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non-italic text within italic blocks by +plus signs+.




  PLAYS OF OLD JAPAN
  THE NŌ
  BY MARIE C. STOPES




 ~EPOCHS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART.~ By ERNEST F. FENOLLOSA. In two
 Vols. Crown 4to. Illustrated. ~36s.~ net.

 ~A HISTORY OF JAPANESE COLOUR-PRINTS.~ By W. VON SEIDLITZ. Illustrated
 in Colour and Black and White. One Vol. Crown 4to. ~25s.~ net.

 ~JAPANESE PLAYS AND PLAYFELLOWS.~ By OSMAN EDWARDS. With twelve
 Coloured Plates by Japanese Artists. One Vol. Demy 8vo. ~10s.~ net.

 ~KAKEMONA: Japanese Sketches.~ By A. HERBAGE EDWARDS. One Vol. Crown
 8vo. ~7s. 6d.~ net.

 ~A HISTORY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE.~ By W. G. ASTON. One Vol. Large
 Crown 8vo. ~6s.~

 ~IN JAPAN: Pilgrimages to the Shrines of Art.~ By GASTON MIGEON,
 translated by FLORENCE SIMMONDS. One Vol. Crown 8vo. Illustrated.
 ~6s.~ net.

 ~THE JAPANESE DANCE.~ By M. A. HINCKS. One Vol. Crown 8vo.
 Illustrated. ~2s. 6d.~ net.


LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN


[Illustration: AN ACTOR OF THE _NŌ_ IN FULL COSTUME

TADANORI

_This plate, taken from a Japanese coloured woodcut, illustrates well
the voluminous nature of the mediæval ceremonial garments. The figure
is that of an ancient warrior of the Taira clan, to which Kagekiyo
belonged (+see p. 53+), who was noted also for the high quality of
his poetry. He composed a special verse, which he fastened in an arrow
that he always carried in his quiver, and that proved to be the means
of identification when he was found by his enemies, dead in the field
of battle. In the illustration one may particularly note the mask,
with the eyebrows painted so high on the forehead that they are above
the fillet band. The feet are not bare, but are covered with the white
+tabi+, or cotton boots with soft soles and a separate division
for the big toe, in which the +Nō+ dancers always perform their
parts._
]




  PLAYS OF OLD JAPAN
  THE ‘NŌ’

  BY
  MARIE C. STOPES
  D.SC., PH.D., F.L.S.

  TOGETHER WITH TRANSLATIONS OF THE DRAMAS BY M. C. STOPES
  AND
  PROFESSOR JOJI SAKURAI
  D.SC., LL.D.

  WITH A PREFACE BY HIS EXCELLENCY
  BARON KATO
  THE JAPANESE AMBASSADOR

  _ILLUSTRATED_

  [Illustration]

  LONDON      MCMXIII
  WILLIAM HEINEMANN




_Copyright and all translation and dramatic right reserved by Marie C.
Stopes_




PREFACE

By His Excellency the Japanese Ambassador


The _utai_ does not appeal to the uneducated, and for that reason its
devotees have practically been confined to the gentle and aristocratic
classes. In the days before the educational system of Japan was
established on Western lines, boys of the _Samurai_ class in many parts
of the country were taught to chant the _utai_ in their schools as a
part of their curriculum, the object being to ennoble their character
by imbuing them with the spirit of the olden times, and also to provide
for them a healthy means of recreation in their manhood. Along with
many other institutions, it declined in favour in consequence of
the great social and political upheaval which ushered in the era of
_Meiji_; and for some time afterwards the people were too much occupied
with various material aspects of life to find any leisure for the
cultivation of the art, so much so that its professional exponents,
meeting with no public support, had to give up the forlorn attempt to
continue their task and to look elsewhere for a means of earning their
livelihood.

With the consolidation of the new régime many old things took a new
lease of life, the _utai_ being one of them. Not only has the _utai_
revived, but those who ought to know say that never in the long history
of its existence has it been so extensively patronised as it is to-day.
Patrons of the art are by no means confined to the aristocratic
classes, albeit it is not so popular as the ordinary theatrical play,
and never could be from the nature of the thing.

This book will, therefore, well repay study on the part of any one
desirous of knowing and appreciating the working of the Japanese mind,
and the author and her colleague are rendering a good service to the
public of the West by initiating them into the subject. As the author
frankly admits, to translate the _utai_ into a European language is a
most difficult task, and, in my opinion, it is a well-nigh impossible
one. The meaning of the original may be conveyed--its spirit to a
certain extent--but never the peculiarities of the original language,
on which the beauty of the _utai_ mainly rests. It was very brave of
Dr. Marie Stopes and Prof. Sakurai to undertake what I should deem an
impossible task, and I am glad to be able to extend to them my sincere
congratulations on their remarkable achievement. They have succeeded
in their work to the best extent any one can hope to succeed, and in
my opinion have placed Western students of Japanese art and literature
under a debt of gratitude to them.

  TAKAAKI KATO.

  _Japanese Embassy, London._
  _November 1912._




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                _To face page_

  TADANORI      _Frontispiece_

  VIEW OF THE NŌ STAGE      10

  A COUNTRY POETESS         14

  MIIDERA                   16

  SŌSHIARI-GOMACHI          24

  THE MAIDEN’S TOMB         38

  SUMIDAGAWA                76




TO THE READER


Their poetry is the expressed essence of the Japanese. It represents
them as the Victory of Samothrace represents the people of Greece, as
the scent represents the rose. Chamberlain says, “The one original
product of the Japanese mind is the native poetry”--their painting,
their porcelain, their ceremonials, are modifications of Chinese
classics, but their poetry is their very own. Among the greatest and
most characteristic treasures of the native literature, the Japanese
rank their ancient “lyric dramas,” the _Nō_. As Synge and the Irish
poets speak for the Irish people the things that matter most to them
and that yet go all unexpressed in their outward life, in the same
sense, only to a greater extent, do the _Nō_ dramas represent the old
spirit of Japan.

In Japanese the texts of the _Nō_ dramas, all of which were written
before the sixteenth century, are collected in a great work, the
_Yokyoku Tsukai_, in which various editions give as many as two hundred
and thirty-five to two hundred and sixty-two _utai_, as the librettos
of the _Nō_ are called. Yet these treasures are practically unknown to
the reading public of the West, notwithstanding the interest that has
been taken in “things Japanese.” Scholars certainly have paid them some
attention, and a few _utai_ have been rendered into English, but in
most cases these translations are such as appeal primarily to scholars,
and do not reach the wider public. Chamberlain’s _Classical Poetry of
the Japanese_, in which some of the _utai_ find a place, is perhaps the
only exception to the general statement that no rendering of any of
these plays has yet been made which is calculated to win those readers
who do not delve in the Transactions of learned societies nor read
transliterated texts in weighty volumes, but who, nevertheless, delight
in the great literatures of the world.

One of the reasons for this is certainly the extreme remoteness of the
subject from everything to which we are accustomed, and the difficulty
of translating into our own the obscure language of these mediæval
texts.

All students of Japanese are agreed about the excessive difficulty of
making any rendering from the _utai_ which combines fidelity to the
original with lucidity in a European language.

Yet these old plays are unique, exquisite, individual, and so full of
charm that it is a great loss to the Western world that they should be
entirely removed from our ken by being hedged in and shut away from
us by the difficulties of language. It is clearly some one’s duty to
translate, not merely the words of these plays, but their meaning and
spirit, so that the Western public may have partial access at least to
the source that delights, and has delighted for centuries, the best
minds of our Allies in the East. No translation can ever convey more
than a fraction of the power, beauty, and individual characteristics
of the original, but it is my hope that there may be found between
these covers something of the delicacy and charm of the _Nō_, some hint
of their peculiar flavour and effect. If this consummation is in any
single case achieved by this book, it will be, I fancy, only after the
whole of it has been read and laid down; when a faint spirit of the
_Nō_ may take shape in the reader’s mind.

Mountains blue in the distance before which we stand enthralled are
composed of grey rough stone and broken screes when viewed at nearer
quarters--yet we enjoy not less the illusory blue. The words of a
stirring poem that wafts us into a fairy land of dreams are each one
commonplace enough, and each can be reduced to its elements, _a_, _b_,
_c_, _d_, _e_,--twenty-six of them, which can be ranged in a straight
line.

And so it is with the _Nō_. They must not be too much analysed and
inquired into. Their language is simple, almost to baldness in places,
it is true, but their simple elements create a wonderland of illusion.
In Japanese they have the power to make the spirit soar into the
borders of the enchanted regions of romance; and when acted the plays
make one ache with _Weltschmerz_ in a way that shows that their place
is among the great things of our world, elemental in their simplicity.
Then it must not be forgotten that the text of the drama as presented
is accompanied by music, and is chanted by highly trained actors in a
beautiful setting. Who would think of judging Wagner from the texts
of his librettos alone, and of ignoring his power as a scene creator
and a musician? The texts of the _Nō_ are largely prosy, if you will.
Mr. Sansom recently censured me, and with me the leading Japanese
authorities on the subject, for our appreciation of the poetry of the
_Nō_. He would have us believe that the steady popularity of these
plays for six hundred years among the leading men of the country, from
priests and poets to princes and warriors, is due to over-estimation,
and that they are, after all, mostly prose of no high quality. In a
language so widely diverging from our own in its construction and
mode of thought as Japanese, the details of the literary style and
composition are beyond reach of my judgment. As the Japanese for
so long have been consistent in their admiration of the literary
construction of the _Nō_, I am content in that matter to accept their
verdict. But of the atmosphere and general effect of the plays I can
judge for myself, and I find them among the supremely great things in
world-literature. That Mr. Sansom does not, depends on his own taste in
the matter. I have, in these modern days of unshackled opinion, heard
people openly announce that they saw nothing in Shakespeare! I fancy
that if we could translate literally into the English language the
song of the nightingale to its mate, it would be found to be largely
composed of mundane affairs and prosy gossip about its neighbours, the
weather and the marauding school-boy. But is it to us any the less
romantic and glorious in association? There is a focal distance for
every work of art, and if we choose to overstep it and go and rub our
noses against the canvas of supreme genius, we will only find smeary
paint and an unpleasant odour. So, acknowledging the prosy elements in
the texts of the _Nō_ I have attempted to render, I present them in the
hope that there will be some readers who will see through the shrouding
veils of a foreign language something of the features of the eternal
loveliness of the original. My great regret is the imperfections of
my handling of these delicate fantasies. But with the exceptional
knowledge and gifts of my collaborator in the translations, Prof.
Sakurai, the standard of detailed accuracy has been kept up to a point
which will, I trust, make these translations not entirely unworthy
of a scholar’s perusal (but see p. 32); nevertheless, the reader whom
my heart desires is not one to take too close an inspection of each
detail, but one who will catch the spirit of the whole. None of the
four plays that follow have been translated by any one else,[1] so far
as I can discover; so that, as they break new ground for it, the public
will perhaps be lenient and sympathetic towards these efforts.


Concerning the Place the _Nō_ takes in Japan to-day

In Japan to-day there still lingers much of the old aristocratic scorn
of the common theatre, but the theatres which are dedicated to the
performance of the _Nō_ have no such stigma attached to them. Indeed,
these performances are almost entirely supported by the gentle and
aristocratic classes. The interest of intellectual men in these plays
is not even satisfied with on-looking, and many of the leading men
of the day in Tokio--lawyers, university professors, statesmen and
aristocrats--study the chants and songs and give private recitals of
them. A few even undertake the arduous training necessary to act a
complete part, including the “dancing,” and then the gentlemen are
proud to appear with distinguished professionals. The only comparable
enthusiasm in our country is that of the Shakespeare societies; but
even to act, and act well, a part in a Shakespeare play requires
an amount of application trivial in comparison with that necessary
completely to master a rôle in one of the _Nō_. For in “singing” the
_utai_ not only is every minute inflection of the voice prescribed and
regulated according to the severest rules, but every movement of the
body, every step and movement even of the toes or little fingers in
the “dance” that accompanies it, is most strictly governed by an iron
tradition, and the secret of some of the parts is only in the hands of
a few masters.

Mr. Sansom quotes, in an unsympathetic spirit, the opinion of Mr.
Tanaka Shohei, but as this opinion represents in substance that of a
number of the leading Japanese who interest themselves in the subject,
I think it may very well be given as an expression of current opinion
of the _Nō_: “From every point of view it is one of the pre-eminent
arts of the world. It is the flower of the Yamato stock. Every art
reflects the spirit of a given people at a given time, and, remembering
this, we must hold it remarkable that the affections of our people
should be retained by an art which arose six hundred years ago. In the
West there is no art with such a pedigree. This shows that the _Nō_
represents the national spirit, and is complete in every respect.”

A Japanese professor, writing to me, says, “A _Nō_ drama is always
very simple in its plot, and it is chiefly its peculiar poetical
construction and ring which appeal so much to our emotion and give the
charm it possesses.” Another opinion is quoted by Mr. Osman Edwards:
“The words (of the _Nō_) are gorgeous, splendid and even magnificent as
are the costumes.”

The charm of the _Nō_ is a cumulative one, and its power of
conveying much meaning in simple action is largely augmented by the
suggestiveness of the interwoven allusions to the classical poems
partly quoted or suggested in the words of the texts. Almost every word
carries more than its face value, and has been enriched by centuries of
usage in innumerable poetical and traditional connections.


Concerning the past History of the _Nō_

The _Nō_, as they are now preserved, date principally from the
fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, and all of them are prior
to the sixteenth century. Their development took place under the
Ashikaga Shogunate, particularly in the reign of the Shogun Yoshimitsu
(1368-1394), when they soon became exceedingly successful among the
nobles. They are to a large extent compounded from much older elements
which existed in a more incoherent form prior to the fourteenth
century; but they may be described as crystallising and taking their
distinctive form under the hands of _Kiyotsugu_, who lived from 1355 to
1406. It is of great interest to note how closely the dates of our own
Chaucer (1340-1400) correspond with those of the great Japanese master.
What world-phase brought two such men to the front at the same time in
the two island empires, all unknown to each other? Kiyotsugu was the
founder of the _Nō_ proper, and one of his pieces is given on p. 39. It
is certain that he did not suddenly evolve this type of drama, but took
the elements that were to hand and fused them together with the flux
of his personal genius. Chief among the material available were the
_Kagura_ or pantomime dances which were performed at Shinto festivals
on temporary wooden platforms. Direct descendants of these, nearly in
their original form, have lingered on till the present day. I have seen
performances on the rough temporary platforms, where the actors were
gaudily but cheaply decked and where the crowded audience was almost
entirely composed of the common people who stood semi-scornful for a
few moments, or were detained for a long time while passing on their
daily business. The antiquity of such performances can be imagined
from the fact that in the _Kojiki_, which was written in 712 A.D.,
they were described as being ancient and their origin was associated
with the sun goddess. The mythical story of their origin is one of the
well-known tales of Japan. The sun goddess, Amaterasu, was offended and
retired to a cave, withdrawing her luminous beauty from the world. As
may be imagined, this was very inconvenient for every one, including
the rest of the gods, who in their distress assembled on the dry bed of
the River of Heaven. (This is the Milky Way, and to one who knows the
mountain rivers of Japan it gives a very telling little touch, for the
dry bed of a Japanese river is a broad curve of round white stones.)
They endeavoured in many ways to lure the sun goddess out of her cave,
and at last they invented a dance and performed it on the top of an
inverted empty tub, which echoed when the dancer stamped. This excited
her curiosity, and the goddess was successfully drawn out of her
hiding-place, the light of her radiance once more blessed the earth,
and all was right again with gods and men. The stamping on the hollow
tub is still suggested in the “dancing” of the _Nō_, where the actor
raises his foot and stamps once or twice with force enough to make the
specially prepared wooden floor of the stage echo with a characteristic
sound.

