Japanese Theater Week 3b Outline A. REVIEW OF TERMS 1. Dramatic Present (劇的現在）:
Examples: Kinuta/The Fulling Block (present time): Sumidagawa/Sumida River (present time): Atsumori (dream vision): first half second half Izutsu/The Well Curb (dream vision): first half second half 2. Flashback: an interuption in the continuity of a story by the narration or portrayal of some earlier event (an eruption of the past into the present). Can happen in the present, or can occur in a dream vision. 3. Story 物語(or "backstory"背景): chronologically ordered events (sometimes these events took place in the past, sometimes events happening in the dramatic present) 4. Plot 筋: the sequence of events or actions as they take place on stage, regardless of whether they happen in chronological order or not. B. MUGEN (dream vision) NOH (夢幻能) 1. Basic PLOT Structure of second and third category plays a. Wandering priest (played by Waki actor) arrives in famous spot and wonders about it. b. A local person (played by Shite actor) arrives, and when questioned, starts to tell the story of the place. c. Priest suspects the local villager is not an ordinary person because they have too much information. The ghost reveals his/her true identity, promises to return in true form in return for prayers, and vanishes. d. Real local villager (played by Kyogen actor) arrives and retells the story in easier to understand language (while the Shite actor is changing costume backstage). Suggests that the priest perform prayers for the ghost(s). Priest starts to perform ritual prayers. e. Ghost returns in true form (in dream vision) and re-enacts traumatic events from life. f. Ghost usually (but not always) is released from their passionate attachment, and receives enlightenment and/or rebirth in heaven. 2. Dramatic present: 3. Story: 4. Mugen Noh as concealed shamanic ritual: C. REVIEW of Classical (or Aristotelian) Unities of Western realist theater versus Noh The classical unities, Aristotelian unities or three unities are rules for drama derived from a passage in Aristotle's Poetics. In their neoclassical form they are as follows: b. Does dream vision Noh obey any of the classical unities? c. Some fourth category "present time" Noh plays do follow the unities, but they are very few. Even "present time" Noh can take place in more than one location and over a longer period of time than 24 hours. II. Komachi legend (images) Kayoi Komachi images, photo story Video of Kayoi Komachi Sotoba Komachi images, photo story Video of Sotoba Komachi (really old B/W) part 1 (Komachi enters) part 2 (meeting priests) part 4 (Komachi puts on Captain Fukakusa's cap and dances) III. Sotoba Komachi and Kayoi Komachi as examples of Mugen (dream vision) Noh and Genzai (present time) Noh A. Questions to consider for each play:
B. Sotoba Komachi dramatic present? flashback? C. Kayoi Komachi images dramatic present? flashback?
D. Plot versus Story
1. Other points:
A. Word play 1. Simple puns:
2. Pivot words (kakekotoba):
example in English: For what do men die a. used to create multiple layers of meaning eg. from Yamamba:
B. Allusion: incorporation of texts/sources that everyone knows. Depends on the fact that everyone shared knowledge of a limited body of texts:
They also allude to medieval commentaries and stories based on those texts. They could make those allusions because members of the audience shared a "classical" education -- the authors could count on everyone in the audience being familiar with the original poems and stories. 1. Allusive variation (honkadori本歌取り): alluding to a source story or source poem but changing it C. How are allusions and allusive variation （honkadori 本歌取り）of source stories and poems used? 1. As the source for the story Tales of Ise: Izutsu, Kakitsubata Tale of the Heike: Atsumori Medieval stories: Dojoji, Adachigahara 2. As a source for central image in the play, or an important theme eg. of allusive variation from Atsumori:
