EA 170 Week 4b-5a Outline (Fall 2017)
Youtube: Short history of Japan (problems: Kukai did NOT bring back Zen Buddhism from China-- that was Dogen in the 13th c. -- and he did not invent kana. Also it was a typhoon/hurricane not tornado that sunk the Mongol ships in both invasions)
I. Muromachi period (1336-1573) Noh Theater
A. Historical context: Ashikaga clan (now in power) move capital back
to Kyoto
1. Nostalgia of elite samurai for 10-11th century court culture
2. Patronage by samurai lords of arts (poetry, music, theater)
B. Critical Analysis Questions/Effect of historical context on Noh and other arts:
1. Audience/patronage:
a. originally popular form supported by temples and shrines, audience included both low and high
b. later Noh patronage shifts to elite samurai and aristocrats.
1) For example: relationship of Zeami (ca. 1364-1408) (author of Atsumori and Izutsu) and third Ashikaga shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408);
performance in 1375 when Zeami was 12 and Yoshimitsu was 18
3. Goals of Noh:
a. early Noh, goals were originally didactic (demontrate power of Buddhist salvation):
b. late Noh: after patronage shifts to Ashikaga and other high ranking samurai, Noh becomes more focussed on aesthetics, nostalgia for Heian court culture
II. Religious background of Noh theater.
A. Belief in ghosts (angry and otherwise):
1. Demon Plays reproduce theatrically famous exorcisms of demons and angry ghosts (such as the demonic hag of Kurozuka/Adachigahara or Aoi no Ue) .
2. Warrior Plays developed out of pacification rituals for the angry ghosts of the Heike warriors who had died in the Genpei civil wars.
3. Woman plays, which often feature love-lorn women from the Heian period, do not involve angry ghosts, but do often center on the desire of the main character to find release from their passionate attachment.
B. Two main plays that feature Rokujo from Tale of Genji:
1. Aoi no Ue: Demon Play -- theatrical performance of exorcism/pacification
ritual
2. Nonomiya: Woman Play -- “dream vision Noh”
C. Basic Plot of Dream Vision Noh
1. Ghost returns to the place that has the strongest emotional memory for it (death, last place it met loved one etc.).
2. When he/she first appears to a wandering monk, they seem to be just a local person, but reveal too much knowledge about the events that took place in this spot.
3. They eventually admit that they are a ghost and ask a wandering monk to pray for their release from passionate attachments and enlightenment.
4. In the second half of the play they appear in their true form
a. warrior: re-enacts his death through dance
b. woman: dances in memory of her beloved
5. Usually at the end they achieve enlightenment.
Watch "Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan: Noh" and "Aoi no Ue" (with English subtitles; full production in Japanese only)
Japanology Plus: Noh
III. Comparison of Rokujô in Tale of Genji and Aoi no Ue (photo story)
A. Review of Rokujô in Tale of Genji
1.. Rokujô is both male ideal and also male ideal’s antithesis
a. Her positive qualities: extraordinarily beautiful and talented, exquisite aesthetic taste
b. Her negative qualities: jealous and resentful; too concerned with her dignity; strong-willed and destructive; ambivalent, indecisive, and emotionally unstable
b. How does she fare in the novel? Why? (remember "madwoman in the attic" trope)
c. Rokujô's psychological complexity in Tale of Genji is an important feature of the novel that we respond to today. What does she represent (negative and positive)?
B. Basic Plot of Noh: Rokujô, Aoi no Ue, shamaness (Teruhi); famous mountain priest (Kohijiri of Yokawa)
Photo-story of Aoi no Ue
Images from class website
In the first act of the play, Rokujo appears as a beautiful, high-class Heian period woman to explain why she is attacking Aoi no Ue. In the second act, she returns in demonic form to battle the male ascetic priest. The priest uses esoteric Buddhist rituals to force Rokujo to give up her anger and she attains nirvana. Note that in the first half of the play, Rokujo usually wears a Deigan (supernatural woman) mask; in the second half a Hanya (1, 2, female demon) mask. See images below.