It is quite probable that the actual words of the _utai_ (librettos)
of the _Nō_ were partly, if not entirely, written by Buddhist monks,
and Kiyotsugu was only responsible for bringing the whole together and
stage managing and stereotyping the plays.

Following Kiyotsugu, who died in 1406, was his son _Motokiyo_ (one of
whose plays will be found on p. 56), who lived from 1373-1455. As well
as adding to the number of the actual plays (as many as ninety-three
are attributed to him) he greatly improved the music. By the time of
his nephew some of the several different schools of _Nō_ interpreters,
which are still in existence, had sprung up.

The ruling Shoguns paid great attention to the _Nō_. Kiyotsugu the
founder was taken by the Shogun into his immediate service and was even
given the rank of a small daimio. Both Hideoshi and Iyeyasu, two of the
greatest men in Japanese history, were not only fond of witnessing the
plays, but it is reported that they actually took part in them among
the actors.


Concerning the Presentation of the _Nō_

A single _Nō_ play is not a lengthy performance, the average time for
its complete presentation being merely one hour. But a performance of
_Nō_ at a theatre generally lasts a whole day (except at special short
performances, mostly arranged in connection with festivities), because
half-a-dozen pieces are on the programme, and between each is given one
of the “mad-words,” or _Hiogen_, which are short, ludicrous farces, and
which serve to relieve the tension of the higher, and generally tragic
pieces.


The Theatre

The theatres, which are specially built for the _Nō_ performances,
are smaller than the common theatres. The stage is a square platform,
generally measuring about eighteen feet, which stands towards the
middle, so that the audience sit on three sides of it. This stage has
its own beautifully curved roof, which is separated from the roof over
the audience by a slight gap, and is reminiscent of the time when the
_Nō_ were performed on the outdoor wooden platforms while the audience
stood round in rain or shine. On the stage itself are two pillars of
smooth wood, which support its roof (see diagram facing p. 10). The
stage is horizontal and is raised a few feet above the ground; it is
made of very smooth and peculiarly resonant boarding, which is of
special importance in the “dancing,” in the course of which the actor
has to stamp at intervals with his shoeless feet and yet to make
a loud, though deadened sound. Let us not forget the inverted tub and
the sun goddess. This feature of the dancing is not to be despised,
for its effectiveness is notable. By the kindness of the Secretary of
the Royal Society of Literature I am allowed to reproduce my plan of
the _Nō_ stage[2] from their Transactions, so I am tempted to quote
also a paragraph describing it. “Leading to the stage is a gallery
nine feet wide, along which the actors pass very slowly on their way
from the green-room to the stage, and pause at each of the three pine
trees stationed along it. A curtain shuts the end of the gallery from
the green-room. All the woodwork is unpainted and unstained, though
very highly polished, and there is neither scenery nor appliances to
break the harmony. The three actual pine trees and a flat painted pine
on the wall at the back of the stage are all the ornament there is.”
The wood-cut facing p. 10 is an illustration of this stage taken from
a Japanese print. It represents an “undress” recital, but shows well
the build of the stage itself. The pine tree which is painted on the
bare boards at the back is not realistic, but is much conventionalised,
with solid emerald green masses of foliage and a twisted trunk. It is
like those trees which are seen in symbolic pictures and on ancient
ceremonial embroideries such as are used at weddings and at the New
Year time. The pine tree, and all it has come to mean to the Japanese
as a symbol, is closely associated with the _Nō_. Deeply interwoven in
the national sentiment is the play _Takasago_, which is the story of
the faithful spirits of the pine tree and is perhaps the most important
and most beloved of all the _Nō_.

[Illustration: PLATE 2.

VIEW OF THE NŌ STAGE

_To the left is the gallery along which the actors enter. On the stage
is a figure in ordinary ceremonial dress, not in costume, reciting a
piece with the aid only of a fan. Note the beautifully elaborate roof
belonging to the stage itself. The pieces of blue sky in the right and
centre which break into it, like the clouds in the left foreground, are
a conceit of the artist, but the blue sky to the left indicates with
verisimilitude the open space surrounding the stage._ ]

[Illustration:

 Diagram of stage arrangement in the _Nō_, showing also the position of
 the audience.

 On the stage the chorus is represented by crosses, the leader of the
 chorus marked [Illustration: circle with cross].

 The numbers I and II represent the positions during most of the action
 of the leading actors.

 I represents the _shite_.

 II represents the _waki_.

 The encircled numbers show the positions of the musicians, who are
 stationary during the piece.

  1. The _taiko_ player.
  2. The _otsuzumi_ player.
  3. The _kotsuzumi_ player.
  4. The _fue_ player.

 The squares at the front of the stage represent the two pillars
 supporting its roof.

_Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Literature._ ]


The Chorus

Quoting again from my paper: “Before the play begins the chorus comes
in, robed in blue or blue-grey, and enters into the colour scheme. The
men squat on their heels with their legs folded straight and flat along
the boards on the right of the stage, and before them lie their fans,
which remain closed through the whole play, but are raised upright
while they are singing. The chorus chants at intervals throughout the
piece, sometimes informing the audience of the events supposed to be
taking place, or to have taken place, sometimes moralising on the
fate or feelings of the hero or heroine, sometimes describing their
emotions, sometimes even instructing them. While they are doing this
their fans are raised upright, with one end touching the ground, and
are laid down again directly the words are finished. The Japanese
name for the chorus is _ji_, a word meaning also ‘ground’--the ground
colour, as it were, on which the figures of the drama are painted.” As
is natural, such an arrangement of chorus and stage recalls the Greek
plays. The comparisons and contrasts between this and the Greek, which
spring immediately to one’s mind, have already been published by Prof.
Chamberlain and others, who have given some account of the _Nō_, and to
whose works reference should be made (see list on p. 103).


The Music

The music is an important feature of the _Nō_ plays, when they are
completely presented. Indeed, the whole play can be more fairly
compared with opera than with anything else on our stage, though the
“singing” is very different from ours. The songs are given with a
curious voice in which suppressed breathing is an item of value. Other
parts of the play are chanted in unison, and even the prose “words”
are intoned in a unique way which removes them absolutely from the
realm of ordinary speaking, and makes them--to a foreigner--practically
indistinguishable from the songs. There are, in addition to this vocal
music, four instruments, and the players of these are distinct from the
chorus and do not enter into its chanting at all, except sometimes with
a sudden sharp Ha! or something which I confess I can only describe as
being like the howl of a cat, and which did not seem to me to add to
the impressiveness of the music, but to detract from it.

The musicians enter the theatre and take their place on the stage,
in the places indicated in the diagram, after the chorus is seated
and before the actors appear. In a full set of musicians the first is
the performer on the _taiko_, who plays a flat drum set in a wooden
stand on the floor, ornamented with a gorgeous scarlet silk tassel
of such size and brilliance as to lend a vivid beauty to the quiet
colour scheme. The next musician is the player of the _ōtsuzumi_, which
is a kind of elongated drum held on his knee. The _kotsuzumi_ is an
hour-glass-shaped drum, which is held on the shoulder. Both Profs.
Chamberlain and Dickins call this a tambourine, but that name gives
an entirely wrong impression both of the shape and the sound of this
instrument. The last musician plays the _fue_ or flute.

Most Westerners are content to call this music “a discord.” It is
therefore pleasant to find Mr. Sansom saying, “At times the flute
strikes in with a long-drawn note that has a strange and moving quality
of sadness.” Personally, with the exception of the single interjected
cries, the music appealed to me as being in complete harmony with the
pieces and as adding greatly to their charm and meaning.


The Actors

The actors enter from behind the curtain at the end of the gallery
leading to the stage. They move towards the stage one by one, and very
slowly, with long intervals between each step, every motion of which
has been decreed for centuries. Captain Brinkley says, “It is, indeed,
more than doubtful whether any other people ever developed such an
expressive vocabulary of motion, such impressive eloquence of gesture.
These masked dancers of the _Nō_, deprived of the important assistance
of facial expression, and limited to a narrow range of cadence,
nevertheless succeeded in investing their performance with a character
of noble dignity and profound intensity of sentiment.” The actors pause
at each of the pine trees which stand by the gallery to mark a stage in
their progress. Only men act, and for the women’s parts they wear the
conventional masks with the white, narrow face and the eyebrows painted
high up on the middle of the forehead, which is the classical
standard of female beauty. Masks are also worn by those representing
demons or ghosts, and these masks are much on the same plan as those
worn by children on the fifth of November. They are made of carved wood
with a slit for the mouth and two holes for the eyes. They are palpably
masks put over the face and make no pretence at verisimilitude; indeed,
sometimes the girl’s mask may be openly tied on with a fillet ribbon
across the forehead. They are clearly illustrated in the plates facing
pages 14 and 76, where the white mask-face is put so as to show quite
frankly the tanned and corrugated neck of the elderly actor. Wild bushy
heads of long hair are also worn by those taking the part of demons,
and sometimes by the ghosts, as is seen in the plate facing p. 76,
where the little figure represents the ghost in the _Sumidagawa_.


The Costumes

Though in other respects the _Nō_ staging is so simply organised, the
costumes of the actors are sumptuous and completely representative of
the parts the actors are playing. The various robes are all of mediæval
cut and fashion, and are mostly very stiff with opulent brocades or
embroideries. Some of the styles are shown in the various illustrations
in this book, and it will at once be noticed that they are all
elaborate and richly coloured. While the cut of most of the garments is
something akin to the simple _kimono_ and _hakama_ (divided skirt worn
by the men when fully dressed) of the present day, they are on a more
massive scale with great stiff boufflé divided skirts (as the figure in
plate 3, p. 14, shows particularly well), and with the kimono sleeves
so wide and stiff that the wearer seems almost three times his normal
width. The figure on the Frontispiece illustrates such excessively
voluminous and elaborate dress. The garments may be worn in overlaid
series, showing beneath a rich overdress the edges of many equally fine
under-robes, and of course armour and accoutrements are carried by
those representing the ancient warriors.

The costumes of the _Nō_ are in truth the treasures of a museum, put to
actual use.

[Illustration: PLATE 3.

A COUNTRY POETESS

_The figure of a country girl, who was also a poetess, and sent a
subtle verse in reply to a noble who sought to obtain some of the
plant growing by her cottage (as represented on the stage by the
bower to the left of the cut.) The figure shows well the ceremonial
dress, of scarlet +hakama+, or divided skirt, with flowing,
voluminous +kimono+ over it. At the throat can be seen the series
of under-dresses, of which only the edge of each appears. The massive
folds over the head are not some head-dress, as might at first be
thought, but the folds of the long kimono sleeve falling back over the
arm which is raised above the head. The squatting figure to the right
is that of a priest, who comes into the story of this +Nō+._ ]


Properties

There are few or no “stage properties” of any kind. Just as there is no
scenery and the images of the places in which the action lies must be
evolved in their own minds by the spectators, guided by the descriptive
passages of the play; so also there are no appliances. If the actors,
for instance, have to enter a boat and be rowed across a stream, they
will perhaps merely step over a bamboo pole. If one of the characters
has to ladle up water and offer it to a fainting warrior, the whole
action is accomplished with a fan. Sometimes there may be a little in
the way of properties--for example, the arbour-like bowers in plate
3, p. 14, which are drawn on to the stage and represent dwellings,
and in plate 4, p. 16, where the little temple bell is brought into
the action. But even in such cases the actors have to create an
illusion round the accessories by their words and motions.

We scarcely need to be reminded that Shakespeare’s plays were
originally written for a stage which had but little more in the way of
properties, and that even to-day there are not a few persons who feel
that Shakespeare’s finest passages do not gain but actually lose by the
life-like and elaborate settings of the modern stage.

When one hears the _Nō_ called archaic and primitive because of their
absence of scenery and the child-like simplicity and artlessness of the
properties one feels it is by a critic who is confusing values. “Words
which unaided can hold an audience, a drama which can paint the scene
directly on the mind with little intervention of the eye, is surely not
rightly described as primitive.”

[Illustration: PLATE 4.

MIIDERA

_This print, taken from a Japanese coloured woodcut, illustrates
the central figure of a +Nō+ drama, with the single, most
characteristic piece of stage “property,” belonging to the play. The
figure is that of a mother, well-nigh mad with grief at the loss of her
child, (note the bamboo in her hand, a symbol of her state) who sets
out to seek him. She finds the little one at the Temple of Miidera, a
view of which is inset in the black circle on the left of the print.
The model of a temple bell in red lacquer beneath this is mounted on
roller feet, and is an illustration of the piece of property which is
all that represents the temple on the stage, and is a good example of
the simplicity of the stage-mounting of the +Nō+ pieces._ ]

[Illustration: PLATE 5.

SŌSHIARI-GOMACHI

_This plate, taken from a Japanese coloured woodcut, illustrates the
+Nō+ of which Komachi is the heroine. She was a poetess of great
beauty and poetic gifts, and many distinguished poets were very jealous
of her. On the occasion of one of the competitions of verse before
the Emperor (the figure on the extreme right with scarlet skirts) one
of her enemies attempted to prove that her verse was plagiarized and
that he had it already in his own collection. She proves his fraud by
washing out the verse which he had just written into his book after
hearing it, showing that it was not printed with the rest. This she is
about to do in the picture. The story continues that after his exposure
he tried to commit suicide to escape disgrace, but she generously
prevented him. The mask worn by the actor who takes her part well
illustrates the classic type of beauty in Japan. The eyebrows are
shaved off, and painted on high upon the forehead beneath the hair. In
the action she uses a fan to express the business of washing out the
interpolated verses +(see p. 16)+. The oblong article to the right
represents the table on which a copy of her verses was laid in the
competition._ ]


The Audience

Prof. Aston, in his _History of Japanese Literature_, says (p. 200):
“Representations (of the _Nō_) are still given in Tokio, Kioto and
other places, by the descendants or successors of the old managers who
founded the art ... and are attended by small but select audiences
composed almost entirely of ex-Daimios or military nobles and their
ex-retainers. To the vulgar the _Nō_ are completely unintelligible.”
The contrast between the audiences at the _Nō_ and at the common
theatre is very marked, but then it must be remembered that practically
no one of culture or refinement attends the common theatre, and
practically every one of that class is interested in the _Nō_. Owing
to the present social conditions in Japan, however, the audiences at
the _Nō_ pieces are not so small or so restricted as this would lead us
to believe if we did not remember that ex-daimios and military nobles
have entered almost every social grade; many, indeed most, of the
common police are Samurai, excessively poor students of the University
or school teachers, and even rickshaw-men may be the representatives
of the proud old families. When, a little more than forty years ago,
the great social upheaval and re-organisation of Japan took place, and
the nobles and Samurai lost their privileged positions, though they
were given positions of honourable standing so far as possible, many
of them entered the ranks of what we would call the “common people”;
and so it happens that to-day there are permeating nearly the whole
of society, in all its grades, some of the old cultured class. Among
policemen, rickshaw-men and gardeners one may come across men of deep
classical interests and knowledge, and a poor student living on a few
shillings a week may spend his evenings chanting the _Nō_ songs to the
moon. Indeed, while I was in Tokio such a one lived near the house in
which I dwelt for a few months. I never met him personally, because I
did not wish to destroy the wonderful impression of melancholy romance
and weird beauty which his chanting gave me. The many evenings that I
sat alone on my balcony, looking toward Fuji mountain, behind which the
sun had set, and heard in the swiftly passing twilight and under the
glittering oriental stars the mournful, tragic chants of the _Nō_ which
this young man was practising, have left their life-long impression
on me, and perhaps account for the deeper love and understanding of
the _Nō_ which have come to me than to the foreigners who hear only a
few performances in a theatre. Yet this young man lived in what could
scarcely be called more than a hovel, and he is representative of
thousands now so living in Japan.

