• Noh: 班女、遊行柳  (Hanjo, Yugyo Yanagi)

11/17/19 (Sun), Umewaka Noh Theater (Tokyo)

The pamphlet for today’s two shows say that they share an ambiguous ending that is supposed to make us wonder what happens to the characters thereafter. Both are also steeped in references to Chinese poetry, and I noted that they each refer in passing to the ancient Shirakawa Barrier in Fukushima, an oft-used place name in poetry and Noh plays that is associated with autumn.

Hanjo: A courtesan who thinks she’s been spurned goes mad, obsessing over the fan that she had exchanged with her lover, only to learn in the end that he has been looking for her all along. It sounds simple in summary but plays beautifully. It’s often confused with the tragic Sumida River because of the mad woman theme as well as the use of the name Yoshida for the object of her interest, but this work by Zeami is an ultimately happy story about love, loneliness and the joy of reunion.

It opens interestingly with a speech by the ai, usually a figure appearing in the interval between acts while the main actor changes costumes. The character here, the madam of an inn at Nogami (apparently a place famous in literature for trysts), expresses exasperation with one of her courtesans, Hanago. The courtesan has foolishly fallen in love with a long-departed client and spends her days staring mournfully at a fan that he gave her as a keepsake rather than servicing other customers. The madam explains the setup in strikingly harsh language, then calls in the useless Hanago and fires her (followed by a colorful kyogen-like exit). Hanago, nicknamed Hanjo from an old Chinese tale, becomes deranged and wanders aimlessly, eventually ending in Kyoto.

Meanwhile, her lover Yoshida comes to the inn in search of her and is saddened to hear she has gone. He goes back to Kyoto. He and his retinue come across the unhinged woman and, thinking her a performer, ask her to dance. When Yoshida sees the fan, he realizes that this is his old lover, and pulls out the fan that he received from her, which she dimly recognizes in the darkness. The couple is thus blissfully reunited.

A thoroughly entertaining piece with a straightforward story and evocative dances. Hanjo (in both the Chinese and Japanese versions) sees herself in the fan, a summer object no longer needed once autumn arrives. Hanago hates it as a constant reminder of her loss, but at the same time is unable to part from it as a symbol of her love. It is normally a prominent prop in her dance, but the alternate choreography used here had her wielding a sasa bamboo leaf while the fan rests safely in her breast as a sign, according to the pamphlet, of its preciousness to her. The beautiful text is rich with allusions to Chinese poetry and Japanese literature (such as the painting of the moon on the man’s fan, alluding to an incident in The Tale of Genji), and the characters are nicely drawn. Yamanaka Gasho did a near-perfect job.

Having just seen Madame Butterfly, another work about a woman obsessed with an absent lover, I was pleasantly surprised here by the happy ending, though the show ended abruptly with no fireworks or dance once the lovers had found each other again. It’s a lovely story well told.

Yugyo Yanagi: A surprising yugen-type piece of 1514 by Zeami’s great-nephew Nobumitsu, who I associate with flashier works like Funa Benkei. An itinerant priest meets an old man at Shirakawa Barrier, who takes him down a road less traveled to an emaciated willow tree. The man says that this is the tree at which the noted priest Saigyo stopped and composed a famous poem. (Saigyo figures in another Noh play about a cherry tree that contrasts our transient emotions with the flow of life.) When the priest says a prayer, the old man reveals himself to be the spirit of the willow. Having received the priest’s blessing, the spirit can now accept his death. The conclusion, conveyed through a complicated and highly poetic discussion, is that all beings can attain salvation and enlightenment.

The text is splendid, such as the moving ending, “The autumn winds blown from the west…leave nothing but a withered willow.” The problem is that the poetry is so esoteric and the action so static that it can be pretty sleep-inducing. This is not the most exciting work in terms of performance. Still, the mask of the willow and unveiling of the spirit within the tree are supremely effective, and the spirit’s final dance is thrilling. The program says that the main actor should attempt to evoke even as an old man that he has lived a full life, thus making the present possible, and his hope that a bud will form after his passing to open the way to the next world. Overall a worthy piece.