Readings:

Reading Questions:

 "Mount Tenpai" and "Tumult in the Palace" from Sugawara's Secrets of Calligraphy
The basic story so far: The triplets, Umeômaru (Ume=plum blossom), Sakuramaru (Sakura=cherry blossom), and Matsuômaru (Matsu = pine tree) are the sons of Shiradayû, the favorite retainer of Sugawara no Michizane. Umeômaru serves Michizane, Sakuramaru is the retainer of Prince Tokiyo (the younger brother of Emperor Daigo), and Matsuômaru is the retainer of Fujiwara Shihei (Shihei is the Sino-Japanese reading of Tokihira, Michizane's historical enemy). Sakuramaru has promoted a relationship between Prince Tokiyo and Michizane's daughter Kariya. Historically, Michizane's daughter Nobuko was a consort of Retired Emperor Uda (Daigo's father and Michizane's chief political support at court); another unnamed daughter married Tokiyo. In the play, the villain Shihei has used this relationship as a pretext to claim that Michizane is planning to depose the current Emperor Daigo and put Prince Tokiyo on the throne; this is the reason that Michizane is exiled. In fact (according to the play) Shihei is planning to usurp the throne himself.

Umeômaru goes into exile with Michizane. To atone for having brought on the scandal that causes Michizane to be exiled, Sakuramaru eventually commits seppuku (ritual suicide); his wife Yae dies valiantly fighting off Shihei's men. Matsuômaru, torn between his duty to his master Shihei, and his obligation to his father's master Michizane, ends up sacrificing his own son as a substitute for Michizane's son, Kan Shusai.

1) Go back and review the images from week 2. Using the captions from those images, look for ways that this Bunraku version of the Sugawara no Michizane story incorporates elements of the 10th c. (oracles) and 13th c. (Kitano Tenjin engi) versions.

2) How was the following poem used to create the story of the triplet brothers?

3) What is different about Michizane's treatment in this play compared to the original story? How does the Bunraku version incorporate elements from the Noh play Raiden?

4) What is Michizane's motive for becoming a thunder god in the Bunraku play versus the 10th and 13th century versions? In the Bunraku play is Michizane subversive in any way?

5) How are the ghosts presented in this play? Is Buddhism effective against them? What pacifies them?

6) How might Edo period values be influencing the representation of Michizane?



9b: Sakura Sôgôro

Readings: [OL]Anne Walthall, "The Sakura Sôgôro Story"

 

Week 9b Reading Questions:

Anne Walthall, "The Sakura Sôgorô Story"

1) Do you think that Sôgorô actually existed? Why or why not?

2) How does Sôgorô become "the patron saint of protest"? In what forms and by what means does the story of Sôgorô spread across Japan?

3) Compare the Kabuki Sôgorô with the warrior ghosts and demonic women of the Noh stage. What is the main conflict of the story? Is the Kabuki Sôgorô version concerned with Buddhist salvation?

The story itself (pp. 46-75):

1) According to the opening and closing sections, what kind of spirit is Sôgorô (he may be more than one kind!) Why do you suppose he has Taira no Masakado as an ancestor? (Hint -- go back and read "Michizane as Tenjin" esp. pp. 314-315, first paragraph of p. 320)

2) As their children are executed how are Sôgorô and his wife physically transformed? What do they do to turn themselves into avenging ghosts? (pp. 63-68)

3) What might the criticism of the priest from Tôkô-ji (65) indicate about changes in attitude toward Buddhism in the Tokugawa period? (p. 65)

4) What forms do Sôgorô and his wife take in haunting Hotta's pregnant wife? Are Buddhist priests and yamabushi helpful in exorcising the ghosts? How is their revenge finally achieved?