RELIGIOUS ELEMENTS AS CONTENT
3. VISUAL ELEMENTS
B. PLOT STRUCTURE: Two kinds of time in Noh
1. TYPE ONE (genzai): Entire play takes place in dramatic present (genzai)
Living people acting events out in real time (mother searching for son, wife searching for husband, young brothers seeking revenge on their father's killer, priests meet a demon in the mountains, etc)
2. TYPE TWO (mugen): First act is in dramatic present, second act takes place in dream vision (mugen)
Ghosts or deities manifesting in this world to tell a story, get help, bestow blessings.
Mugen Noh can be seen as a veiled or hidden shamanic ritual.
C . Basic story line of dream
vision Noh (mugen Noh):
1. Ordinary person appears to
traveling person (may be a priest)
2. Turns out to be a ghost or deity
If a Ghost:
a. What do Noh ghosts want?
1) Release from passionate
attachment
2) Enlightenment
b. How do they get it?
1) Therapeutic:
a) Re-enacts traumatic events (catharsis)
b) Ritual prayers by priest (Lotus Sutra, nenbutsu, other pacification/exorcism rituals)
c. Result
1) Ghost achieves enlightenment
eg. Atsumori Atsumori, a 16 year-old warrior who died at the hands of Kumagai at the Battle of Ichinotani, returns as a ghost to ask Kumagai, now a Buddhist priest, to say prayers for him
If a Deity:
a. Doesn't usually need anything from waki (usually not a Buddhist priest)
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
D. What Noh ghosts/deities look
like in the first act of the play
1. Ordinary people
a. Why?
E. What Noh ghosts/deities look
like in second act of play:
1. Deity: Venerable old age (image
1, image 2)
2. Deity: Powerful godhood (image
1)
2. Ghost: Supernatural beauty
4. Ghost: Supernatural demon
a. Very frightening
b. Embodied
F. Religious Elements as content
1. Elements of shamanism/possession in plot
2. Allusion to or use of religious texts:
a. Lotus Sutra (especially Parable of the Burning House)
b. mantras (esoteric magic formulas for meditation and exorcism)
1) Fudô Myôô, the Unmoveable One
2) Five Naga/Dragon Kings, guardians of Buddhism in the five directions
G. Visual and Musical Elements
1. Masks:
2. Dances:
a.
3. Music (Catalpa Bow, p. 31)
a.
b. kakegoe (calls by the drummers)
4. Props: torimono (the use of a long, thin object held in the hands to pull the spirit into the shaman)
a. example of using sakaki (sacred evergreen) in Shinto ritual
b. branches of trees: cherry, sasaki (bamboo)
c. fan
d. demon stick
5. Stage:
a. Pine tree (a yorishiro, dwelling place for the kami) Catalpa Bow, pp 38-39, 107
b. Bridge (hashigakari)
E. Other points
1. Emphasis on place
2. Ghost's embarrassment about being seen
Link to reading/discussion questions
Izutsu (The Well Cradle)[TJT 143-157]photo story, images, Japanese
This is Noh Basic Story (note: doesn't make clear that she is a ghost)
Youtube: 001 (entrance), 002 (waki), 003 , 004 (story), 005 (jo no mai dance), 006 (ending of dance)
007 (looking into well) 008 (ending)
Kinuta (The Fulling Block) text, images, photostory