Consequently one must remember that though the audience of a _Nō_
theatre is “select” in the real sense, it is not by any means entirely
composed of wealthy folk.

All who can afford to do so come in full ceremonial dress, which is
sombre-coloured both for men and women, for custom only allows the
brilliant colours to be donned by children and young girls. Most of the
audience arrives by nine o’clock in the morning, and remains till three
or four in the afternoon. The “boxes” are little matted compartments
marked off on the floor, with railings round them but six inches high,
and every one sits on his folded-up legs on a cushion on the floor. As
will be seen in the diagram (p. 10) the audience sits round three sides
of the stage. In the winter they will have a little charcoal fire in
the box beside them, and will sit warming their hands over it as they
watch the piece.


Concerning the Effect of the _Nō_ on the Audience and on me

In a common theatre the audience talks, eats, and even plays games
between the scenes of the play, and gives its best attention during
a murder or a very realistic hara-kiri, when the blood trickles
in lifelike fashion out of the actor’s mouth as he writhes for
half-an-hour in his death agonies with a crimson gash across his
middle. I shall never forget a scene of the kind which nearly did for
me altogether, but which stirred the whole audience to breathless
attention. During a performance of the _Nō_, on the other hand, most
of the audience listen absorbedly to the whole piece, many being well
able to check or criticise the actor if he should make the slightest
slip, as they are personally acquainted with the parts. Others follow
the chanting with a book of the text in their hands, and thus secure
themselves against losing a word; for the _Nō_ is like our own opera
in this, that unless one is well acquainted with the words of the
piece they are apt to be lost here and there. Each one of the audience
has some knowledge of classical poetry, and according to the degree
of this knowledge is the enjoyment of the thousand allusions and part
quotations and adaptations that are in the plays. With each recognised
reference to some classic poem or story, the richer does the suggestion
of the whole become, for a word or a phrase which has but little
meaning in itself becomes fragrant and beautiful when it carries with
it the perfume of a thousand lovely and suggestive memories. Also
working upon the sensitive audience all the time, there is the psychic
effect of the beautiful and harmonious colouring and of the potent
music. The psychological effect of music is a power which we all
vaguely recognise, but few of us begin to understand. Nevertheless,
I hold it as certain that for the time being it physically as well
as spiritually affects us, and that when we are tuned to the throb
and rhythm of fundamentally great and _right_ music, though we are
no nearer to an intellectual understanding of the root things of the
universe, yet we are actually nearer a spiritual oneness with, and
hence a sort of comprehension of them. The music of the _Nō_, founded
on a different scale from our own, has a very peculiar effect, yet one
in complete harmony with the mental conceptions of the plays.

And to this effect the audience of the _Nō_ is pre-eminently exposed,
for all the surrounding conditions are calculated to enhance and aid
it: the magnetic effect of the quiet, intellectual audience on itself;
the beautiful simplicity and harmony of the colour scheme within the
theatre; the dignity and impersonalness of the actors fulfilling their
anciently prescribed actions; the allusions and suggestions of the
poems, the descriptions of natural beauties and the frequent references
to religious and philosophical ideas; when combined with the strange
and solemn music of the singers create together within the heart of the
observer a something which is well nigh sublime.

Going to the _Nō_ as a stranger and a foreigner, to whom almost all the
allusions and suggestions of classical quotation were lost--to whom no
thrills could be communicated by the mention of a single word (just
think for a moment what feelings the one name _Deirdre of the Sorrows_
creates in you if you know the Irish stories and have seen Synge’s
play. Well, just such feelings are created in a Japanese by single
words and names, which to us appear prosy or unintelligible), yet even
I was caught in the power of the whole creation of the _Nō_. To my
earlier words I still adhere: “There is in the whole a ring of fire and
splendour, of pain and pathos, which none but a cultured Japanese can
fully appreciate, but which we Westerners might hear, though the sounds
be muffled, if we would only incline our ears.” Those who find the _Nō_
plays prosy and of mediocre merit, have but partially comprehended them
through having been too intent upon the “letter of the law.”


Concerning the dramatic Construction of the _Nō_

True “dramatic” qualities are almost entirely absent from the _Nō_;
there is no interplay of the characters, no working up of a story to
some moving, dramatic and apparently inevitable conclusion. Nor are
the unities of time and place in the least regarded. Even centuries
may be supposed to elapse in the course of the story of a play, and an
actor may be represented as travelling far while declaiming a short
speech. An outline scheme of the plot which would be found to fit
the majority of the plays is as follows: The hero or heroine, or the
secondary character, sets out upon a journey, generally in search of
some person or to fulfil some duty or religious object, and on this
journey passes some famous spot. In the course of long and generally
wearying wanderings, a recital of which gives an opportunity for the
descriptions of natural beauties, this living person meets some god, or
the ghost or re-incarnated spirit of some person of note, or perhaps
the altered and melancholy wreck of some one of former grand estate.
Generally at first this ghost or spirit is not recognised, and the
living hero converses with it about the legends or histories attached
to the locality. Usually then toward the end the ghost makes itself
known as the spirit of the departed hero for which the spot is famous.
Often a priest forms one of the characters, and then the ghost may be
soothed by his prayers and exhortations. There is generally some moral
teaching interwoven with the story, the hero or the ghost exemplifying
filial or paternal duty, patriotism, or some such quality; while there
is a thread of Buddhistic teaching throughout. In this the main theme
is the transitoriness of human life, and at the same time is presented
a view of all the pain and misery people may endure when they are not
rendered superior to it by a recognition of the higher philosophy that
teaches that the whole universe is a dream, from whose toils the freed
spirit can escape.

The primitive complement of actors was probably two, but few plays have
so small a number. Three or perhaps four actors is the usual, and six,
with a few exceptions, is the highest number for a complete cast.

 1. The hero or protagonist is called the _shite_.

 2. The companion or assistant to the hero is the _tsure_.

 3. The balance of the story is preserved by a sort of deuteragonist
 called the _waki_, who may also have his _tsure_.

 4. A child part may be added to enrich or add pathos to the play (as
 in the _Sumida River_ for example), and he is called the _kokata_.

 5. Then there may be the _ahi_, or supplementary actor.

The actors do not perform many evolutions on the stage, and though
their movements are in harmony with the story to some extent, they tend
to remain more or less in the relative positions that are indicated on
the plan of the stage facing p. 10.


Concerning the literary Style of the original texts of the _Nō_

The text of the _Nō_ is composed of a mixture of somewhat stilted and
archaic prose, incompletely phrased portions, and poetry in correct
metrical form. The strictly compressed and regulated five and seven
syllabled lines of the short, standard verses of Japan are here
scattered somewhat irregularly. Indeed, the general text of the _Nō_
may perhaps best be described as poetry but half dissolved in prose;
or, to use another simile, as an archipelago of little islets of poetry
in a sea of prose, each islet surrounded and connected by sandy shores
and bars which have been reduced almost to sea level.

All through the pieces there is an immense number of plays upon
words, of “pillow” and “pivot” words, of short quotations from and
allusions to classical poetry, so that the text simply bristles with
opportunities for literary “commentators.” The excessive amount of
classical allusion and quotation, while it does not appeal at all to
us, is one of the features which principally delights the Japanese
literati. For this is considered not only to show the degree of
knowledge which the author possessed, but also to add greatly to the
richness and suggestiveness of the piece by bringing to the memory
other cognate scenes and ideas. The merit of the frequent quotations
being that they allow of great compression and terseness of style, so
that in a few words an author can bring a series of scenes before the
mind of his audience.

So much we can understand, but the “pillow” and “pivot” words are
without parallel in our own language. By means of them the subject may
be diverted to some idea which appears, to our way of thinking, totally
unconnected. For instance, in the _Sumida River_ (see p. 83) the use
of the root word for _repute_ by the Ferryman makes the Mother, in
the following line, recall and quote a classic poem on quite another
subject which has the same root word in it. The link connecting the
two subjects being merely the one root word which is common to both,
and which is called the pivot word, the value of which is, of course,
entirely lost in translation. In English, unconnected ideas alone
are left. Some examples of such devices are mentioned in the notes
following the translations of the plays at the end of the book, but
throughout the _utai_ they are of perpetual recurrence and are far too
frequent to be mentioned every time they appear. In his _Classical
Poetry of the Japanese_, Prof. Chamberlain gives an account of the
pivot words, and he admires their “dissolving view” effects, but Aston
thinks them frivolous and a sign of decadence. These “pivot words”
as well as the “pillow words,” though they are so prevalent in its
literature, are not at all confined to the _utai_ of the _Nō_, but are
characteristic of the whole of the early Japanese verse. The “pillow
words” (called _makura-kotoba_ in Japanese) have been collected by
Prof. F. F. V. Dickins[3] recently, and he says, “The _makura-kotoba_
form the characteristic embellishment of the early _uta_ of Japan, and
of all subsequent Japanese, as distinguished from Japano-Chinese verse.”

As regards rhyme, there is no use of such rhyming as characterises our
own verse; and this may partly depend on the structure of the Japanese
language. Japanese words are not composed of letters as they are with
us, but of syllables; every consonant is associated with all the
vowels. Thus the words are compounded of a larger number of elements
than with us, but each ends in one of the five vowels or in _n_. The
elements are _ka_, _ki_, _ko_, _ta_, _ti_, _tu_, _te_, _to_, and so on.
This will at once be evident if we examine a few words of romanised
Japanese. For example, the first line of the play _Tamura_ is _Hina no
myakoji hedate kite_.

In the _utai_, though there is no terminal rhyming, there is sometimes
a tendency to repeat the same syllable more than once in a phrase, with
the deliberate intention of accentuating it.


Concerning the Difficulties of Translation

Only half-a-dozen of the complete _Nō_ and portions of a few others
have been translated into English from all the many Japanese originals
that are available. But this is scarcely surprising. In translating
any of the _Nō_ there are two supreme difficulties to be encountered.
The first depends on the organic remoteness of the Japanese language
from our own, which is common to any translation from the Japanese;
and the second is the peculiar difficulty of translating the _utai_
because the exact meaning of many portions of them is disputed even
by Japanese authorities, and then even where the meaning may be clear
to a Japanese expert the compression of the language is so great that
it cannot literally be rendered into a European language. From a
French or German, even from a Russian original, a literal translation
is comprehensible even if it is not beautiful in English. A literal
English translation from a Japanese original is arrant nonsense. The
Japanese language is not merely unlike ours; the whole mode and order
of the thought upon which it is founded is on an entirely different
plan from our own. The more conscientious the translator the greater
his difficulty. It is easy enough to translate “_O yasumi nasai_”
as “good-night,” but how are we to say in English what it really
means, _i. e._ approximately “honourably deign to take rest,” without
appearing remote and stilted? And that is just a simple little common
phrase; when the Japanese to be translated is contorted and coruscated
with “pillow words” and “pivot words,” with a phrase from an old
classical poem of which the reader is supposed to know the whole, and
cannot “see the point” unless he does so, what is the translator to
do? But suppose, further, that a couple of the words are the subject
of learned controversy, as is frequently the case, is it likely two
translations will coincide?


Concerning the Translations of others, as well as those in this Book

There are three principal lines that a much-to-be-pitied translator
may take. (1) He may give up in despair any attempt at being literal.
He belongs, let us say, to the school that think it best to translate
“_O yasumi nasai_” as “good-night.” He has this pre-eminent virtue that
he will give us at least a version which can be read as English. And
there is much to be said for this mode of treatment. (2) On the other
hand, a great contrast to translator No. 1 is he who desires to give
a literal version of the Japanese, and who does not care in the least
whether it sounds smooth and finished in English. (3) Then there is the
last, and perhaps the most misguided of all, who cares a great deal to
convey the true Japanese impression and also tries to polish and round
off the English so that it may not appear too stilted or too rough, but
may convey to the English reader something of the true spirit of the
Japanese without always diverting his attention to some peculiarity of
the rendering’s bodily form. As I myself have endeavoured to supply the
third type of translations, I may be allowed to enlarge a little on the
attitude of mind of one making the attempt.

M. Bergson, in his inimitable book on laughter, says, “Where lies the
comic element in this sentence, taken from a funeral speech and quoted
by a German philosopher: ‘He was virtuous, and plump’? It lies in the
fact that our attention is suddenly recalled from the soul to the
body.” The sudden intrusion of the body, particularly the imperfect or
ill-managed body, is the source of most of the comic element in human
life.

Hence, recognising this fatal pitfall, I have felt it essential to make
the _body_ of my translations as little irritating and noticeable as
possible, while at the same time preserving, as far as the language
will allow, complete truthfulness to the spirit of the original. All
my sympathies are with the translators in class No. 2, and were our
universe not organised in the humorous way that M. Bergson has pointed
out, I should have ranked myself with them, and attempted to give only
a literal rendering of the Japanese. But such translations never allow
us for a moment to forget the English body of the original Japanese
spirit, because the body they give it is out of joint, abnormal in our
eyes, and therefore it absorbs our attention or renders ridiculous the
hints it conveys that the spirit it encloses may have aspired to soar.

Let me illustrate by quotation--

Dickins’s[4] most scholarly and valuable translation keeps one’s
attention always in the realm of intellectual interest, and it is his
intention to be strictly in accord with the original. His version is
partly in prose and partly in this form--

    “across the surf he
  upon the shipway oareth,
    gentle the skies are,
  the spring-winds softly blowing--
    what tale of days shall
  his bark in the cloudy distance
    sail o’er the sea-plain
  till Hāruma he reacheth.”

With this it is interesting to compare Aston’s translation, which is
largely prose. The lines quoted above from Dickins are rendered by
Aston[5] as follows: “With waves that rise along the shore, and a
genial wind of spring upon the ship-path, how many days pass without a
trace of him we know not, until at length he has reached the longed-for
bay of Takasago, on the coast of Harima.”

This play of _Takasago_ is often quoted and is much beloved by the
Japanese, and some of the verses from it are invariably chanted at the
wedding festivals. The beginning of the famous chorus is thus rendered
by Aston (p. 209)--

  “On the four seas
  Still are the waves;
  The world is at peace.
  Soft blow the time-winds,[6]
  Rustling not the branches.
  In such an age
  Blest are the very firs,
  In that they meet
  To grow old together.”

Captain Brinkley’s translation of _Ataka_ is in somewhat similar style
to the preceding, a mixture of prose and “verse” of short lines like
the following example--

  “From traveller’s vestment
  Pendent bells ring notes
  Of pilgrims’ foot-falls;
  And from road-stained sleeves
  Pendent dew-drops presage
  Tears of last meetings.”

To the same school of translators belongs Mr. Sansom,[7] though he
is slightly less literal than Mr. Dickins. He renders the exquisite
fragment from the _Sakuragawa_ as follows--

  “The waters flow, the flowers fall,
  forever lasts the Spring,
  The moon shines cold, the wind blows high,
  the cranes do not fly home.
  The flowers that grow in the rocks
  are scarlet, and light up the stream.
  The trees that grow by the caverns
  are green and contain the breeze
  The blossoms open like brocade,
  the brimming pools are deep and blue.”

All the time we are reading this the magic of suggestion is working,
and we would fain let our minds float away into the land of spring;
but our attention is brought plumping down to the bodily presentation
of the thoughts and our intellect is set at work to see how the lines
might have been made to scan, or to run in some form of rhythm. So long
as they do just scan and have a passable rhythm, we do not think of the
poetical qualities of the translation, but when they jolt us along our
attention is constantly diverted from the higher theme to the lesser
subject of English grammar and versification.