a. puns: tare 垂れ (dripping)、tare/dare 誰 (who, someone who) b. Change from "please reply" (kotae yo) to "I would reply" (kotaemashi) c. How does this poem foreshadow the main point of the play? 1) repetition of tomo (quotation, friend) 2. To move the narrative along a. Series of poems creates a story (Izutsu, pp. 150-151) 3. To frame dances
D. Associated words (engo 縁語) a. Yamamba (eg. above) 難波 （Naniwa Bay) 、葭 蘆 (yoshi and ashi reeds) E. Poetic catalogues or lists (mono no tsukushi ものの尽くし) a. eg. flutes in Atsumori (text) English Why are flutes important in Atsumori? F. Sound -- alliteration, assonance, repetition of vowel sounds eg. from Yamamba: repetition of yama (mountain): 山また山に山廻り山姥 Brazell trans. (TJT 225): Mountain after mountain, Tyler trans. (JND 328): yet mountain after mountain, mountain rounds eg. from Izutsu, repetition of izutsu (the wooden well-curb or well-cradle) つついづつ、つついづつ、いづつに Brazell trans.(TJT 155-56): The wooden water well, Tyler trans. (JND 131): G. Parallelism 1. Eg. from Atsumori p. 137: Sore haru no hana no juto ni noboru wa aki no tsuki no suitei ni shizume wa Spring blossoms mounting tips of trees the autumn moon sinking to ocean's depths 2. Simlar lines from Yamamba (p. 221): Sacred peaks soaring lightless valleys deep
7. Michiyuki (travel song) From Atsumori: 九重の雲居を出でて行く月乃 (pun: nine-fold capital, moving clouds) 南に廻る小車の 淀山崎を打ち過ぎて。 昆陽の池水生田川 波ここもとや須磨の浦 (quotation from "Suma" chapter of Genji monogatari) 一の谷にも着きにけり
8．Stream of imagery (involves all of the rhetoric listed above) Highly poetic section of the play, consisting of a series of images with little grammar connecting them. Often at a climax of the play and usually employs some or all of the rhetorical devices listed above. 9. Development of imagery (Izutsu-well curb, Kinuta - fulling block, Atsumori -flutes)
III. Allusion in Sotoba Komachi A. What kind of allusions and allusive variations were used to construct this play? 1. How is this poem by Ono no Komachi used? (very first poem at entrance of Komachi)
2. medieval stories that built on those poems, and added others to create a Komachi "persona" B. Discussion Questions due before Friday Discussion section This section is on rhetorical devices used in Noh, including rhetorical analyses of the opening scene and beginning of the second half of Komachi and the Hundred Nights (Kayoi Komachi)1. Read "Rhetorical Devices" to remind you of poetic techniques used in Noh. 2, Read through the play so you have a basic idea of what it is about, and who the local woman who visits the priest really is. 3. Read over the analysis with the word-by-word translation of two scenes (pp. 55-56 and 58-59) from the play. Using your reading on poetic techniques from Rhetorical Devices in Noh (allusion, stream of imagery, parallelism, play of sound, etc.) use the questions below to see what you can make of the list of plants and fruits from pp. 55-56 and the stream of imagery from pp. 58-59 (see analysis). Try to think about how the imagery is being used to set up the story.
Look at the analysis of the two sections (pp. 55-56 and pp. 58-59) in Kayoi Komachi (images). For both scenes you should try to think about how the imagery is being used to set up the story. The questions below will help you to do this. For both scenes, comparing the left side with the right, what tends to get left out of the English translation? 1. Opening scene: In the opening scene of a dream vision Noh, a mysterious local woman or man appears and hints at her or his true identity using various rhetorical devices and forms of word play. a. In this opening scene how is the catalogue of fruits and nuts used to hint at her true identity and the story of her and the Fukakusa Captain? b. What word plays and images does she use? Are there any hints of the Fukakusa [Deep Grass] Captain (also known as Shii no Shôshô)? 2. The second section: this scene from the beginning of the second half introduces the two ghosts who have appeared before the priest to get his help. What does each want? a. How is the Fukakusa (Deep Grass) Captain's name played on? What plant is he identified with? b. How is parallelism used to structure the dialogue here? How does it set up the conflict
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