Premodern Japanese Ghosts Week 6a Outline: Intro to Kyogen

I. Intro to Late Muromachi and Edo, historical period behind Kyogen

A. Civil war (1468-1603)

1. sengoku jidai: (The Warring States Period)

2. gekokujô: the low overthrows the high

a. Zeami as an example of social mobility

2. Influence on Kyogen:

"Kyogen, written by and for people who had gone from a lower position in society to a higher one, celebrated the wit and cunning with which they had made such an advance." (William LaFleur, The Karma of Words, p. 142)

B. Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1868)

1. Rigid hierarchies, Neo-Confucian values

a. Samurai
b. Peasants
c. Artisans
d. Merchants

2. Influence on Noh and Kyogen

a. Noh as ritual theater

b. Kyogen as comic counterpart to Noh

 

II. Kyogen Masks and Costumes

A. Who wears masks? Who doesn't?

1.

2.

III. Carolyn Haynes: two forms of parody in Kyogen

      A. Taking an accepted concept and pushing it to extremes (PARADIGMATIC)

      1. Style appears to be serious like Noh, but content is silly or risqué.

      B. Reversing usual expectations (SYNTAGMATIC)

      1. gekokujô: the low overthrows the high

      a. masters/servants, husbands/wives, deities/human beings

      C. Other elements of humor

      2. Language

          a. onomatopoeia (creaking sound: gara-gara-gara; sawing: zoka-zoka-zoka; pouring sake into a cup: dobu-dobu-dobu?


          b. puns
          c. literary allusions and catalogues

IV. Views of Hell in Kyôgen

    A. Review of  Hell Scrolls (12-13th c.)

    1.

    B. Review of Hell in Noh plays (14-17th c.)

    1.

    C. Hell in Kyogen: both kinds of hell but funny


      1. King Emma (Enma, Yama) plays (reversal of expectations--syntagmatic)


        a. What would you expect King Emma to be like from the Hell Scrolls and stories?

        b. What is he like in Kyôgen plays?

        c. What is the view of the Rokudô/Hell in these plays?

        1) e.g. Asaina         (AKA Asahina)

        Shigeyama Asahina

        click here for Asahina meets Jizo and Emma

        2) e.g. Bird Catcher in Hell (Esashi Juô)

        text

        The bird catcher, Kiyoyori, dies and meets King Enma (Yama) at the Crossroads of the Six Paths. He demonstrates how he catches and roasts birds for King Enma and his demons, and the birds are so delicious Enma lets him go back to the world of the living for 3 more years.

    2. Maikyôgen Dance Plays (pushing an idea to its extreme--paradigmatic)

        a. Karmic retribution

        1) e.g. The Potato (Tokoro), The Clam (Hamaguri)

        b. Universal Salvation

        1) eg. The Cicada (Semi)

        a) basic structure: dream vision Noh

        b) basic plot:

        c) parody allusions to classical literature

        "In Shinano famous bridges hang between high peaks. Famous too the noodles that hang in disarray at Sarashina, where the moon lingers over Mt. Asama." p. 286 (parodying Tales of Ise)

        "Beneath a tree, the empty shell of a cicada who's shed its skin. If only I might see once more the vanished lady herself!" p. 288-89 (from Tale of Genji)

        d) onomatopoeia: "kururi, kururi, kuru kuri kuru kurureba"

        e) visual humor

        f) speed/pacing

        f ) reenactment of death and torture in hell

        The waki asks him to confess, "Tell me in detail of your sins, they will dissolve in confession"

        The cicada replies, "I'll tell you about the inescapable torments I suffer"

        "A flock of crows spread their wings at dusk and swooped down faster than a kite. One grabbed me, crying, "I'll crush you whole!" He opened his filthy maw and crushed me to bits. My fellow cicadas hid among leaves or fled to rotten trees, and there wasn't a soul to help me." (289)

        "And now to speak of my torments in hell, as was my way in the world of the living, I light on treetops but now their branches turn to swords and tear through my body. I fly into the air, but fierce black mountain spiders have spread their webs wide across the entire expanse and I'm caught in a net of a thousand ropes wrapped round and round, round and round and round and when the sun goes down, I'm dinner for a horned owl. Oh misery, this is the retribution for my sins this agony night and noon." (289-90)

        Nomura Mansai performing the dance section above (acting out his torments in hell)

        cf to Kiyotsune, where the main character dances his experience in the Ashura hell:

        "Where'er I turn in the Ashura world
        The trees are foes, arrows the falling rain,
        Sharp swords strew the ground,
        The hills are iron castles,
        The clouds are battle-penants,
        Enemies thrust with their proud blades,
        Hate flashing in their eyes."

         

          c. Here tortures in hell = tortures in life

    C. Summary: How is hell and the Rokudô (Six Paths of Reincarnation) played with in these plays?

      1. Emma Kyôgen

      a.

      b.

      2. Mai (dance) kyôgen

      a.

      b.

IV. Kyôgen plays about yamabushi mountain priests and exorcisms, deities and demons

A. Two kinds of yamabushi mountain priests

1. Tricksters

a. The Snail (Kagyu): Servant (Tarokaja) sent to the market to get snails (delicacy) for dinner, but doesn’t know what they are; is tricked by yamabushi to think he is “the mother of all snails.”

b. Persimmon Yamabushi (Kaki Yamabushi): mountain priest sneaks into a garden to steal persimmons; gets caught by owner up in the tree and is forced to perform silly acts

2. Incompetent exorcists

a. Owls (viewed on “This is Kyogen”)

3. Why is it okay to make fun of Mountain Priests?

 B.  Deities and Demons

1. Neck-Pulling (Kubi-Hiki)

3. Is this view of deities and demons surprising?

Images of the Hundred Demon Night Parade

 Discussion questions:

    A. Mushrooms (Kusabira), Thunderbolt (Kaminari), Yao

    1. What category of Noh play do you think they parodying? Can you point to a specific play? Provide support for your answer with quotations + page numbers.

    2. What other kinds of humor do you see? Visual humor? Linguistic humor (i.e. onomatopoeia, puns etc)? Stage actions? How do the plays use this humor to make fun of religion? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).

    3. What elements reverse your expectations given what you know about Noh? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).

    4. What do these plays say about the common people's view of the supernatural (ghosts and deities)? Provide examples/quotations to support your points (with page numbers).