So that I have endeavoured in my translations to make the lines run
smoothly enough to be read aloud without much irritation; and though I
have doubtless not fully succeeded, I have tried to give them as much
verbal beauty as was possible within the narrow limits afforded me by
the literal Japanese meaning. In this my collaborator, Prof. Sakurai,
has held the rein on me at times when I would have liked to run away
with some poetical conceits, and it is owing entirely to his tireless
exertions that the result has a fair degree of accuracy. I must relieve
him of too great a responsibility, however, for I confess that here and
there where it seemed to me imperative to put in a word or two more
than was in the original in order to convey the necessary impression
to an English reader, or where several lines of metre would have been
upset if he wouldn’t let me have the word I wanted, I have just taken
the bit between my teeth and run away from him. But this has happened
seldom, and on the whole I think it will be found that the English
version bears close comparison with the Japanese.

Now a word regarding the type of verse that is used by those who
translate into a recognisable English form. Of these the translations
in Prof. Chamberlain’s _Classical Poetry of the Japanese_ of four
of the finest and most renowned _utai_ of the _Nō_ are models to be
considered by any later translator. Prof. Chamberlain puts the “words”
into prose, and the “songs” into rhymed verse.

The chorus at the end of the _Robe of Feathers_ is a good example of
this easily flowing verse (p. 146)--

  “Dance on, sweet maiden, through the happy hours!
  Dance on, sweet maiden, while the magic flow’rs
  Crowning thy tresses flutter in the wind
  Rais’d by thy waving pinions intertwin’d!
  Dance on! for ne’er to mortal dance ’tis giv’n
  To vie with that sweet dance thou bring’st from heav’n:
  And when, cloud-soaring, thou shalt all too soon
  Homeward return to the full-shining moon,
  Then hear our pray’rs, and from thy bounteous hand
  Pour sev’nfold treasures on our happy land;
  Bless ev’ry coast, refresh each panting field,
  That earth may still her proper increase yield!”

But to my ear such consistently rhymed verse does not convey any
suggestion of the sound of the Japanese chants. As Captain Brinkley
has it, “by obeying the exigencies of rhyme, whereas the original
demands rhythm only (‘the learned sinologues, their translators’),
have obtained elegance at the partial expense of fidelity.” It is true
that a less formal versifying, such as I have used, does not represent
truly the Japanese effect either--nothing can; but it seems less out
of harmony with its character than do the rhyming stanzas. Then also
I found that short rhymed lines render one liable to strain the sense
a little in order to make things fit in. Longer lines, without such
regular rhyming, allow one more play, and this enables one to follow
the words suggested directly by the Japanese. Since then also Prof.
Chamberlain’s own taste has changed and he has “gone over to the camp
of the literalists.”

In two of the pieces I have put the “words” into a longer metre to
indicate the difference between them and the “songs.” But I find this
makes an added difficulty for any one reading aloud, without much
enhancing the accuracy of the whole, so that in _Kagekiyo_ I have made
no distinction between the various parts of the text. In listening to a
Japanese _Nō_ performance one could not really tell where the “words”
left off and the “songs” began, and also, as I have previously noted
(p. 24), the poems are connected to the prose by irregularly dispersed
poetical lines. Finally,


In Conclusion

as none of the prose in the least corresponds to our prose, and as
it is not given in the ordinary speaking voice of the Japanese, but
is always specially intoned, it seems to me much more suitable and
harmonious to render the whole _utai_ in verse of various kinds.

Even this little book has been the task of years, despite its many
imperfections. It was undertaken primarily because I delighted in the
_Nō_, and the labour of bringing it through the Press was rendered
lighter by the hope that it might give pleasure to the English reading
public to see, even “through a glass darkly,” something of the beauty
of this unexplored literature. I have already described the effect
these plays have on the Japanese and on me. That I have caught perhaps
an echo of their spirit I am encouraged to think, because on the two
occasions when one or other of these translations have been read to
audiences it has been reported to me that several of those who heard
them were in tears. That strikes the right note. For with all their
literary richness and their descriptions of beautiful scenes and of
heroic deeds, the ground note of the _Nō_ is human tragedy. Their
tragedy is of the fundamental, elemental kind that depends upon the
very nature of our being, that turns upon the terrible fact which
the trivialities of the material world so readily delude us into
forgetting--that we are fleeting as a drop of dew.

  MARIE C. STOPES.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Sumida River_ formed the subject of a paper read before the
Royal Society of Literature. The translators acknowledge with gratitude
the kindness of the Council in allowing them to republish the major
part of the verse in the form in which it appeared in the Transactions
of the Royal Society of Literature in 1909.

[2] _Trans. Roy. Soc. Literature_, _London_, vol. 29, pp. 156-7.

[3] _Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan_, vol. 35, pt. 4. 1908.

[4] _Primitive and Mediæval Japanese Texts_, p. 399.

[5] _History of Japanese Literature_, p. 207.

[6] The land and sea breezes, which blow regularly only in fine weather.

[7] _Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan_, vol. 38, pt. 3, p. 174.




THE MAIDEN’S TOMB


Authorship of the Play

This piece is now commonly attributed to _Kiyotsugu_, and is supposed
to have been produced at the end of the fourteenth century. Its exact
date is not known, but Kiyotsugu was born in 1354 and died in 1406; yet
it is most likely that he was an adapter and not the original author of
the _utai_, parts of which were probably written long before his time.
The play is still one of the most important of the _Nō_, and is indeed
a test piece, as parts of the _Shite’s_ chanting are exceptionally
difficult. A foreigner cannot judge of this, but from my own point of
view it is perhaps the finest of all the _Nō_.


Outline of the Story

The play is based on a story told--or rather written down, for it was
probably told long before then--a thousand years ago in the _Yamato
Monogatari_, or _Tales of Japan_. It is the story of the love of two
men for one woman, and the fatal consequences thereof for all concerned.

UNAI, a maiden living near Ikuta, was loved by two equally gifted
men. On the selfsame day they each sent her a letter declaring their
passion, but she could not decide between them, fearing the anger of
either rejected suitor. Her father determined that the one who shot
most accurately should win her, but in the contest the two men pierced
the same wing of the same bird with their arrows. This bird was a
mandarin duck, a creature whose lifelong faithfulness to its mate was
proverbial in Japan. The girl felt bitterly that she was to blame for
the death of the bird and the misery its mate endured, as well as for
the strife between the two men. Hence she drowned herself. Then the two
men, visiting her tomb, were filled with remorse, and killed each other
beside her grave. This, however, only added to the girl’s guilt, and
much of the play is taken up with vivid descriptions of her agonising
torments in the eight hells believed in by popular Buddhism.

The play opens with a traveller Priest passing the village of Ikuta on
his way to the capital. It is early spring, and the village maidens
are out gathering the first green shoots of the “seven herbs,” which
used to be eaten at the beginning of the year as a kind of ceremony.
The city folk make this herb-gathering a pleasure picnic, but the
poor girls going out of necessity into the biting cold of January are
envious of those who are better off in cities. The spirit of the long
dead UNAI has joined them in the form of a young girl, but she takes
part in the opening dialogue. The “Maiden’s (_i. e._ UNAI’S) Tomb”
is one of the famous places in the district, and the Priest asks to
see it. UNAI’S spirit remains behind when the village girls have been
driven home by the cold, and she conducts the Priest to the tomb,
conversing with him, and telling him the story of UNAI. Her spirit’s
materialisation as a maiden then vanishes, and UNAI appears as a Ghost,
for whom the Priest prays. The Ghost laments over the tomb, and the
Chorus gives expression to her longing for the human world. The Ghost
expresses her thankfulness for the prayer uttered by the Priest, and
recounts her agonising sufferings in the eight hells. The Priest makes
some effort, but not a very determined one, to inculcate in the poor
Ghost the higher Buddhistic belief that all these things, even the
hells, are delusions, and her mind could free herself of them. The play
closes with the Chorus telling of her miseries in hell.


Comments on the Play

In its construction, and its presentment of the story as a whole, this
play resembles strikingly one of the beautiful tryptic colour prints
of Japan, in which an exquisite, softly coloured garden or woodland
foreground, shaded with delicate mists, brings into intense relief
the vivid figure of an armoured warrior going out to battle. In the
opening passages of this play we have the soft, misted foreground,
with the tender green shoots of the early spring-time. One sees the
thin, frosted ice pushing aside the sprouting plants, and the scene is
enhanced and the description of it embroidered by poetic references to
the details of the picture. But among the maidens is one, outwardly
like others, so that they do not recognise the difference themselves,
but yet one who is a tragic figure, a temporary reincarnation of a
spirit from hell. Then with the Priest the spirit converses, and paints
in vivid colours this central figure, for whom the whole scene forms
but the setting.

To us in the West the moral attitude of the play seems very strange.
From her initial ‘sin’ in being sufficiently beautiful to attract the
love of two men, and her guilt in causing the death of the mandarin
duck (in a Buddhistic country no small crime), we see crime after crime
laid upon the maiden’s head. And all the time in our eyes she appears
utterly innocent of everything save a too ready yielding to a tender
conscience, and a willingness to take blame upon herself. Hapless
maiden, how different is this treatment of hers from that accorded in
the West to charming girls. In Old Japan not all the eight hells would
have been accounted sufficient for Helen of Troy.

In its religious attitude we see the popular beliefs of Buddhism
contrasted with the higher form of the same religion. The
circumstantial details of the hells and punishments were believed in by
the common folk, but as the Priest says (on p. 49) all was delusion,
both in the world and in heaven or hell, and the soul could escape from
its torments by a recognition of this higher fact.

  If only thou wouldst once but cast away
  The clouds of thy delusions, thou wouldst be
  Freed from thy many sins and from all ills.




THE MAIDEN’S TOMB[8]




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ


  The Maiden UNAI (really her spirit temporarily
  incarnated as a maiden)                        (_Shite_)

  Two of the Village Maidens                     (_Tsure_)

  A Priest                                       (_Waki_)

  The Ghost of the Maiden UNAI                   (_Nochi-jite_)

  Chorus

[Illustration: PLATE 6.

THE MAIDEN’S TOMB

_This illustration, from a Japanese coloured woodcut, shows the figure
of the maiden Unai (+see p. 35+), who wears a dress resembling
that still worn by country maidens, though with the volume of the
garment and the size of the patterns both a little more exaggerated
than those which are now customary. The designer of the woodcut has put
in symbolic and formalized representations of the Mandarin ducks and
the flames of hell-fire which were among Unai’s torments._ ]


SCENE

The fields of ONO near the hamlet of IKUTA in Settsu, in the early
spring.

[_The PRIEST enters_]


PRIEST

  Far through the country has my journey lain,
  Far through the country has my journey lain,
  And to the capital I speed my way.

  I, a priest, am from the country, from the Western districts
        coming.[9]
  To the capital, which hitherto my eyes have never seen.

  The paths along the coast are manifold,
  The paths along the coast are manifold,
  That on this journey I have traced, and oft
  My way has lain by boat across the sea.
  Over the sea and mountains stretching wide
  I watched the sun rise up and set again,
  And now I reach Ikuta which I know
  Only by name as in Tsu province fair,
  The hamlet of Ikuta now I reach.


SPIRIT AND MAIDENS

  Green shoots we gather, young green shoots of spring,
  And here in Ono by Ikuta blows
  The morning breeze so chill, so chill and strong
  It turns and billows out our flapping sleeves.[10]


MAIDENS

  While in the distant mountains, on the pines
  The snow has even yet not disappeared.


SPIRIT AND MAIDENS

  Oh, near the Capital the time has come
  To gather in the fields the shoots of spring.
  It makes our hearts glad just to think of that.


SPIRIT

  But from the Capital this place is far,


MAIDENS

  And we are country folk and therefore live
  A humble life here by Ikuta’s sea.
  Our lives and work are of the lowliest
  And to the field of Ono every year
  Without the thought of pleasure do we come.[11]
  The footmarks of the many village folk
  That go to gather the young shoots of spring
  Have left wide tracks across the snowy field.

  And tread a path, where else there would be none.
  And tread a path, where else there would be none.

  The young green shoots that grow on field and marsh
  We now must gather. When the snow has gone
  They will already have become too old--
  Though still the wind blows cold thro’ shady copse
  And on the field of Ono lies the snow,
  The seven herbs of early spring-time sprout
  In Ikuta then let us pluck the shoots,
  In Ikuta then let us pluck the shoots.


PRIEST

  O good people, will you tell me if toward Ikuta I’m nearing?


MAIDENS

  As thou dost know the name of Ikuta
  There should have been no need to ask us that!


SPIRIT

  Dost thou not know it from the many views
  That scattered far and wide portray the place?

  First of all, dost thou not know it as the forest of Ikuta?
  See, the many clustered tree tops which are true to this its name.[12]


MAIDENS

  And there the stream thou hast now deigned to cross,
  It is the far-famed river Ikuta.


SPIRIT

  In the early breath of spring-time (like the shallows of the river)
  Do we gather, ’neath the snowy cloak, the young shoots of the field.


MAIDENS

  And this field, too, where little sprouts as yet
  Are growing, why as Ono know’st it not?[13]


SPIRIT AND MAIDENS

  The sweet wild cherry blossoms that do grow
  In Miyoshino and in Shiga too,
  The maple leaves of Tatsuta and those
  Of Hatsuse--they would be surely known
  By those who lived beside the poet’s home.
  But we, though living in this place know not
  The forest or the copse of Ikuta.
  So ask us not, for we know nothing here.


PRIEST

  Ah yes. Unfolding now before my eyes
  The views I know--the forest, river, sea,
  And mist, the scenes of Ono now expand!

  And the far-famed tomb of Ikuta, the Maiden’s Tomb, where is it?


SPIRIT

  Ah, in truth, the Maiden’s Tomb! That is a place that I have heard of;
  Whereabout it is I know not, yea, I know not in the least.


MAIDENS

  But prithee, traveller, these useless things
  We beg thee ask us not, we prize the time[14]
  When we can gather these young shoots of spring.


SPIRIT

  And thou thyself, too, journeyest in haste,
  So wherefore dost thou tarry with us here?


MAIDENS

  Thereon an ancient poem has the words--


CHORUS[15]

I

  “A charming hindrance to the traveller
  Are they who pluck young shoots in Ono’s field
  In Ikuta.”[16] Why ask then useless things?

II

  “Thou, Watchman of the field of Tobuhi
    That lies in Kasugano, go and see,”
  “Thou, Watchman of the field of Tobuhi
    That lies in Kasugano, go and see
    If it is not yet time to pluck the shoots.”[17]
  Thou, traveller, that to the capital
  Likewise dost haste, how many days hast thou?
  “For his sake do I go to the spring fields
    To gather the young shoots, though on my robe
    Cling still the cold, unmelted flakes of snow.”[18]
  Let us then gather, snowy though it be
  And on the marsh the thin ice still remains,
  Pushing aside the sprouting watercress,
  Let us then gather the green-coloured shoots
  Let us then gather the green-coloured shoots.

III

  Would there be much to gather? For the spring
  Is very early yet--and young shoots hide.


SPIRIT

  “The spring-time comes, but as I see the snow
    Upon the plain, I think of the old year.”[19]
  The young green shoots of this year still are few
  So we must gather those with older leaves.


CHORUS

  And yet, although the leaves are old and sere
  The young green shoots are fresh as the new year.
  Guard then thyself, thou field of the young spring!


SPIRIT

  To the field of spring,
  To the field of spring,
  To pluck violets
  He came, and then
  Only purple leaves
  Of the weeds culled he
  Who came gathering.


CHORUS

  Ah, yes, the colour of affinity[20]
  Has brought to my sad thought the memory
  Of Love’s light bridge which was asunder torn.[21]


SPIRIT

  The aged stems of plants once gone to seed
  In Sano district still may sprout again,


CHORUS

  And their green colour will be purple dyed.


SPIRIT

  The Shepherd’s Purse of Chōan--[22]


CHORUS

  And the hot shepherd’s purse, a useless thing,
  And other herbs white rooted, like the dawn,[23]
  Which, hidden by the snow we may mistake
  And gather in the place of those we want.


