• NOH: 歌占、三輪 (Utaura, Miwa)

1/25/25 (Sat), Tokyo

The links between these Konparu shows were the high esteem shown to poetry and the unusual dances incorporated into the works.

Utaura: The title literally reads “poem fortune”. This odd piece depicts a shaman with long stringy white hair who travels with a stick full of paper strips telling people’s fortunes in poetry. People choose these at random in an ancient version of the omikuji fortunes at shrine’s today. When he wanders to Kaga Province, a villager brings a boy to ask his prophesy. The shaman not only gleans correctly from the selected poem that the boy is looking for his father but senses that he has already met the man he seeks. As he speaks with the baffled boy, they come to realize that they are in fact father and son. The boy had not recognized him because of his changed appearance. The father explains that during his travels, he had entered hell for three days, which turned his hair white. He came back to life but remembers the horrors of the other world. Urged by the others, he goes into a trance and recalls those sufferings in a wild kusemai known as Dance of the Hells, including slashing, crushing, burning, choking, starvation and more. He eventually comes to and returns peacefully to his home in Ise with the boy.

The show, written by Zeami’s son Motomasa, apparently incorporates a pre-existing dance, a common feature that helped create the art of Noh as we know it. This dance is accompanied by a long text of Buddhist chantings that are hard to comprehend on their own, at least at first listen. But the vivid dance makes the theme clear. The nominal theme is the reunion of the father and son, as in Yoroboshi, but the focal point is unquestionably the shaman’s recollection of hell. The suggestion that he died and came back to life is tough to swallow even in the context of the play, but his stark appearance and dynamic movement make this a particularly memorable piece.

Miwa: A priest living at the foot of Mt Miwa in today’s Nara Prefecture is visited every day by a women bearing branches and water as an offering. One day she borrows a kimono for warmth. The priest reasonably wants to know who she is, but she only gives a hint as to where she lives, referring to a gate surrounded by cedar trees. A villager later reveals that he saw the priest’s robe hanging at a shrine on the branch of a sacred cedar. The priest goes and finds the kimono with a poem stitched into it referring to the three rings or miwa, meaning the giver, the receiver, and the object connecting them (here, the kimono).

The woman emerges from the covered cubicle at center stage and reveals herself as the goddess of Mt Miwa, which is worshipped in its entirety as a deity. She says that the immortals, who exist to save the suffering, take on the sins of humans and thus suffer themselves. She asks the priest for his prayers. Somewhat randomly, she tells a story of a woman who discovers that her lover is the spirit of a cedar, then talks of Amaterasu and the invention of Kagura, which she dances in the spirit’s honor. The chorus suggests that Amaterasu, the goddess of Ise, is the same as the deity of Miwa. In the end, the priest realizes that this is all a dream and expresses regret that he must wake up.

The show seemed haphazard; the story of a robe hanging on a tree was much better developed in Hagoromo. Still, the idea that gods themselves need redemption is interesting, as is the mix of Buddhism and Shinto (or Japanese folklore). The buoyant Kagura-inspired dance was splendid from start to finish.

The lead in the show was played by a female performer, who was quite good but not audible at times over the music. Her voice was overpowered as well by the naturally stronger male voices of the priest and ai, not to mention the female chorus. The vocal element alone is enough to recommend men in these roles. Still, the show itself is highly enjoyable.