Rhetorical Devices in Noh

A. Allusion: incorporation of texts/sources that everyone knows. Depends on the fact that everyone shared knowledge of a limited body of texts -- the Lotus Sutra, Tales of Ise, Tale of Genji, Tale of the Heike, the first imperial poetry anthology Kokinshû and other imperial anthologies. 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.

B. Allusive variation (honkadori本歌取り) : two kinds

1. The play as a whole can be seen as an allusive variation on its source -- sometimes it changes it quite a bit. So Izutsu or Kakitsubata alludes to the 10th century poem-prose collection Tales of Ise, and Atsumori alludes to the Tale of the Heike, but both add material to create a dream vision noh.

2. The play quotes lines from poems that everyone knows. The poetic associations that have built up around those poems are thereby added to the play.

Allusions to poetry get used these ways:

a. As a source for an image which is central thematically to the play. Creates a sense of depth.

b. As a way to get the narrative to move along: 

1) A series of poems can be used to create a story (Sekidera Komachi).

2) They can be used to frame dances, to set the dance off.

c. to identify a character by using a poem written by them or about them

C. Word play: there are lots of puns in Noh!

1. Simple puns:

a. used to hide names (mono no na)

b. used to create poetic richness (often engo -- see below) 

2. Pivot words:

example in English:

For what do men die
                            diamonds, rubies and pearl-drops like dew                                                                                                      do you love me more than these?

a. used to create multiple layers of meaning

eg. from Yamamba:

3. Associated words (engo)

Words conventionally associated in poetry, especially  renga (linked verse). For example,   words associated with clothing or spring. Associated words may or may not be puns. If they are puns, they don't necessarily need to be related to the main meaning of the text  (example above from Yamamba, Naniwa Bay and two kinds of reeds that grew there).

4. Poetic catalogues or lists (mono no tsukushi)

An enumeration of something (eg. rivers in Kamo, flutes in Atsumori, fruits and nuts in Kayoi Komachi), usually involving lots of puns and allusions to poems. Usually also includes hidden names. Often occurs in the opening scene of a play, and in that case may contain hints of the shite's true character.

5. Sound -- alliteration, assonance, repetition of vowel sounds

eg. from Yamamba:  repetition of yama (mountain):

yama mata yama ni yama mawari Yamamba

Brazell trans. (TJT 225):

Mountain after mountain,
making mountain rounds
[the Mountain Crone's]destination never to be known.

Tyler trans. (JND 328):

yet mountain after mountain, mountain rounds
yet mountain after mountain, mountain rounds
[the Mountain Crone] follows and is lost to view.

eg. from Izutsu, repetition of izutsu (the wooden well-curb or well-cradle)

tsutsu izutsu, tsutsu izutsu, izutsu ni

Brazell trans.(TJT 155-56):

The wooden water well,
the wooden water well,
the wooden water well has a wall that [measures my height].

Tyler trans. (JND 131): 

Cradle, well cradle,
cradle, well cradle,
well cradle that told [who was taller].

6. Parallellism: gives structure to the argument, to the poetry. Sometimes reinforced by music and rhythm, sometimes contrapunted.

Example from Kayoi Komachi (alludes to the Buddhist parable of the deer of enlightenment and the hound of passion):

Komachi:

My heart that seeks the light
Is like the mountain deer
Even if you beckon
You cannot hold it back

Shôshô:

Then I'll become a hound of passion
You can beat but never drive away. (pp. 58-59)

7. Michiyuki (travel scene): a section of the play, usually in the first half, describing the journey of the waki or the shite. The description usually involves multiple puns on the names of the places through which the character travels. Sometimes these puns also have a thematic relationship to the play as a whole; that is, the images evoked correlate with important themes raised later on in the play. Examples: Komachi's wandering in Sotoba Komachi pp. 84-85; the waki's (Renshô's) journey from the capital to Ichinotani in Atsumori pp. 128-129, the journey of the waki (priest) in Kakitsubata to Yatsuhashi in Mikawa..

8. Stream of imagery -- 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: a particular image (or cluster of related images) may be expressed in a poetic phrase or a poem (often an allusion). It is repeated and its meaning expanded throughout the play by the use of all the rhetorical devices listed above. The image may be physically present as an aesthetically simplified prop. The intellectual and emotional complex of imagery and props is then highlighted by music and movement.

Examples: the fulling block in Kinuta, the white arrow in Kamo, the well-curb in Izutsu, the carriage in Aoi no Ue and Nonomiya.