CHORUS

  The morning breeze in Ono still is cold
  The lower branches of the pine trees still
  Are weighted down with snow. Where hides the spring
  We cannot tell. And though the river breeze
  Blows cold, our billowing sleeves are colder far.
  Let us go home, although we leave unplucked
  Some of the young green shoots, let us go home.


PRIEST

  Now there is something I would speak of unto thee if thou permittest--
  All the maidens who were gathering the young greens have departed
  Save thyself, and wherefore then art thou alone remaining with me?


SPIRIT

  For the Maiden’s Tomb but just now thou didst ask me. I will show
        thee.


PRIEST

  Yes, indeed, I do desire to see it and I pray thee show me.


SPIRIT

  This way honourably follow. And the Maiden’s Tomb is this!


PRIEST

  What its history, and why then, is the Maiden’s Tomb so calléd?
  Pray minutely tell the story.


SPIRIT

                               Then will I the tale unfold.
  Once upon a time a maiden who was called Unai did live here,
  And two men there were, called Chinu and Sasada, and they loved her.
  And to her upon the same day, in the same hour, both declaring
  Fervent love, they sent two letters. But she thought that if she
        yielded
  Unto one, the other’s anger would be deep, and so to neither
  Would she yield (and then her father said the truest shot should
        win her).
  But upon Ikuta’s river did the two men’s flying arrows
  Pierce together but one water-fowl, and pierce the selfsame wing.

  And then I thought, how cruel now I am.[24]
  The wild fowl’s troth, though plighted deep and true
  Is broken for me, and the happy pair--
  Mandarin ducks--for my poor sake must bear
  The pain of separation. Piteous!
  So, with my life dismayed, I’d throw myself
  Into Ikuta river’s flowing tide[25]
  Here in the land of Tsu. Ikuta stands
  Merely a name to such a one as I.


CHORUS

  These were her last words, as she took her way
  Into the river’s water. When they found
  They buried her beneath this mound of clay.
  Then the two men, her lovers, came to seek
  Her tomb. No longer will we live, they said,
  And like the stream of Ikuta, the tide
  Of their remorse rose up. Each with his sword
  Ended the other’s life.

  And that was too my sin! That too my sin!
  What can become of such a one, so full
  Of sins? I pray thee therefore give me help!
  So saying ’neath the tomb once more she sank
  Yea, down beneath the tomb once more she sank.

[_Ghost of UNAI appears_]


PRIEST

  Short as a young stag’s horns in summer time[26]
  The night of sleep! The weeds grow on her tomb,
  And from their shade appears again the ghost.
  I’ll raise the voice of prayer. “Thou spirit soul,
  Awake thyself to understanding true,
  Enter Nirvana casting off from thee
  Delusions of thy life and of thy death.”[27]


GHOST

  Oh, the wide field, how desolate it is--
  My own deserted tomb and nothing else!
  Only wild beasts contending for the dead
  Which come and go in gloom, and o’er the tomb
  The watching spirits flying in the wind
  That circling ever beats upon the pines.
  The heaven’s lightening, and the morning dew
  Are still before my eyes, and symbolise
  The world of Earth, as transient as they.
  How many of the lonely tombs are those
  Of Youth, whose lives are so unlike the name
  Of Ikuta, so-called the field of life.


CHORUS

  A man comes from the world I left long since.
  How thankful am I. ’Tis the voice of prayer!


CHORUS

I

  O human world. How much I long for thee.

II

  A [living] man while spending [in this world]
  Even a single day and single night,
  A [living] man while spending [in this world]
  Even a single day and single night,
  Eight billion and four thousand things has he
  To think about. But how much more have I,
  I, who left long ago the pleasant world--
  ’Twas in the reign of Tenchi and by now
  The second Horikawa holds his sway.
  Oh, that once more unto the pleasant world
  I might return. How long in shady weeds
  And ’neath the moss, how long I buried lie!
  But worse, not buried under the cool earth
  I suffer from a roasting heat and burn,
  Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!
  Within a flaming dwelling-place, behold!


PRIEST

  Alas! How truly piteous is thy state,
  If only thou wouldst once but cast away
  The clouds of thy delusions, thou wouldst be
  Freed from thy many sins and from all ills.
  “From evils all, and sins, from hells and fiends,
    Illnesses all and deaths, be thou set free.”
  Oh, quickly float thyself in buoyant thought!


GHOST

  Ah, grateful am I, for the voice of prayer
  Has reached my ears, and tho’ my sufferings
  Do know no intermission, in hot hell
  The smoke clears back a moment, and I see
  A little open space. How glad I am!

  Oh, how terrible! Who art thou? What! Of Sasada the spirit?
  And thou art the ghost of Chinu? And from right and left you hold me
  By the hands, and saying to me “Come, come, come.” Though they
        torment me
  I don’t dare to leave the shelter of my burning house; for no one,
  Nothing, is there to rely on. And I see another spirit
  Flying from afar towards me. Oh, how terrible! I see it,
  ’Tis the duck, and turned to iron, turned to steel it is before me!

  With beaks of steel like naked swords the bird
    Pecks at my head and feasts upon my brain.
  Is it because of crimes I did commit?
    Oh, how resentful is it, cruel bird!

  Oh! I pray thee, Priest, I pray thee, from these sufferings
        relieve me!


PRIEST

  “The time of torment fierce has now arrived.”
  The spirit had not finished saying this,
  When o’er the tomb flew out a band of flame.


GHOST

  And then its light became a hellish fiend,


PRIEST

  Who raised the torture rod, and drove at her.


GHOST

  Before me is a sea if I attempt
  But to advance


PRIEST

  While flames are in the rear.

GHOST

  And on the left.


PRIEST

  And on the right as well.


GHOST

  By water and by fire am I now held
  In double torment.


PRIEST

  Helpless utterly.


GHOST

  When to the pillar of the burning house


CHORUS

  I reach my hands, and do attempt to cling
  At once the column bursts out into flame--
  The blazing pillar must I then embrace.
  Oh, scorching heat! Oh, unendurable!
  The whole five members of my body turned
  Into black smoke by this fierce burning fire.


GHOST

  And then when I arose--


CHORUS

  And then when I arose, a jailor fiend
  Applied the torture-rod, and drove me out.
  I left the house and wandered through eight hells
  And there all suffering I underwent.
  Now I would show thee how I blotted out
  My many sins. Before thee lie the scenes
  First in the hell of all equality,[28]
  Then in the hell of black rope, devil led,
  And driven to the hell of gathering,
  Where all assemble. Then the hell of cries,
  Of bitter cries, came next, and then of heat,
  Of utmost heat, and then the hell of depth,
  Depth infinite, into whose space I fell
  Feet upwards and head downwards for three years
  And three months more, in agony the while.
  And after that a little interval--
  The devils left me and the flames expired,
  I thought there was a respite to my pain,
  But then the darkness grew more terrible
  And to my burning house I would return
  I thought--but where then was it? To myself
  I asked the question in the pitchy dark.
  And seeking, seeking, to and fro I groped.
  “The Maiden’s Tomb”--I searched it everywhere,
  And now at last I find “The Maiden’s Tomb.”
  Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade,
  Like flying dews leaving a grassy shade,
  The spirit’s form has once more disappeared
  The spirit’s shadow has now vanished.


END OF “THE MAIDEN’S TOMB”

       *       *       *       *       *

(The play ends thus abruptly, leaving us in doubt as to whether or not
the Priest’s admonition prevailed, and she escaped into Nirvana.)

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Page 39--This piece in the current original is called
_Motome-zuka_, which means, the “Sought Tomb.” In older versions it
was previously called _Otome-zuka_, meaning the “Maiden’s Tomb,” by
which name the story was also known in the _Yamato Monogatari_ (“Tales
of Japan”), written nearly a thousand years ago. _Otome_ and _motome_
sounding so similar in Japanese, and, as the two men came _seeking_ the
tomb, the name was changed in the text of the Japanese Nō, but as the
older name both has priority and is more euphonious I revert to the
older title.

This piece is one of the eleven most important _utais_, and the
_Shite’s_ part is a particularly difficult one to chant.

[9] The long lines are translations of the “words” in the play. As
these words are not ordinary prose it seems better not to put them into
English prose from which they are so remote. (See p. 33.)

[10] Page 40--The original reads:--_Ikuta on Ono no asakazeni nao
saekaeru tamoto kana_. Here the meaning is very confused, the word for
sleeves (_tamoto_) following in the Japanese mind from _kaeru_ (which
means to turn) in _saekaeru_ (it is cold).

[11] Page 40--This brings a picture to mind of the contrast between
city and country life. An old institution among the well-to-do people
of the capital is to make a pleasure picnic for the gathering of the
young green shoots in very early spring. It was a general custom to eat
the “seven greens” on the seventh day of January each year, and the
poor people in the country hamlets make it one of their slender sources
of revenue, to gather these green shoots early in January, for the city
market.

[12] Page 41--_Ikuta_, the name of the hamlet, has the same _sound_,
though it is written differently, as the Chinese character for numerous.

[13] Page 42--The Chinese character for the name _Ono_ reads “little
field”; then there is the suggestion that there is little in the way of
green sprouts yet.

[14] Page 42--The word “prize” is left out in the original out of
politeness.

[15] The three parts of this song are chanted in different tones.

[16] Page 43--Quotation from an old poem. The stanza speaks of the
attractiveness of village maidens gathering young leaves.

[17] Page 43--Quotation from an old poem. The owner of the field is
hoping that the time will soon come for plucking the shoots. He is
impatient, and sends the watchman to see if it is not yet time. This
idea leads up to “Likewise dost haste” in one of the following lines.

[18] Page 43--A part of another old stanza.

[19] Page 44--Still another quotation from an old poem, introduced for
the word _furu_. “To fall” and “old” are both _furu_ in Japanese, and
“older leaves” in one of the following lines is _furu ha_.

[20] Page 44--_i. e._ Purple. As is common in Japanese poetry, the word
purple is not actually used, but is called “the related colour.” As a
colour the Japanese word _Murasaki_ is purple, and it is also applied
to a herb with deep purple-coloured flowers. This plant’s colour is
so intensely purple that all the herbs growing near it are supposed
to show the same colour. From such an idea purple colour is known in
poetry as _Yukari no iro_ (the related colour). In the present lines
part of an old stanza is introduced for the sake of recalling the word
_murasaki_, and this in turn leads on to _yukari no na_ in the first
line of the Chorus.

[21] Page 44--According to an old tale a lover, crossing a pontoon
bridge, fell between the boats and was drowned. The Chorus supposes the
heroine to be thinking, “Like this man I too died because of love, and
the ‘Bridge of Love’ is a name which is _related_ (see note 11) to my
own destiny.”

[22] Page 45--The Shepherd’s Purse is one of the seven herbs. Chōan is
in China, and the old name of China was _Kara_, so that the mention of
Chōan brings _Kara_ to mind, which in turn suggests the word _karai_,
hot, used in the next line.

[23] Page 45--The dawn is sometimes called the “whitening” in Japanese.

[24] Note the change of person, of course she has really been speaking
of herself from the beginning.

[25] Page 47--_Ikuta_ means the living field, or field of life, and as
she is about to die the name is meaningless to her.

[26] Page 47--Depending on an old poem in which the short growth of the
summer horns is used to express the idea of brief time. An alternative
translation of this line would be, “Short is my night’s sleep, short
are a stag’s horns,” but these words do not convey to an English reader
anything like the meaning the Japanese carries. In the original the
word _tsuka_ means either a “tomb” or a “grasp,” and it acts as a pivot
word. In the sense of “tomb” it leads to the weeds growing on her tomb,
which is the essential part; and in the sense of “grasp” it suggests
shortness, and inasmuch as a stag’s horns are so short in summer as to
be within the grasp of a hand, their shortness is suggested, and this
in turn suggests a night’s sleep in summer. This train of thought would
probably not occur had it not been rendered a classical picture by an
old and well-known stanza.

[27] Page 48--He is using the words of the Buddhist scriptures. Though
in popular belief the hells and torments, as well as the world, exist,
yet the higher philosophy of Buddhism holds that all is appearance
only, and that the soul that realises this frees itself from the
sufferings and restrictions of the grosser existence.

[28] Page 52--Popular Buddhistic teaching postulates eight hells, (1)
The hell of equality, where all sinners go first. (2) The hell of black
rope, where they are tied and led by devil-jailors to (3) the hell
of gathering. Then comes (4) the hell of cries, (5) of bitter cries,
(6) the hell of heat, (7) of utmost heat, and lastly (8) the hell of
infinite depth.




KAGEKIYO[29]


Authorship of the Play

This Play was probably written about 1410; at any rate in the first
quarter of the fifteenth century. Its author was _Motokiyo_, who was
born in 1374 and who died in 1455. He was the eldest son of the famous
Kiyotsugu (see p. 7).


Outline of the Story

The time of the action of the play is about the year 1190, and
Kagekiyo, the hero of the story, is a very renowned warrior of the
Taira clan. The Taira and the Minamoto (Gen) clans were rivals and were
perpetually at war; during the years 1156-1185 more particularly this
struggle culminated, when Japan had her “Wars of the Roses.”

Kagekiyo, known as the Boisterous, owing to his uneven temper and ready
appeals to arms, was a famous warrior of the Taira clan, and when the
Minamoto Shōgunate was established at Kamakura, Kagekiyo was exiled to
a distant place in Hiuga, where he became blind and passed a miserable
existence as a beggar. He had a daughter called Hitomaru, whom he left
in Kamakura in the charge of a lady. At the time of the play, Hitomaru
has just grown up to be a young lady, but she had a great desire to
meet her father, and so set out with a servant to seek him. She has a
long and arduous journey to the place of her father’s exile, and after
enduring considerable hardships she at last finds Kagekiyo’s retreat.
She and her servant encounter a villager who assists them in the final
search for Kagekiyo, and they make inquiries of a blind beggar dwelling
in a miserable straw hut. This beggar is actually Kagekiyo, but at
first he refuses to answer them or to acknowledge it, out of shame and
consideration for his daughter. Ultimately, however, he recounts to her
some of his adventures, and then he commands her to leave him and they
part for ever.


Comments on the Play

In this play there is perhaps less description of the beauties of
Nature than in many of the _Nō_, but the opening lines are particularly
fraught with the meaning which permeates the whole play.

  The dew remains until the wind doth blow.

The comparison of human life to a drop of dew is one frequently made in
the literature of the _Nō_. Throughout this play there are many phrases
showing how deeply the characters feel the transitoriness of human
life. After Hitomaru’s longing for a place to rest a little while,
Kagekiyo exclaims--

  Nay, in the three worlds there is not a place.

Kagekiyo’s behaviour to his child, and his reception of her after
her long search for him, appears to us to be most cruel; but it is,
nevertheless, based on the conceptions of the chivalry of his time.
Kagekiyo’s leading thought was the really unselfish desire to keep the
shame of his condition from touching his daughter. His first wish is
that she shall not even recognise or speak with him; but when this is
frustrated, he commands both the servant and the villager to send her
back immediately their short meeting is over. And yet he does not seek
even a moment’s embrace, nor does he use an endearing phrase to his
daughter. The play is a good illustration of the way that the old codes
of Japanese chivalry imposed courses of action which seem now in this
softer age well-nigh inhuman in their repression and conquest of the
natural feelings.




KAGEKIYO[30]




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ


  Kagekiyo                           _Shite_
  Hitomaru, Kagekiyo’s daughter      _Tsure_
  Servant to Hitomaru
  Villager                           _Waki_
  Chorus


SCENE

 A mountain side at Miyasaki in the province of Hiuga. Time about 1190.


HITOMARU AND SERVANT

  The dew remains until the wind doth blow,
  The dew remains until the wind doth blow.
  My own life fleeting as a drop of dew,
  What will become of me as time does pass?