C. There are major plot differences between Tale of Genji and Aoi no Ue. What factors might explain them?
1. Authorship:
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue: Unknown authorship, possibly revised slightly by Zeami (see p. 925)
2. Patronage:
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue (this is early Noh!):
3. Audience:
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
4. Purpose:
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
D. What are the main differences in the plot and characterization of Rokujo between Tale of Genji and Aoi no Ue?
1. What is the central conflict?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
a. In both texts, Rokujo's ambivalence about Genji and indecisiveness plays a role. But in Aoi no Ue her indecisiveness becomes an inability to cboose release from her anger so as to gain enlightenment rather than take revenge on Aoi no Ue.
b. Parable of the Burning House (1, 2) from the Lotus Sutra (see also Wikipedia article on Upaya, expedient means):
1) Three carts represent the three possible vehicles of Buddhist enlightenment; the large cart drawn by the ox represents the “Great Vehicle” of Mahayana Buddhism
2) Images in the play: carts/carriages/vehicles, wheels of karmic retribution
“Riding the Three Vehicles of the Law
Others may escape the Burning House.
Mine is but a cart
In ruins like Yugao's house;
I know not how to flee my passion.
Like an ox-drawn cart, this weary world
Rolls endlessly on the wheels of retribution.
Like wheels of a cart forever turning
Are birth and death in all living things;
Through the Six Worlds and Four Births
You must journey;
Strive as you will, there is no escape.
What folly to be blind
To the frailty of this life,
Like the banana stalk without a core,
Like a bubble on the water!
” (pp. 928-9)
3) Why is she using the image of the ox-drawn carts and carriages? (image)
4) What has the carriage of the carriage incident at the Kamo Festival parade now been transformed into? Did it have any of these meanings in the original text of Tale of Genji?
c. What do you think Rokujô's hell looks like?
d. What does the shamaness Teruhi try to tell her?
e. What happens in the end? How is this different from Tale of Genji?
f. Summary of conflict difference:
2. Is Rokujô alive or dead?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
pg. 930: I am the spirit of Lady Rokujô.
In days of old when I moved in society,
On spring mornings I was invited
To the flower feasts of the Palace,
And on autumn nights
I viewed the moon in the royal garden.
Happily thus I spent my days
Among bright hues and scents.
Fallen in life, today I am no more
Than a morning-glory that withers with the rising of the sun.
p. 932: And I shall pass away
Like a dewdrop on a mugwort leaf.
When I think of this,
How bitter I feel!
Our love is already an old tale,
Never to be revived even in a dream.
Note alternate translation of last two lines (p. 97): “Even were I living, our love is already an old tale, never to be revived even in a dream.”
p. 936: the Bodhisattva comes to meet her and she enters nirvana.
3. Is Rokujô conscious of what she is doing?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
a. Why the difference?
4. Does she kill Aoi no Ue?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
a. Why the difference?
5. Who does Rokujô appear to? What role do the priests play?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
6. Does Rokujô get enlightenment?
►Tale of Genji:
►Aoi no Ue:
a. Why the difference?
7. Summary:
CLASS DISCUSSION TUESDAY (Week 5a)
Comparison of Nonomiya and Aoi no Ue
I. Nonomiya (The Wildwood Shrine). See also Slide Show
A. Format: "dream vision" Noh. The spirit of Rokujo appears to a wandering priest at the temporary shrine where she last met Genji. In the first act she takes the form of a young local village woman serving the shrine; in the second act she appears in her true form as an elegant, aristocratic, slightly older woman in a "dream vision." Note that a wide variety of masks can be used for this play: often Ko-omote or Magojirô (young woman masks) for first half, Fukai or Zô no onna (slightly older woman masks) for second act. See images below.
1. Authorship: Zeami's son-in-law Zenchiku (this is late Noh!)
2. Patronage/audience: highly cultured samurai and aristocrats
B. Rokujô in Nonomiya -- Comparison to Aoi no Ue
1. Why does she appear?
►Aoi no Ue
►Nonomiya
2. What is the conflict?
►Aoi no Ue
►Nonomiya
a. Rokujo's ambivalence/indecisiveness is similar, but now not about getting revenge on Aoi no Ue; instead can't give up attachment to Genji and the past.
b. Problem of Shinto versus Buddhism
1. The exclusion of Buddhism at the Ise Shrine was mentioned briefly in Tale of Genji; Rokujo expresses anxiety about the years she spent at Ise Shrine, so far from Buddhism. In Nonomiya, because she is still trapped in the temporary shrine, she still feels excluded from Buddhism. Begins by telling the priest he does not belong there.
