Japanese Ghosts Week 5a Outline:

I. Review: Rokujô in Tale of Genji

A. Rokujô as both the male ideal and the antithesis of the male ideal

1. Her positive qualities:

2 Her negative qualities:

3. How she fares in the novel:

4. What she represents

a. negative:

b. positive:

5. Psychological complexity

a. Her wandering spirit (ikiryô) expresses emotions for:

1) Herself

2) Genji

3) Her victims

 

II. Shamanic elements in Aoi no Ue [images; see also Slide Show]

A. Basic Plot: Rokujô, Aoi no Ue, shamaness (Teruhi); famous mountain priest (Holy Man, Yokawa no Kohijiri)

B. Structure of the play

1. "Present time" (genzai) Noh -- events happen in real time.

2. Fourth category play (but could be fifth category "Demon" play): theatricalization of a shamanic exorcism

VIDEO: "Aoi no Ue" (full production in Japanese only)

C. Plot elements related to shamanism

1. Why does Rokujo appear?

2. Who does she appear to?

3. You can see the power split between yamabushi mountain priest and shamaness that Carmen Blacker discusses in Catalpa Bow very clearly.

a. How you can tell he's a mountain priest:

1) visual

2) Prayer by Holy Man (pp. 933-34)

He performs the healing rites,
Wearing his cloak of hemp,
In which, in the footsteps of En-no-Gyôja,
He scaled the peaks
Symbolic of the sacred spheres
Of Taizô [Womb Realm] and Kongô [Diamond Realm],
Brushing away the dew that sparkles like the Seven Jewels,
And with a robe of meek endurance
To shield him from defilements,
Fingering his reddish wooden beads,
And rubbing them together, he intones a prayer: namaku, samanda, basarada.

D. Use of Mantras

a. Namaku, samanda, basarada (pseudo-Sanskrit)

b. Calls on the Five Wisdom Kings and chants the vow of Fudô Myôô (favorite of mountain priests)

(p. 936)

Whoever hears by my teaching
Shall gain profound wisdom;
Whoever knows my mind
Shall gain the purity of buddhahood.

E. Is the ritual successful? (image)
 

F. Other Visual elements related to Shamanism

1. costuming (karmic wheels, triangles, long hair, horns/mask)

a. why isn't the hair as wild as in Adachigahara?

2. demon stick (torimono)

A. Think about why there are differences using Critical Analysis questions:

1. author:

 Tale of Genji: Lady in Waiting to Empress Shôshi in the Heian court, Murasaki Shikibu about 1000 c.e.

Aoi no Ue: Anonymous early Noh composer (pre-Zeami), late 14th c.

Note: author of Aoi no Ue didn't have access to original text of Tale of Genji; probably used a handbook with basic synopsis, guide to characters, and important poems


2. patron:

Tale of Genji: Fujiwara no Michinaga (Empress Shôshi's father)

Aoi no Ue: patronage by Buddhist temple to help raise money for the temple

3. audience:

Tale of Genji:

Aoi no Ue: popular audience, including both elite and commoners


3. goal:

Tale of Genji:

Aoi no Ue: entertainment and didactic; demonstrate the power of Buddhism


B. CLASS DISCUSSION of differences in the Noh play and Tale of Genji

1. What is the central conflict?

ToG:

AnU:

a. ambivalence of Rokujo in Tale of Genji versus Aoi no Ue

1) what is she trying to decide in Tale of Genji?

2) what is she trying to decide in Aoi no Ue?

b. Where is she trapped in Aoi no Ue?

Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra

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 (pp. 928-29)

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 passions.
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;
Six Worlds and Four Births
You must journey;
Strive as you will, there is no escape.


Summary: Why the difference?


2. Who does Rokujô appear to? What is Genji's role? The role of the priests?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

 

3. Is Rokujô alive or dead?

ToG:

AnU (not completely clear in Japanese, but at end a Bodhisattva comes to meet her and carry her off to buddhahood):

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 at 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:

Our love is already an old tale,
never to be revived even in a dream.

p. 936:

The Bodhisattva comes to meet her.
She enters nirvana,
Released from the cycle of death and rebirth--Buddha be praised!

Summary: Why the difference?

4. Does Rokujô kill Aoi no Ue?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

5. Is Rokujô conscious of what she is doing?

ToG:

AnU:

p. 931

Present vengeance is the retribution
For past wrongs you did to me.

The flame of consuming anger
Scorches only my own self.

Summary: Why the difference?

 

6. Does Rokujô get enlightenment?

ToG:

AnU:

Summary: Why the difference?

7. Summary

1. Changes in Buddhism: Universal Salvation
2. Feminist understanding of issues

A. Differences from Tale of Genji and Aoi no Ue (for discussion section on Thursday)

1. Author/Patronage

a. Middle period Noh: composed by Zenchiku (Zeami's son-in-law), writing for elite courtier and samurai patrons, so more interested in aesthetics than Buddhist didacticism

2. Basic Story

a. Based on "The Sacred Tree" (Sakaki) chapter in which Genji sleeps with Rokujo for the last time, before she leaves with her daughter for Ise Shrine

b. Nonomiya (literally, "Shrine in the Fields"): the temporary shrine built for the year-long purification of the young girl chosen to be the Ise Priestess, before she leaves for Ise Shrine. Here the girl is Akikonomu, Rokujo's daughter.

3. Structure of the play: Dream Vision Noh

a. Ghost appears as local villager to a wandering priest
b. Interacts with priest, priest becomes suspicious because villager knows too much and asks more probing questions, villager identifies self as ghost
c. Second act of play ghost returns in true form (perhaps in a dream vision) and reenacts traumatic story through song and dance
d. In some plays achieves enlightenment through combination of reenactment and Buddhist prayers by priest.

4. Dream Vision Noh as disguised or implicit shamanic ritual of pacification:

p. 213 "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!"

5. Other elements of Shamanism

a. Sakaki (evergreen) branch
p. 210: "Only the sakaki is unchanged, for autumn darkens over woodland paths and alas the golden leaves have fallen."

b. Attachment to place
p. 208: "Secretly each year on this day, I again seek out the long-lost past at the Wildwood shrine." c. Embarrassment/shame (identification of name is still key)
p. 211: " I have no wish to vex you with my name, unworthy as I am. I am ashamed."

6. Discussion questions: Why does Rokujô come back? What are the two conflicts here? Does she get enlightenment in the end?

B. Why is Rokujô treated so sympathetically? Why do we get to hear her side of the story?