HITOMARU

  My name is Hitomaru, and I am
  A maiden, who in Kamakura[31] dwells.
  My father’s name is Kagekiyo, called
  By some the Boisterous, and he is a friend
  Of the Hei[32] clan, the Taira family
  And so is by the Gen[32] house hated much.
  To Miyasaki exiled, in Hiuga
  He deigns, in shame, long months and years to pass.
  To travel unaccustomed, I am tired,
  And yet inevitable weariness
  I mitigate by thinking of my quest,
  And I am strengthened for my father’s sake.


HITOMARU AND SERVANT

  The tears of anxious sleep run down my cheek
  And to the dew upon the pillowing grass
  Add drops that drench my sleeves.

  From Sagami the province we set out,
  From Sagami the province we set out,
  Asking from those we met, the road to take
  Toward our destination. And we passed
  The province Tōtōmi,[33] and crossed by boat
  The distant bay. And Mikana we passed,
  By Mikana, spanned o’er with bridges eight.
  Oh, would that we could grow accustomed soon
  To our short nights of sleep that we might dream
  Of the high capital above the clouds,
  Of the high capital above the clouds.


SERVANT

  Endeavoured as you honourably have
  To hasten on the way, already now
  This is Miyasaki, as it is called,
  To Hiuga you have honourably come.
  This is the place to honourably ask
  Your honourable father’s whereabouts.


KAGEKIYO

[_Evident to the audience, but supposed to be hidden from the other
actors._]

  The pine trees that have seen long months and years
  Entwine themselves to form the arching bowers.
  Yet I, debarred from the clear light of day
  Discern no sign that time is passing by.
  Here idly in a dark and lowly hut
  I sleep the time away. The seasons change
  But not for heat nor cold my clothes are planned
  And to a skeleton my frame has waned.


CHORUS

  If one has got to leave the world, then black,
  Black should his sleeves be dyed. Then surely black
  His sleeves should all be dyed, and yet my sleeves--
  Oh, more inglorious! So utterly
  Worn out and waned my state that I myself
  Feel much averse unto my wretched self.
  So who could be benevolent enough
  To visit such a state of misery?
  No one inquiring of my misery
    Will ever come.
  No one inquiring of my misery
    Will ever come.


HITOMARU

  Incredible that one should dwell within
  That wretched hut, it does not seem to be
  Fit for a habitation. Strangely though
  I heard a voice proceeding from its wall.
  A beggar’s dwelling it must be. I fear,
  And from the lowly dwelling keep away.


KAGEKIYO

  That autumn now has come I cannot see,
  And yet I feel it for the wind has brought
  Tidings from somewhere, tho’ I know not whence.


HITOMARU

  Ah, knowing not my father’s whereabouts
  In misery I wander, with no place
  Where I can rest even a little while.


KAGEKIYO

  Nay, in the three worlds there is not a place,
  ’Tis only in the heavenly expanse.[34]
  Choose any man and ask him, he will say
  “Where else!” And what else could he ever say?


SERVANT

  How now, you in the thatched hut, I would ask
  A question of you.


KAGEKIYO

  Well; what is it then?


SERVANT

  Knowest thou where dwells an exiled man?


KAGEKIYO

  An exile though he be, what is his name?


SERVANT

  The Boist’rous Kagekiyo is he called,
  And of the Taira house, a warrior.


KAGEKIYO

  Yes, yes, I think that I have heard of him,
  Though being blind the man I’ve never seen.
  Miserable, his honourable state!
  To hear of which stirs pity in my breast.
  Pray then inquire elsewhere the full account.


SERVANT

  Then hereabouts he does not seem to be.

[_To his mistress_]

  But further on we should inquire again
  If you will honourably now proceed.


KAGEKIYO

  She who has just been here--Why! is she not
  The very child of this selfsame blind man?
  Once, very long ago, at Atsuta
  I met a woman, and this child I got.
  It was a girl,[35] and so I trusted her
  To Kamegaegatsu’s châtelaine.
  Now grieving parent meets with child estranged;
  She, speaking to her father, knows it not.


CHORUS

  Her form unseen, although I hear her voice,
  How sad my blindness is! Without a word
  I let her pass. And yet such action is
  Due truly to the bond of parent’s love,
  Due truly to the bond of parent’s love.


SERVANT

  How now, you there! Art thou a villager?


VILLAGER

  And to the Villager what hast thou then
  Of honourable business?


SERVANT

                          Dost thou know
  Where lives an exiled man?


VILLAGER

                             What sort of man--
  An exile though he be--of whom you ask?


SERVANT

  A warrior of the Hei house, and called
  Kagekiyo the Boist’rous, him I seek.


VILLAGER

  Just now as thou hast come along this way
  Upon the hill-side, was there not a hut,
  A hut with thatch, and somebody within?


SERVANT

  Yes, a blind beggar sat within the hut.


VILLAGER

  Aye. That blind beggar is the man you seek,
  The very Kagekiyo whom you seek!
  How strange! When I said Kagekiyo’s name
  That honourable lady there did deign
  To show a look of sadness. Why was that?


SERVANT

  Thy wonder is most reasonable. Naught
  Shall I conceal from thee. Kagekiyo’s
  Most honourable daughter is the maid
  Who hopes once more her honoured sire to meet.
  That being so, and as from far away
  She has come hither, I pray thee devise
  Some proper way of speaking face to face
  With Kagekiyo.


VILLAGER

                 Oh, unutterable!
  Is she his honourable daughter then?
  Well, calm your heart, and pray you deign to hear.
  The sight of both eyes Kagekiyo lost;
  So helpless, he cut short his hair and called
  Himself Kōtau of Hiuga and he begs
  For his poor living from the travellers,
  And with the pity of such lowly folk
  As we ourselves, he just sustains his life.
  And that he doth not tell his name must be
  Shame for the contrast with the olden days.
  At once I shall go with you and call out
  “Kagekiyo”--and if it is his name
  Then will he answer and you can observe
  Him face to face, and of the distant past
  And of the present you shall tell him all.
  Pray come this way.

                      Holloa! in the thatched hut
  Is Kagekiyo there within? Is there
  The boisterous Kagekiyo?


KAGEKIYO

                           Worrying,
  Worrying, even if my state were well.
  And even though these people came from home,
  Shame for this very self compels me now
  Without my name to let them go--and yet--
  And yet it rends my heart and the sad tears
  As of a thousand streams run down my sleeves.
  I waken with the thought that earthly things
  Are naught, and but as visions in a dream.
  I am resolved in this world now to be
  As one who is not, and if they will call
  This beggar Kagekiyo, why reply?
  Moreover in this province I’ve a name--


CHORUS

  That name in Hiuga facing to the sun,[36]
  In Hiuga, facing to the sun is not
  The name they call, but they return to one
  Of the old days, discarded long ago,
  Which with my helplessly dropped bow I dropped.
  Wild thoughts again I never will excite
  And yet I’m angry.


KAGEKIYO

                     Though while here I live
  In this place.


CHORUS

                 While I live
  In this place; if I stir the hate of those
  With means, how helpless would I be! and like
  A blind man who had lost his walking-stick.
  A crippled man am I, and yet I dared
  Unreasonable words to use in wrath.
  Forgive I pray!


KAGEKIYO

  Blind are my eyes and yet--


CHORUS

  Blind are my eyes and yet I surely know
  Another’s thought hid in a single word.
  And if upon the mountains blows the wind
  Against the pine trees, I can tell its source,
  Whether it comes from snow or unseen flowers,--
  Flowers only seen in dreams from which to wake
  Is to regret! Again if in the bay
  Upon the rough sea beaches dashing waves
  Are heard, then I well know the evening tide
  Is rising. Aye, to the great Taira clan
  I do belong, and so to pleasure them
  I’d give recitals of those olden days.


KAGEKIYO

  How now, I wish to say a word to thee,
  For it has troubled me that I just now
  Used such quick-tempered words. For what I said
  I pray thee pardon me.


VILLAGER

                         Well, that is naught.
  So never mind it. And, has no one come,
  To make inquiries here before I came?


KAGEKIYO

  No, no. Except thy calling, none has been.


VILLAGER

  Ho! ’Tis a lie thou sayest. Certainly
  Did Kagekiyo’s noble daughter come.
  Wherefore dost thou conceal? It is because
  I feel her story is so pitiful
  That I’ve come here with her.

[_To HITOMARU_]

                                So now at once
  Meet with your father, see him face to face

[_KAGEKIYO keeps silence_]


HITOMARU

  Pray, it is I, I who have come to you.
  Cruel! The rain, the wind, the dew and frost
  I minded not along that distant road,
  While coming to you! And all this, alas,
  Becomes as nothing! Does a Father’s love
  Depend upon the nature of the child?[37]
  Ah, heartless!


KAGEKIYO

                 Up till now I hoped to hide,
  But now I am found out I am ashamed.
  To hide my fleeting[38] self there is no place.

[_To HITOMARU_]

  If, in thy flowering form thou shouldst proclaim
  That we are child and parent, then thy name
  Thou wouldst announce,[39] and when I think on this
  I am resolved we part. Pray do not feel
  Thy father harsh and this mere heartlessness!


CHORUS

  Ah, truly is it sad! In olden times
  I welcomed even strangers when they called,
  And was displeased if they should pass me by.
  And now its recompense! How sad it is!
  To think that I had hoped that my own child
  Should not have called on me. Alas, how sad!
  When in their warships were the Taira clan,
  When in their warships were the Taira clan,
  So many were there that their shoulders touched
  And in the crowded space the knees were crossed.
  There scarce was room to live[40] beneath the moon--
  And Kagekiyo more than any else
  Was on the flagship indispensable.
  His fellow officers and all the rest
  Though rich in valour and in tactic powers
  He did o’ertop. And as the ship is steered
  By him who holds the rudder, so did he
  Lead in the army and no difference
  Ever occurred between him and his men.
  All envied him, but now he is most like
  A Unicorn, infirm with hoary age
  And rather worse than a mere useless horse.[41]


VILLAGER

  How now, Kagekiyo, I’d speak with thee!
  Thy daughter’s wish is there, and she would hear
  Of thy heroic deeds at Yashima
  So tell her the brave story. Let her hear.


KAGEKIYO

  ’Tis somewhat unbecoming, her request!
  Yet as she came from far and for my sake,
  I’ll tell the story, but when it is done
  Pray send her home again immediately.


VILLAGER

  That shall be done. Thy story finished, I
  Will send her back at once.


KAGEKIYO

                              Well then. The time
  Was drawing toward the end of the third month
  Of the third year of _Ju-ei_,[42] and our clan
  Were in their warships while upon the land
  The hordes of Minamoto gathered near.
  Two armies were opposed upon the coast
  And each one wished a contest to decide.
  Then Noritsune, Lord of Noto, spoke
  To all his people--“In our last year’s fights
  From Muroyama down in Harima
  To Mizushima, Hiyodorigoe
  And all, we never had one victory.
  To Yoshitsune’s[43] tactics this was due.
  “By some means or another we must slay
  This Kuro, and suggestions we desire
  Of some good plan;” he deigned to say to them.
  Then Kagekiyo in his mind resolved
  That Hangwan was no devil nor a god,
  So if I throw away my life for his,
  I thought, it will be easy, so that this
  To Noritsune was my last farewell.
  And as I landed the Gen warriors
  Did dash towards me to destroy my life.


CHORUS

  This Kagekiyo saw,
  This Kagekiyo saw, and crying out
  “How clamorous!” He struck out with his sword
  That in the evening sun flashed brilliantly.
  Th’ opposing warriors at once gave way,
  And he pursued, that they should not escape.


KAGEKIYO

  This is deplorable for every one--


CHORUS

  This is deplorable for every one!
  ’Tis mutual shame alike for the Gen clan
  And for the Hei clan to look upon
  So shouted I--thinking to stop one man
  Is easy, and so underneath my arm
  Carrying my sword--“A warrior am I
  Of the great Hei clan, Kagekiyo
  Some call the Boisterous,” and thus crying out
  To seize them I pursued them. Then I caught
  On Mihonoya’s helmet, but it slipped.
  Again I caught, but once again it slipped
  And thus three times did he escape, though I
  Determined that he should not flee, for he,
  He was the foe that I had chosen.
  Eiya! As with the whole strength of my arms
  I pulled, and as I hauled the cape broke off,
  And part stayed in my hand,[44] but he escaped.
  When at some distance from me, he turned back
  And said, “Now thou art mighty strong of arm
  Although thou didst allow me to escape.”
  Then Kagekiyo answered back, “The strength
  Lies in the neck bone of Mihonoya.”
  So smiling, did we part to left and right.[45]

  He who has told the tale of olden days--
  Days ne’er forgotten--is now sadly waned
  And e’en confused in mind. Ah, what a shame!
  The end of all this woe of life is near,
  For in this world at most my time is short.
  At once return,[46] and when I am no more
  I pray thee deign to offer prayers for me.
  That in dark places there shall be a light
  For this blind man, and over evil roads
  A bridge. So will I look upon thy prayers.
  “I stay,” said he, and she “I go,”
  His ears retained but her one word “I go.”
  And thus between the parent and the child
  This was the legacy at last exchanged--
  Between the parent and the child exchanged.


END OF “KAGEKIYO”

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Page 53--Kagekiyo’s full name is _Aku-Shichibioe Kagekiyo_.
_Aku_--literally means “wicked”; but sometimes has a special meaning of
“wild” or “boisterous,” as in the present case, where it intimates that
the man is rough in manners and strong in arms.

[30] I have put this all in one metre, making no difference between the
“words” and “song.” (See p. 33.)

[31] Page 56--In the original it reads, “Kamegaegayatsu in Kamakura”;
but as this will not fit into any possible metre the first word is left
out.

[32] Page 56--_Taira_ becomes _Hei_ when compounded with a following
character; thus Taira House is _Hei-Ke_. Similarly “Minamoto” becomes
_Gen_, thus _Gen-ji_ is the Minamoto family.

[33] Page 57--_Tōtōmi_, the name of one of the provinces through which
they came, means “distant bay.” Also _to_ or _tou_ with a different
ideagraph means “to ask.” _Mikana_, the name of another province
through which they passed, means “three rivers,” which leads to the
idea of bridges. But more than that, Mikana is noted for its eight
bridges, spanning over the streams which branch off like the legs
of a spider, which is _kumo_ in Japanese; and this idea leads on to
that of “clouds,” which are pronounced _kumo_, though written with a
different ideagraph. The idea of “clouds” leads on, finally, to that
of the “capital,” where only those of high rank “above the clouds” are
dwelling.

[34] Page 59--Kagekiyo takes up Hitomaru’s words, originally used in a
simple, physical sense, and applies them to the spiritual world. It is,
nevertheless, not supposed to be a dialogue; each is soliloquising.

[35] Page 60--And therefore could play no part in his warlike schemes.

[36] Page 63--The Chinese character for the name of the province means
“facing the sun.”

[37] Page 65--Meaning that if she had been a boy he would have welcomed
her; but now he takes no account of her hardships and difficulties in
reaching him.

[38] The words used give a suggestion of dew-like.

[39] Page 65--Proclaiming herself the child of an exile and beggar, to
her social detriment.

[40] Page 66--The word _sumu_, “to live,” also signifies “clear,” which
is associated in poetry with the moon, which in its turn leads to the
thought of shadow, _Kage_ leading to Kagekiyo.

[41] Page 66--A mythical animal, of which the nearest translation is
perhaps the unicorn. There is a proverb which states that though it is
the king of beasts, when old it is worse than a useless horse.

[42] Page 67--That is in the year 1185.

[43] Page 67--Yoshitsune’s complete name was _Kurō Hang wan
Yoshitsune_. One of these, or all three names may be applied to him. As
the three names make an impossible encumbrance for a line I only give
him one, even where the Japanese original calls him by his full name.

[44] Page 68--The jointed cape of his opponent’s armour.

