On October the 23rd 2016, I watched The 58th Kyoto Kanze Noh, a medieval style traditional play of Japan, known as “noh-gaku”（能楽）. It consists of tragedic “noh”（能） and comical “kyogen”（狂言）. For detail, please see the link (sorry only in Japanese!). Previously noh-gaku was a set of five nohs inserted with four kyogens. Since it took almost a day (even in quicker tempos of noh in ancient days), today only two or three nohs and a kyogen are played together. In the 58th Kanze Noh, however, resembled ancient style of five (actually, it was four) nohs, utilizing shimai（仕舞）, a short digested version of noh play. In ancient noh style of five, the order of the themes is as follows: (I) wakinohmono（脇能物）, the play for gods and goddesses; (II) shuramono（修羅物）, the play for samurais; (III) kadzuramono（鬘物）, the play for dance, (IV) zatsumono（雑物）, the play for kagura dance（神楽）, crazy people with partition and reunion, entertainments, oni demon, hell, Chinese fairy tale, and so on; (V) kirinohmono（切能物）, the play for supernatural beings. As they are in some part jointed in a set of shimai, people can easily understand (I) is slow and calm, (II) is robust, (III) is elegance, (IV) is a mixture of others, (V) is sacred. This system appears repeatedly in this noh festival, and structures the logical line of theme.
The first noh is a kirinohmono, “Choryo (張良, Zhang Liang)”. It was the play for Zhang Liang, who was a vassal and military staff of Liú Bāng（劉邦）of Han（前漢） dynasty. The play was how he obtained a list of Chinese military text（六韜, Six Secret Teachings）from Huang Shi（黄石公） and Avalokiteśvara（観世音） as a big snake, due to Zhan Liang’s humility and bravery.
As the first set of shimai, there were Domyoji（道明寺）, Kanehira（兼平）, Teika（定家） and Tohru（融）. Domyoji is a wakinohmono, which involves syncretization of Shinto with Buddhism. In this story, a monk saw a dream of Amitabha（阿弥陀如来）and then worshiped a heavenly god, Mihcizane Sugawara（菅原道真）at Domyoji temple. Kanehira is a shuramono, which describes the final moment of Kanehira Imai（今井兼平）, a vassal of Yoshinaka Kiso（木曽義仲）, who once beat Heishi（平氏） who governed Japan in the end of Heian period（平安時代末期）. Later on, Kiso was beaten by both Heishi and Yoritomo Minamoto（源頼朝）, a founder of Kamakura Shogunate（鎌倉幕府）. Teika is a kadzuramono, which memorizes a poet Teika Fujiwara（藤原定家）’s feeling of love to Shokushi-Naishinnoh princess（式子内親王）. Tohru is a kirinohmono, which memorizes a former minister Tohru Minamoto（源融）’s elegant life. Although the landscape of his house had been destroyed, the light of moon still exists as it were. Otowayama mountain（音羽山） appears in this play (sorry the link is in Japanese!).
The next is maibayashi（舞囃子）, a mid-length play of noh. The maibayashi Yorimasa（頼政） is a shuramono, which describes the final moment of Yorimasa Minamoto（源頼政）, who once betrayed Genji（源氏）and took a side with Heishi, however, finally was upset with Heishi and died in the battle with them in Uji（宇治）, resulting in peace forever among causes and effects. He is known to get rid of Nue（鵺）, a chimeric monster of monkey, raccoon, tiger and snake. The second noh is a kadzuramono, Omukomachi（鸚鵡小町）. It describes Ononokomachi（小野小町）in her old age, who once predominated the Japanese court with her poetry. It is famous for its nostalgia and a dance with a stick. Then there was Shuron（宗論）, a kyogen of a quarrel between the Buddhism monks of Hokkeshu school（法華宗）and Jodoshu school（浄土宗）. The monks of two schools are actually not in good relationship; the former has difficult discipline, and the latter too simplified. It is a comedy of these schools.
As the second set of shimai, there were Atsumori（敦盛）, Matsukaze（松風）, Sasanodan（笹之段） and Funabenkei（船弁慶）. Atsumori is a shuramono, which describes the final moment of young boy in Heishi, Atsumori. It is a typical example of Japanese play with Yugen（幽玄）: mysteriously subtle and profound beauty, over all the disastrous tragedy of living worlds. Matsukaze is a kadzuramono, which describes a dream of love affairs of two girl divers and a poet of the court. It also symbolizes Yugen. Sasanodan is a zatsumono, which is a part of the play Hyakuman（百万）. It describes a reunion of separated mother and child with the grace from Buddha. Funabenkei is a kirinohmono, which describes a hegira of Yoshitsune Minamoto（源義経） from his brother Yoritomo Minamoto. Yoshitsune and his vassal Benkei（弁慶） encountered the ghost of Heishi warrior Tomomori Taira（平知盛） after they were separated from Yoshitsune’s loving, Shizuka（静）. The play describes how Benkei calmed down Tomomori on the ship.
The final noh is Mochidzuki（望月）, a zatsumono for the tale of revenge. A samurai Tomoharu Yasuda（安田友治）was killed by another samurai Akinaga Mochidzuki（望月秋長）, and a vassal, wife and son of Tomoharu decided to revenge. It is basically having fun for dancing, without any thoughts of Buddhism. The version was koshiki（古式）, in which extended lines are inserted to the story. It was my first trial to watch this koshiki version. Of course “Mochidzuki” does not mean a particular person in nowadays; it is a story from medieval, which is understandable if you are a scientist.
