• Noh: 蟻通, 船弁慶 (Aritoshi, Funa Benkei)

3/27/24 (Sun), Tokyo

The two shows today represent, perhaps unintentionally, the oldest and newest strands of Noh, the first written in the art’s infancy and the other toward its final flowering. In addition to the virtues of the separate pieces, the comparison of the two was instructive.

Aritoshi: When the famed poet Ki no Tsurayuki rides in the darkness near Aritoshi Shrine in Osaka Prefecture, his horse collapses. He learns from the caretaker that he has angered the gods by inadvertently riding within the shrine precincts. A poem he composes on the spot calms the main god, and the horse suddenly revives. The caretaker offers a prayer for the poet and then, possessed by the spirit of the shrine god, performs a dance in thanks for the poetry.

This rarely seen show, written by Noh founder Zeami, is less a narrative than one of his dramatic paeans to the power of poetry. The dance is apparently just a dengaku ritual rather than the more complex kuse that the writer later developed to perfection, and the play is in a single act as the caretaker is simply taken over by the spirit rather than acting as the god’s earthly incarnation, thus eliminating the need for a costume and act change. This early play essentially represents the buddings of Noh drama. The text is fairly dense, based as it is on poetry, and the action limited, most notably the movements approximating the horse’s collapse and recovery. The most striking image was the entry of the caretaker with an umbrella and lantern to represent the dark rainy setting. I don’t recall umbrellas in any other play, which usually rely on simple fans or the imagination as symbolic representations of physical items. The poet is also unusually active here for a secondary waki role. The play is fairly static, and the dance is more or less the performer going around in circles. Still, the play is interesting as an historic relic that laid the groundwork for the masterpieces to come.

Funa Benkei: A much-performed crowd pleaser offering numerous good roles. General Yoshitsune had emerged victorious in the decisive Genpei War only to be hunted down by his elder brother, who sees him as a rival to power. The general escapes by boat with his retainer Benkei, leaving behind his lover Shizuka. She sadly performs a dance to see him off. On the boat, Yoshitsune and Benkei encounter a huge storm, where they are attacked by the ghost of the defeated enemy Tomomori. Unable to fight him through conventional means, the warrior priest Benkei turns to the power of prayer, which quickly subdues the spirit.

The lead famously plays two completely different roles with no connection whatsoever: the female dancer expressing farewell to her lover and the frightening ghost of the vengeful warrior Tomomori. Benkei gets his moment; the boatsman, played by the ai (normally a mere device allowing the main actor to switch costumes), has a bold scene rowing the boat in the storm; and even the child actor playing Yoshitsune gets a dramatic battle scene with the ghost. The action is drawn out as always, especially the storm scene (though maybe due here to an overly long costume change), but the play is full of big scenes. Playwright Nobumitsu, separated from his great uncle Zeami by around a century, seemed in this and other works to be moving the art toward a more populist, spectacle-driven dramatic form. That was derailed when it was picked up by the aristocracy, but we fortunately still have this exciting work as a sign of what might have been.