[45] Page 68--The Minamoto clan were victorious, and when in power they
banished Kagekiyo as a specially dangerous enemy.

[46] The Chorus here speaks for Kagekiyo to Hitomaru.




TAMURA

RÉSUMÉ OF TAMURA




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ


 _Shite_: The Spirit of TAMURAMARU, a renowned warrior, in the first
 part appearing as a youth, and in the second as a warrior.

 _Waki_: A Travelling Priest.

 _Chorus._


SCENE

 The temple ground of Kiyomizu in Kioto, in March. The shrine of
 Tamuramaru is erected in this ground.

There are only two actors in this piece, and it is even less dramatic
than the preceding. As it does not lend itself so well to complete
translation, I shall give the piece merely as a _résumé_, with a few
of the more beautiful lines rendered _in extenso_. This drama is
an admirable example of the use of a delicately toned, flower-like
foreground, as a setting for the warlike figure who recites tales of
his strenuous life, which is so characteristic of the construction of
the _Nō_.

       *       *       *       *       *

The PRIEST enters first, and, as is often the case at the beginning of
a _Nō_, he recites an account of his hurried journey in the spring,
past the provincial capitals to the “nine-fold capital of the Emperor”
(Kioto). He speaks of the mild sky of the spring with the sun shrouded
by soft haze, and announces that he has now arrived at the Temple of
Kiyomizu (meaning clear water) with its peaceful waterfalls.

The YOUTH (Tamuramaru) now appears with a broom in his hand. He says:
“The spring has returned, and the flowers in their prime beauty make
natural offerings for the Goddess of the Temple. Though there are
many places famous for their blossoms they do not equal these, which
are illuminated by the light of Kannon’s[47] mercy, and this divine
mercy, bright as the autumn moon, even penetrates the village of the
ten evils and shines upon the lake of the five vices. These flowers
look like snow in the garden of the gods or white sand on the shore of
heaven’s sea, in which the mist and the clouds are all buried. So many
of them there are, and all are cherry flowers, some eight-fold, some
single-fold, as is the way in the spring of the nine-fold capital. And
all the mountains far and near likewise reflect the season of flowers.”

Beholding the Youth sweeping the petals, the PRIEST asks him if he is
the flower keeper. To this the YOUTH replies in the affirmative, saying
that he serves the Goddess of the Temple and that as he always sweeps
the petals in the season he may be looked on as the flower keeper, or
at any rate as one in the service of the Temple.

The PRIEST then asks him to relate minutely the history of the Temple.
Into this narrative the Youth plunges directly, stating that the Temple
was built in the second year of Daido[48] and founded by the wish of
Tamuramaru of Sakanoue. He continues to relate that there was once a
priest called Kenshin who had a great desire to behold the real form
of Kannon, and after his prayer he once saw a golden-coloured light
on the upper stream of the river Kotsu. He followed it and found an
old man, who said that he was Gyoe-Koji and told Kenshin to discover
a patron who would found a magnificent temple. But this so-called
Gyoe-Koji was really Kannon herself, and Tamuramaru was the patron of
whom she spoke. The CHORUS then speaks, for the Youth, of the universal
benevolence of Kannon, symbolised by her thousand merciful hands, every
one of which is ready to be extended to those in need, in answer to
their prayers.

The PRIEST declares that he has met an interesting person, and asks for
further information about the famous places around, questioning the
Youth about one to the south, where a mound is to be seen, and then
one to the north, whence an evening bell is heard. The YOUTH, after
replying that the one is the Seikan Temple and the other the Temple of
Washinowo, both famous in poetry, calls the attention of the Priest
to the moon rising from behind the Otowa mountain, and observes that
as the moon casts its peaceful light upon the cherry blossoms it is a
sight truly worth seeing.

The PRIEST says--

  This is a season to be prized indeed,
  This passing moment of a heartless Time
  That flies so swiftly in the midst of Spring.

The YOUTH and the PRIEST both repeat: “A precious moment indeed!” Then
together they recite an old poem: “As precious as a thousand pieces of
gold is one moment of a spring evening with flowers of pure perfume and
the moon of silver brightness,” the YOUTH adding, “Ay, more precious
still is this very moment!”

The CHORUS chants in further praise of the flowers in the Temple
ground--

  The moon between the cherry trees shines clear
  And petals softly falling in the breeze
  Dance in the air like gleaming flakes of snow
  And make our hearts dance with them, light and glad.

A second chant of the CHORUS enlarges on the beauty of the flowers,
the greenness of foliage, the softness of the breeze and the charm of
the waterfall of Otowa, and concludes by referring once more to the
merciful light of the Goddess of the Temple, which is extended even to
inanimate objects, such as trees, and which accounts for the exquisite
scenery of the surroundings.

The CHORUS then asks (for the Priest) the name of the Youth, who does
not appear to be an ordinary person. To this the YOUTH replies: “A
nameless man am I, but if thou wishest to know who I am, observe where
I am going.” The CHORUS explains that the Youth then opens the door
of the Shrine of Tamuramaru, which is brightly lit by the moon, and
disappears within.

The second part of the Play opens with the PRIEST saying: “Under the
shadow of a cherry tree all through the night I stand, the petals fall
and dance in the air, the moon shines brilliant and clear, and in these
beautiful surroundings I say the midnight prayer.”

TAMURAMARU then appears in the form of a warrior, saying: “How thankful
am I to hear the voice of prayer, the midnight prayer from a passing
stranger! ’Tis Kannon’s mercy, her help. Oh, how grateful I am!”

The PRIEST observes how strange it is that he sees a manly figure in
the light of the glittering flowers, and asks who it is.

To this TAMURAMARU replies that he has now nothing to conceal, and
begins to tell the story of his life by stating that in the reign of
Emperor Heize[49] he was Tamuramaru of Sakanoue, who was to conquer the
Eastern barbarians, the fiends, and that by the help of the Goddess
of this Temple he had power to do it. The story is then told by the
CHORUS, who recounts that, according to the Emperor’s declaration, the
powerful and rebellious fiends in Seishu must be put down and peace
must be restored. Tamuramaru collected the army, and when ready to
start he came to this Temple and prayed to Kannon that he might gain
the victory. “There was a strange but good omen,” breaks in TAMURAMARU,
and the CHORUS goes on to recount with what exultation he set out at
once to strike at the rebels.

Another chant of the CHORUS describes the march of Tamuramaru and
his army to the seat of the rebels. They travelled far, going over
the mountain pass of Ōsaka and through the forest of Awazu; stopping
to adore the Temple of Ishiyama, noted for its mirage, where also
Kannon is enshrined; and crossing over the long bridge of Seta, which
resounded gallantly as horses trotted over it. At last they reached
the province of Isé (or Seishu), and, convinced of their victory, for
they were waging a just war, were more encouraged than ever, every one
of them desiring to show his bravery and strike the first blow at the
rebels. Happily, moreover, with the help of Kannon, the fiends, though
they were numerous, were unconscious of their arrival.

With thundering voice, which shook trees and rivers, even the
mountains, and which echoed through the heavens and reached to the
deepest earth, TAMURAMARU then spoke thus: “You, fiends, hear what I
say. In older times there was once a rebel called Chikata, and the
heavenly punishment descended upon him and the fiends who served him,
and they were at once defeated.”

The CHORUS then describes how the fiends came on in battle, raising
thick clouds and pouring down iron-fire, and by their magic art
creating thousands of armed men. They looked like the sea of Isé, or
the forest of Ano, so mighty were they and so numerous!

TAMURAMARU breaks in: “There behold, how astonishing!” and the
CHORUS goes on to explain that over his own army the light of the
thousand-handed Kannon appeared, flying in space, with a bow of mercy
and arrows of wisdom in each of her thousand hands, so that the arrows
poured down like rain and hail over the enemy till all were struck and
not one was left alive. Hence it was by Kannon’s power that the victory
was gained, and to her should be rendered eternal gratitude.

The play, which was written essentially in praise of the virtues and
powers of Kannon, is attributed to Motokiyo, the author of Kagekiyo
(see p. 53).


END OF “TAMURA”

FOOTNOTES:

[47] Or Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy, one of the principal deities in
the popular religion of Japan to-day.

[48] = 807 A.D.

[49] The reign of Emperor Heize = 806-809 A.D.




THE SUMIDA RIVER


Authorship of the Play

The play is attributed to _Motomasa_, who was a grandchild of the
famous Kiyotsugu (see p. 7) and who died in 1459. The exact date of its
composition is uncertain, but it was most likely within the first half
of the fifteenth century.


Outline of the Story

A little child, the only son of his widowed mother (and owing to the
laws regarding the continuation of families in Japan that means much
more there than it does in Europe), was kidnapped from his home. The
play opens a year after this had happened, and we meet the mother
hurrying toward the Sumida river, which she crosses in the ferry. She
has had a long journey from the City Royal (Kioto) in her search for
the child. While she is in the ferry, the ferryman tells the passengers
of a festival to be held in the place that evening in memory of a
little lad who died on the road just a year ago. The mother questions
him, and learns that it is _her_ child for whom the villagers are about
to meet in prayer. The ferryman prevails on her to join in the prayers,
and for a moment the ghost of the little one appears and speaks with
her.

[Illustration: PLATE 7.

SUMIDAGAWA

_This illustration from a Japanese coloured woodcut is not so good as
could be desired, but was the only one available. It shows the Mother
on the left, and reveals the simple, open way in which the actor wears
the woman’s mask. The little rectangular instrument at her feet is that
used for striking the gong of prayer (+see p. 92+). The small
figure to the right is the ghost of the little son who died, and whom
she has set out to seek. Notice his entirely unnatural wig of hair. In
the square insets above him are representations of the “Birds of the
City Royal” (+see p. 83+) spoken of so much in the text, and the
words “I adore the Eternal Buddha” in Chinese ideographs._ ]


Comments on the Play

In this _Nō_ there is much greater expression of tender, human
sentiment than is common in the pieces. It contains also several
charming descriptions of Nature, sometimes with a deeper meaning
beneath them. For example--

  If one but waits
  The wind vibrates
  The branches of the pine trees till they speak.

Throughout the piece also there are very many allusions to and plays
upon classical verses, particularly in relation to the “Bird of the
City Royal” and Narihira’s poems (see p. 83).

The predominating thought in the piece, however, is the Buddhistic
conception of the transitoriness of human life, and of the frail nature
even of the bond that unites a loving mother and her child.

  Fleeting as are the gleaming drops of dew,
  Desolate as the moor of Makuzu
  In autumn, is this world of lost delight.




THE SUMIDA RIVER

A TRANSLATION OF THE JAPANESE _NŌ, SUMIDA GAWA_




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ


  The Mother                _Shite_
  The Ferryman              _Waki_
  A Traveller.
  Spirit of the Child.
  The Chorus.


SCENE

 The banks of the Sumida River in the province of Musashi, toward
 evening.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  I am he who plies the ferry in the province of Musashi,
  Over Sumida, the river, known to many far and wide.
  And to-day my boat must hurry with its many loads of people,
  For our village holds a festival of universal prayer.
  On this day both priest and layman with no thought of their
        distinction
  Will remember this great matter and assemble one and all.


TRAVELLER [_Song_]

  The goal of my long journey is the East,
  The goal of my long journey is the East,
  Far Azuma,[50] and like its distance stretch
  My days of travel, long in weary thought.

[_Words_]

  From the capital I travel,[51] I who now am speaking to you,
  And I journey on to Azuma to visit there a friend.

[_Song_]

  Behind me rise the mountains I have passed
  Faint in the distance as the clouds and mists.
  Behind me rise the mountains I have passed
  Faint in the distance as the clouds and mists.
  O’er many a mountain path my way has lain,
  Wide province after province have I crossed.
  Before me now lies the great Sumida,
  The river of renown, and at my feet
  The waiting ferry do I now behold,
  The waiting ferry do I now behold.

[_Words_]

  I have hurried, for already, ’tis the ferry of the river,
  And behold, the boat is leaving, I must enter it at once.
  What ho! Boatman! stay a moment. I would travel in your boat.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Very good, sir! Now at once though, may it please you to get in.
  Yet I first would like to ask you, what is that loud noise behind you,
  There behind, whence you have travelled. What’s the matter, may I ask?


TRAVELLER [_Words_]

  ’Tis a woman who is coming from the capital and acting
  Like a mad thing in a queer ecstatic way. I saw her there.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Oh, in that case let us tarry till the mad thing can o’ertake us,
  We can stay the boat a little, for this way she’ll surely come.


THE MOTHER [_Song_][52]

  Darkness entire can never hold its sway
  Within a mother’s heart, and yet for love
  Of her sweet child she is a wanderer.
  Ah! painfully I know for the first time
  The bitter truth contained within these words.
  I ask all those who pass
  Along the snowy way[53]
  To Azuma to say
  Where lies my little love.
  There is no news. Alas!
  No answer can I find.
  Shall I then ask the wind
  That blows unseen above?


CHORUS

  If one but waits
  The wind vibrates
  The branches of the pine trees till they speak.
  If one stays still
  He often will
  Have brought to him the tidings he does seek.[54]


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  Fleeting as are the gleaming drops of dew,
  Desolate as the moor of Makuzu
  In autumn, is this world of lost delight.


CHORUS

  Fretted with sorrow pass her day and night.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  I am a woman who had lived for years
  At Kitajirikawa in the capital;
  When suddenly I lost my only child,
  Lured from me by a man who kidnapped him.
  They told me that beyond Ōsaka’s pass[55],
  Far to the East, to Azuma, he went.
  And since I heard it I have felt my mind
  Losing its hold on ordinary things,
  Set only, full of love, upon the way
  The child did follow. Tracing out the marks
  Of his dear feet, I wander here and there.


CHORUS

I

  Thousands of miles the journey is in length,
  Yet never does the parent’s heart forget
  The child she loves and seeks. So do we hear.


CHORUS

II

  The nature of the bond[56] is transient,
  The bond is transient in this world, and yet
  Parent and child are destined not to live
  In loving union even this short while.
  But, like the four birds in the fable old,[57]
  Between them cruel separation lies.
  And now, alas! the mother’s loving search
  Of her young child has come to its sad end,
  For she has reached the river Sumida,[58]
  The river Sumida that flows between
  The province Shimotsuke and Musashi.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  Pray, O Boatman, kindly let me also enter in your ferry.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Who, then, art thou? Whither going? And from whence hast thou
        just come?


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  From the capital I travel, to Azuma, seeking some one.


FERRYMAN [_Words, in jest_]

  As thou art, then, from the city, and seem also to be mad,
  Entertain us, show us something that is curious or funny.
  If thou do’st not, I’ll not let thee travel now upon this boat.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  Oh, how vexing! I expected on the ferry of Sumida,
  Which is so renowned, the answer--“Enter now upon my boat,
  For the day is not yet over.” But instead of that thou sayest--

[_Song_]

  Thou deign’st to say that I am from the city,
  And by the custom, must not use thy boat.[59]
  But o’er great Sumida thy ferry passes,
  And so thy words do scarce become thee well.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  It is true; thou art a person from the distant City Royal,
  And thy gentle nurture tallies with its reputation here.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  Ah! That word![60] I do remember. It was here that Narihira
  That the famous Narihira[61] wrote beside this very ferry:

[_Song_]

  Bird of the Royal City--come!
  I ask of you a boon, if true,
  The name that they have given you:
  Is she alive--the one I love--
  Is she? Or is she not?

  Pray, O Boatman, over yonder is a white bird that we know not
  In the capital. By what name do you call it in this part?


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  That bird is indeed a seagull, flying in from the wide ocean.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  They may call it gull or plover, what they wish to by the sea,
  But when standing here by Sumida with that white bird before us
  Why did you not name it rightly, as the Bird of City Royal?


