• Noh: 盛久, 謀生種, 雷電 (Morihisa, The Hojo Seed, Raiden)

10/15/17 (Sun), Tokyo

Morihisa is a relative rarity that, while long on talk and short on action, proved an intriguing piece. Morihisa, a defeated Heike warrior, has been captured by the Genji clan and is being taken to the then-capital Kamakura. A devoted Buddhist, he asks for a detour to pray to Kannon, the goddess of mercy, at Kiyomizu Temple. He then discusses Buddhism with his captors on the path to Kamakura. In the end, as the executor raises his sword for the beheading, a dazzling light emanating from the sutra scroll in Morihisa’s hands causes him to drop the sword, which falls to pieces. Yoritomo, the general who had ordered the execution, reveals that this corresponds with a dream he had that Morihisa would be saved and instantly frees the prisoner. Morihisa dances in celebration.

The text is interesting in its exploration of the idea of achieving salvation from devotion to Buddha’s mercy. Morihisa notes that he is not praying to Buddha to save his life but to spare him torment after death. That is, he is mentally prepared to die and to place himself in heaven’s hands, trusting the way of God. This is a genzai Noh centering on living beings rather than the yugen types featuring ghosts, but the theme of life and death is similar here.

The play incorporates a well-known sutra often performed independently from the rest of the long Kannon Sutra as well as a popular travel song of the day called “Togoku Kudari” (東国下, From Kyoto to the East). The travel song lists various points along the journey that Morihisa is seeing for the last time, giving the story an added poignancy. As it was not originally written for the Noh stage, it is said to be in a style difficult for Noh singers, maybe one of the reasons the show isn’t staged too often. (It was composed by the person who introduced Noh’s founders Kan’ami and Zeami to the shogun, which must have made it particularly meaningful for the author, Zeami’s son Motomasa.) In any event, the travel portion is one of the highlights of the otherwise talky show, accompanied by a spin around the stage as the famous sites along the way are named.

The other big scenes are the execution, when the would-be killer, blinded by the sutra’s light, drops his sword dramatically, and especially (after a brief costume change) the climactic joyful otokomai dance at Kamakura’s Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine by the reprieved Morihisa. After the dance, Morihisa says amusingly he mustn’t stay too long and slips quietly away – probably a good idea before Yoritomo changes his mind.

The static talk for much of the show (other than Morihisa’s nice entry as a captive led in by the guards) is not going to win points from those unfamiliar with Noh and is probably not suitable for first-timers. But it’s an interesting piece on its own terms.

The Hojo Seed: In the Kyogen comic interlude, a kid wants to get the best of his perennially jokey uncle, an expert at tall tales. The nephew tries everything but is unable to top the uncle: he says he put a bag over Mt Fuji, but the uncle says he made tea in Lake Biwa and drank the entire lake; the boy claims to have seen an enormous cow, but the uncle counters that he built an enormous drum using the cow’s skin. After failing to outwit the elder liar, the boy asks the secret of the uncle’s talents. The uncle tells him it lies in a hojo seed buried in the ground and offers to give one to the nephew. The boy excitedly tries digging it up, using the fan as his shovel, only to learn that he has been duped again – hojo is a word that can mean fertility or good harvest but also, evidently, “a lie”. You have to understand 14th-century puns to get it (I looked it up later), but the exchange between the two was lively and nicely performed by the good-looking Nomura Ryota as the boy and his grandfather Nomura Mansaku as the uncle.

Raiden (The God of Thunder), in a reverse from Morihisa, is very much an action piece. It draws from the legend of Sugawara no Michizane, a real-life ninth-century scholar whose exile and ultimate death are said to have precipitated much tragedy in his tormentor’s family. He was proclaimed a god in order to appease his spirit and has been revered in the centuries since (he’s the principal deity in Tenjin shrines). He is normally portrayed in a favorable light, so it was interesting to see him here as a vengeful spirit. (He does haunt the villain toward the end of the Bunraku play Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy, but that scene is now rarely performed by the puppets and is eliminated completely in the Kabuki version.)

Here, his ghost visits Priest Hossho, who raised him as a boy. It takes several knocks and some imploring before he is recognized by the priest, who receives him warmly (and with impressive calm for someone talking to the dead). Michizane, resentful at the evil accusations that led to his exile, says he is planning to haunt and kill everyone at an upcoming imperial ceremony. He has come to warn the priest not to attend. The priest, while thankful for the forewarning, says that if he is called by the emperor, he will not be disloyal. Michizane, feeling betrayed, transforms into a demon. He puts a pomegranate offering in his teeth and spits the seeds into flames in an attack on the priest. Hossho coolly wards him off with holy water and prayer. The priest then goes to the ceremony, where Michizane reappears as the Demon of Thunder in fearsome guise. The priest pursues him throughout the palace, rubbing his prayer beads and reciting sutra. In the end, the demon is overcome by the power of Buddha and begs forgiveness for his transgressions. Proclaiming his joy in defeat, he rides the black clouds back to the heavens.

The play is notably dynamic throughout, including the banging on the temple doors by the ghost, his initial attack on the priest, his frightening second-half entrance covered in a cape and dramatic unveiling in the demon mask, and the vigorous battle between the demon and priest as they run (and stomp and jump and dance) back and forth between two large boards that have been laid on stage. The yugen element of a vengeful ghost achieving enlightenment from Buddha’s overwhelming power is very much present, but accompanied here by a Kabuki-esque amount of movement that greatly invigorates the proceedings. I’m surprised that the show has not as far as I know been adapted into Kabuki, which would have probably jettisoned the Buddhist element altogether and reveled in the action. Unlike Morihisa, this is an ideal piece for Noh novices. Will keep an eye out for future performances.