Priest replies (p. 208): "The sacred fence of Ise does not part the Gods from the Buddhas, and the way runs straight for the teaching of the holy Law."
The moon of enlightenment shines only "pallid light" here in the shrine (p. 212): "Aloft, among the trees, an evening moon sheds its pallid light on two rough pillars: the torii she approaches now, and melts away into the torii, yes, she is gone."
c. Repetition compulsion
p. 212"At the Wildwood Shrine a carriage decked with all the flowers of fall brings me round again to times gone by."
3. Is Rokujo demonic? Is she conscious of what she is doing?
►Aoi no Ue
►Nonomiya
Emphasis on aesthetics and nostalgia over dramatic exorcism is probably because of changes in patronage/audience.
4. Does she achieve enlightenment?
►Aoi no Ue
►Nonomiya
a. Why the difference?
b. Carriage imagery/Buddhist vehicle in the two plays: are they used for the same reasons?
1. Kamo festival carriage:
Aoi no Ue: she is in a “ragged coach” (94) which seems to refer to the Kamo incident, but the Kamo incident is only indirectly mentioned. And she attempts to drag Aoi into her carriage at the end of the first half.
Nonomiya: she talks slightly more explicitly about the Kamo incident
(p. 212) "At the Wildwood Shrine a carriage decked with all the flowers of fall brings me round again to times gone by."
(p. 213) "For actions, so it seems, call forth in time their own retribution. Still bitter at heart, I ride my carriage round and round. How long must I go on? Help me dispel, I pray, my wrongful clinging!"
2. Mahayana Vehicle:
5. Why do you think Rokujô is given so much sympathy and is allowed to tell the story from her point of view?
a. Buddhist influence?
b. Allegory?
II. Representation of feminine and masculine in Noh
A. Realistic (Representational) versus Presentational performance
1. Traditionally men play all the roles, no specialization in one gender role
a. Gender instability:
b. layered characters (male and female) Ki no Aritsune's daughter in Izutsu
1) based on cross-dressing medieval shirabyoshi dancers (image)
2. No attempt to hide that male is playing the role
a. eg. (image)
b. voice is not lowered or raised to indicate gender
1) why not larger mask?
3. Costume:
a. Supports dance movements (image)
1) feminine versus masculine movements
a) robe worn straight (image):
b) split pants (hakama) (image, image):
b. Represents certain symbolic elements
1) colors: older woman, younger woman
2) patterns: triangles, karmic
wheels1, 2; thunder/lightning
4. Use of masks rather than makeup
a. origin in religious rituals
b. archetypal
c. pragmatic for traveling troupes
5. Creates "psychological" realism (not representational)
a. creation/projection of emotions through mask (NOT hiding or "masking" emotions, as we think of mask use today)
1) identification of actor and mask (green room):
2) brightening and darkening by raising and lowering mask, changes emotion
3) movement style:
Watch video clips Yashima and Izutsu for comparison of movement styles
Yashima images; synopsis and photo story
movie clip: Yashima 1, 2 (right click the link and "save as" to watch on your own video player, otherwise it might not play full screen)
Izutsu images; synopsis and photo story (right click the link and "save as" to watch on your own video player, otherwise it might not play full screen)
movie clip: Izutsu 1, 2 (general summary), 3 (kata)
B. Male Masks (images)
1.
Young men (warriors) from the Heike
a. Juroku chujo (16-year
old Middle Captain)
b. Chujo (Middle Captain)
C. Female Masks (images)
1. Young woman
a. Ko-omote:
b. Magojirô:
c. Masugami:
2. Slightly older woman
a. Zô no onna (often used in second act of Nonomiya)
b. Fukai: (sometimes used in second act of Nonomiya)
1) Kinuta
c. Rôjô
Komachi:
d. Ryô no
onna:
3. Supernatural and/or demonic women
a. Deigan:
b. Hashihime
c. Hanya (half-serpent) 1, 2 (used in second half of Aoi no Ue):
d. Shinja (true-serpent):
e. Yamamba