FERRYMAN [_Song_][62]

  Yes, truly, truly, I have sadly erred.
  This is the place far famed for that same bird.
  I had in very truth the thing forgot
  And though this is the place the thought came not.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  The gull of the wide sea brings to thought
  The waves of the evening tide.[63]


FERRYMAN [_Song_]

  And the roll of the waves to our minds has brought
  The past when Narihira cried.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  “Is she or is she not?” To the Bird he spied.


FERRYMAN [_Song_]

  His thought was a lover parted from his side.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  The same thought guides me, for I seek
  My loving child. To all I speak,
  Asking if any news there be
  Of where my child lies hid from me.


FERRYMAN [_Song_]

  For a lover to pine


THE MOTHER

  For a child to seek


FERRYMAN

  Is in the same way


THE MOTHER

  When love does speak.


CHORUS [_Song_]

  O Bird of the Royal City, come!
  For I ask, too, a boon of you.
  In Azuma, the child I love
  Is he, or is he not?
  Ah! though I ask and ask, it answers not!
  Vexing art thou! Bird of the Royal City--
  A country bird wouldst thou be better called!
  Yet this same bird comes singing to the banks
  Of Horie River, where the boats race past.
  That river is in Naniwa, and this
  The Sumida, flows down through Azuma.
  When one reflects on this, how vastly far
  In my lone journey do I seem to come.
  That being so---- Lo! Ferryman, I pray
  The boat is full, but still is room for me,
  So let me enter, Ferryman, I say,
  So let me enter, and then push away.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Such a tender-hearted, mad thing as this woman never has been!
  Come aboard at once, but notice that the ferry is a swift one.
  Take good care to step in gently.
    [_To the TRAVELLER_] You, sir, too, I pray come on.


TRAVELLER [_Words_]

  May I ask, what is that yonder where the people by the willow
  Are assembled in great numbers? Why should they be waiting there?


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Well, that is a public meeting for a universal prayer.
  I would tell you, while we’re crossing, if you’ll listen to the tale,
  The sad story in connection with this festival of ours.
  It was last year, in the third month, on the fifteenth day, I reckon,
  Yes! That is so, and to-day we have the very selfsame day,
  That a kidnapper did journey from the capital, and with him
  Was a lad whom he had purchased, twelve or thirteen years of age,
  He was going to the north-east, but the child was not yet hardened
  And the long fatiguing journey made him very sadly ill.
  It was just here by the river that he could go no step farther,
  But fell down, and there remained. Oh! a heartless man was with him!
  And the child in that condition by the roadside simply lying
  Was abandoned by the merchant who went off to the north-east.
  Then the people of the district nursed and tenderly did treat him
  (Though I fancy it was really just the Karma of his past),[64]
  Something in his childish features and his little ways they noted,
  As if he were of importance, so they watched him carefully.
  Worse and worse, however, fared he, till the end seemed just
        approaching,
  Then they asked him--“Who now art thou? and from whence hast thou
        just come?”
  And his father’s surname asked I, and the province of his birthplace:
  “In the capital my home is, and at Kitajirikawa.”
  So he answered; “And my father, who is dead, was Yoshida.
  I, his one child, had been living with my loving mother only,
  But was kidnapped, and was taken far away, and hence my illness.
  Truly, often am I thinking of the people in the city,
  Of their hands and feet and shadows,[65] even, often fondly thinking.
  As beside the road I’m dying, deign just here to bury me.
  And to mark the spot I pray thee, be so kind, and plant a willow.”
  Feebly spoke he, and repeated four or five times a calm prayer,
  Then it ended. A sad story, is it not, that I have told you?
  As I see now, in this boat, there are some people from the city,
  Unintentioned though it may be, you will honourably join us
  And your lamentation offer with our prayers on this occasion?
  What! The shore! With this long story we have quickly come to land.
  For _you_ it is unimportant. Now, I pray you, disembark.


TRAVELLER [_Words_]

  Truly, here to-day I’ll linger, and a prayer with you will say.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  How now! Why does that mad woman not come here from out the boat?
  Come, at once! Come up, I beg you! Yet how tender-hearted is she!
  Having simply heard the story she is truly shedding tears.
  Yet at once, I really beg you, you must come out of the boat.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  Pray, O Boatman, of that story, what, I beg you, is the date?


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  ’Twas last year, and in the third month; and, moreover, this same day.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  And that child, what age?


FERRYMAN

  Twelve years.


THE MOTHER

  Ah!--his name?


FERRYMAN

  Umewakamaru was he.


THE MOTHER

  And his father’s surname know you?


FERRYMAN

  ’Twas a certain Yoshida.


THE MOTHER

  And since then, the parents, have they never sent to make inquiries?


FERRYMAN

  No, no relatives inquiring ever came.


THE MOTHER

  But sure the mother!


FERRYMAN

  It is strange beyond believing, but ’tis true--I answer No!


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  Alas! Nor kith nor kin. It is too true!
  His parents even did not come to you.
  It must be. Yet, O Heavens, how sad! _That_ child
  Is him I seek. I, whom you now called wild.
  O Heavens. O mercy. It must be a dream!


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Oh, unutterable sorrow. Until now it lay outside me;
  It was other people’s business. Now you say it was _thy_ child?
  Pitiful! But wherefore grievest? He is now beyond recall.
  Come this way and I will show thee where his grave lies. Now
        ’tis near.
  _This_ the tomb of him who left us. Offer now thy deep-felt prayers.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  E’en though I feared it might be so, till now
  Hope led me on to make this journey long
  To distant, unfamiliar Azuma;
  But at the end of the sad way I find
  Naught in this world but mark of where he lies.
  Ah! Cruel is it!--If his fate was death--
  That he should leave his birthplace and have come
  To a road corner in strange Azuma,
  And mingled with the roadside earth to lie
  Beneath a tangled mass of spring-time’s weeds,
  Beneath this very ground so it doth seem.


CHORUS

I

  Then shown unto the mother in earth’s form,
  May there appear the dear one of her world.

II

  The one is taken who might be of use!
  The one is taken who might be of use!
  The one whose work is over does remain,
  The mother, like a withered broom tree left,[66]
  In whose mind comes and goes his likeness dear,
  As things are wont in this uncertain world.
  To man at any moment may come grief,
  Like heartless storm that shatters blooming boughs
  The voice of such a storm has called up clouds
  That fly unsettled and have hid the moon
  That else had lit the long night of her life.
  Yea, verily how fleeting must the world
  Appear to her before us now. Alas!
  Yea, verily how fleeting must the world
  Appear to her before us now. Alas!


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Now, however much thou grievest, ’tis of no avail whatever;
  Join then with us in the prayer for his good in future worlds.

[_Song_]

  The moon has risen, and the river breeze
  Blows cool. ’Tis late already, and the gong
  Tolls out, and we should be upon our knees.[67]


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  But still the mother in her agony
  No prayer can voice, but only weeping lie
  Upon the ground that hides her darling joy.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  Yea! ’tis sorrowful, though others have assembled in large numbers,
  It is _thy_ prayer that his spirit surely would rejoice to hear.

[_Song_]

  I place the gong[68] now in the mother’s hand.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  True, ’tis for my child’s sake, as I am told,
  And in my own hands now the gong I hold.


FERRYMAN [_Song_]

  As grief is checked and voices cleared for prayer.


THE MOTHER

  In unison we pray this moonlit night.


FERRYMAN

  Our thoughts united, to the West[69] we turn.


THE MOTHER AND FERRYMAN

  Thee I adore, Eternal Buddha great,
  Who still the same, for six-and-thirty times
  A million million worlds of Paradise,[70]
  For ever in the west dost permeate.
  Thee I adore, Eternal Buddha great.


THE MOTHER

  Thee I adore, Eternal Buddha great.


CHORUS

  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.


THE MOTHER

  And to my prayer the river Sumida
  Adds its loud voice the breeze.


CHORUS

  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.


THE MOTHER

  If true thy name, Bird of the City Royal,
  Add too thy voice, for this the city’s child.


CHILD[71] AND CHORUS

  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.


THE MOTHER [_Words_]

  Oh, that was my child’s voice praying, he that said the prayer
        just now.
  His voice was it, I am certain, and within this mound it seemed.


FERRYMAN [_Words_]

  As you say, we also heard it. And we now will cease our praying,
  Thou his mother art, and solely, honourably deign to pray.


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  Even if nothing but his voice return,
  I would that I could hear that voice again.


CHILD

  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.
  I adore thee, O Eternal Buddha.


CHORUS [_Song_]

  The voice is heard, and like a shadow too
  Within, can one a little form discern.

[_The Spirit of the Child appears_]


THE MOTHER [_Song_]

  Is it my child?


CHILD

  Ah! Mother! Is it you?

[_The Spirit disappears_]


CHORUS [_Song_]

  The mutual clasp of hand in hand exchanged,
  Once more he vanished as he first had come,
  But in her thought increasingly the form
  Of his reflection did repeat itself
  As in a polished mirror, to and fro.
  While gazing at the vision came the dawn
  And dimly flushed the sky, till naught was left.
  While what appeared to be the child is now
  A mound grown thickly o’er with tangled weeds,
  It has become naught but a rushy marsh,
  A mark of what was once so very dear.
  Ah, pitiful indeed is this our life
  Ah, pitiful indeed is this our life!


END OF “THE SUMIDA RIVER”

FOOTNOTES:

[50] Page 78--_Azuma_ is a name for the east of Japan, really the
region surrounding Tokio (literally the eastern capital).

[51] The old capital in the west, Kioto.

[52] Page 80--This is a particularly difficult passage. I had
previously rendered the lines more freely than the rest of the
translation, in an endeavour to construct a consecutive verse which
might keep the attention of an English reader. In its present form
the verse is perhaps nearer the original, but no entirely _literal_
translation is possible of a passage so full of the essentially
Japanese “pillow” and “pivot” words. At the outset the Mother quotes a
few words from an old poem.

[53] Page 80--The Japanese word _yuki_ means both “snow” and “going.”

[54] Page 81--Most of these three lines is added for the sake of
rounding off the thought in English.

[55] Page 81--This is not the large commercial town of the same name.

[56] Page 82--The bond of the relationship between a parent and
child. According to the Buddhistic belief, re-incarnation in the same
relations of parent and child holds only for this world. (That between
lovers is generally supposed to be of longer duration.)

[57] Page 82--Reference to an old Chinese fable of a bird who had four
young, and was bitterly distressed when the time came for them to fly
away.

[58] Page 82--_Sumi_ means the corner, or end of everything.

[59] Page 83--Local ferries sometimes hindered strangers from the city,
but she intimates that the Sumida is a river of too great importance to
expect such treatment on it.

[60] Page 83--“That word” is the word for “repute,” which has a root
the same as “if true the name” in the famous poem which she quotes. The
line depends on one of the Japanese “pivot words.”

[61] Page 83--Narihira is one of the well-known early poets of Japan,
he died in 880. Chamberlain, in his _Classical Poetry of the Japanese_,
quotes an opinion of Tsurayuki (who died in 946) on Narihira. He says:
“Narihira’s stanzas are so pregnant with meaning that the words suffice
not to express it. He is like a closed flower that hath lost its
colour, but whose fragrance yet remaineth.” Narihira is noted among the
classical poets for his conciseness and frequent obscurity.

[62] Page 84--She is vexed with him for not entering into the spirit of
the place and realising the quotation she has just given.

[63] Page 84--These lines depend on pivot words, which by playing upon
the root words in the Japanese, connect the ideas prettily.

[64] Page 87--And therefore it appeared to them hopeless to expect him
to recover from the illness.

[65] Page 88--The _shadows_ of people are much more real in Japan
than here. The shadow pictures that are continually thrown on the
white paper screens separating the rooms must fill a large place in
the memory of one who has lived in Japan; and, too, it is often only
the _feet_ of a passing noiseless maiden that one can see through the
openwork base of these screens while one lies on the quilts on the
matted floors.

[66] Page 91--This arises as a play on the words _Hawa_, a mother, and
_hawaki_, a broom tree, and also refers to a legend about a broom tree
which appeared and disappeared.

[67] Page 92--Time, therefore, for midnight prayer.

[68] Page 92--The gong in the Buddhist shrines is struck by the one who
prays.

[69] Page 92--The West is the direction of the Buddhist heavens.

[70] Page 93--The words are from the Buddhist scriptures, according to
which there are thirty-six million million worlds, all presided over by
emanations of the same Buddha.

[71] The voice of the Child’s Spirit is heard accompanied by the
Chorus’s chant.




ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE _NŌ_.


There is no English book entirely on the _Nō_, but the following Works
contain chapters on, and translations of, some of them.

 ASTON, W. G. “A History of Japanese Literature.” Heinemann, London,
 1899. See pp. 199-213.

 BRINKLEY, F. “Japan: its History, Arts and Literature,” vol. iii.
 Jack, London, 1903. See pp. 28-48.

 CHAMBERLAIN, B. H. “The Classical Poetry of the Japanese.” Boston,
 1880. See pp. 137-185. Reprinted with additions and deletions as
 “Japanese Poetry.” London, 1911. See pp. 109-144.

 DICKINS, F. V. “Primitive and Mediæval Japanese Texts translated into
 English.” Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1906. See pp. 391-412. Also volume
 of romanized texts of the same.

 EDWARDS, O. “Japanese Plays and Playfellows.” London, 1901. See pp.
 39-61.

 SANSOM, G. B. “Translations from Lyrical Drama: ‘Nō.’” Trans. Asiatic
 Soc. Japan, 1911, vol. xxxviii, part 3, pp. 125-176.

 STOPES, M. C. “A Japanese Mediæval Drama.” Trans. Royal Soc.
 Literature, London, 1909, vol. xxix, part 3, pp. 153-178.




_By the same Author_

A Journal from Japan

By Dr. Marie C. Stopes

 _The Diary of a year and a half’s travel into the wilds of Japan, as
 well as of sojourn in its capital_


The _Spectator_ says:

 “A most interesting and illuminating work.”

The _Athenæum_ says:

 “Remarkably naïve and fresh.”

The _Literary World_ says:

 “Has a peculiar freshness and vivacity added to a clear style.”

The _Daily Telegraph_ says:

 “Should take its place among the very best works on the Far East.”

The _Nation_ says:

 “The lighter touches are fresh and distinctly amusing.”


       *       *       *       *       *


Transcriber's Note


Illustrations have been moved next to the text to which they refer.
Their locations may no longer correspond to the List of Illustrations.

The printed text contained both footnotes and endnotes. These have been
combined, and all notes moved to the end of each chapter. A footnote
on p. 39 ("The numbers refer to notes at the end of the volume.")
explaining the printed system has been removed.


The following apparent errors have been corrected:

Advertisement page "~10s~" changed to "~10s.~"

p. 11 (note) "pp. 156-7" changed to "pp. 156-7."

Illustration (plan of stage) "at the ront" changed to "at the front"

p. 15 "_kakama_" changed to "_hakama_"

p. 30 "The world is at peace:/Soft blows" changed to "The world is at
peace./Soft blow"

p. 30 "very firs/In that they meet." changed to "very firs,/In that
they meet"

p. 31 (note) "p. 174" changed to "p. 174."

p. 57 "Tōtomi" changed to "Tōtōmi"

p. 81 "to Asuma" changed to "to Azuma"

p. 103 "Playfellows." changed to "Playfellows.”"

p. 104 "amusing.’" changed to "amusing."


The following possible errors have not been changed:

p. iv right

p. 31 contain the breeze

p. 41 spring-time sprout

pp. 55-56 The line "When in their warships were the Taira clan," was
repeated

p. 65 face to face

p. 67 Mismatched quotation marks following “In our last

p. 68 to look upon


The following are used inconsistently:

daimios and Daimios

ideagraph and ideograph

Kurō and Kuro

lifelike and life-like

lifelong and life-long

ōtsuzumi and otsuzumi

reincarnation and re-incarnation

woodcut and wood-cut