The reader, having perused thus far in
patience or in impatience, will probably want
to know what came of it all. Does the present
Noh, saved from the ashes of the revolution,
justify so minute an examination of its past?
Believing, as I do, that the Noh is a very great
art, I can heartily say that it does. I give here
several further specimens of the text or libretto.
The reader must remember that the words are
only one part of this art. The words are
fused with the music and with the ceremonial
dancing. One must read or "examine" these
texts "as if one were listening to music." One
must build out of their indefiniteness a definite
image. The plays are at their best, I think,
an image; that is to say, their unity lies in the
image—they are built up about it as the Greek
plays are built up about a single moral conviction.
The Greek plays are elaborate presentations
of some incident of a story well
known; so also the Japanese plays rely upon
a certain knowledge of past story or legend.
They present some more vivid hour or crisis.
The Greek plays are troubled and solved by
the gods; the Japanese are abounding in
ghosts and spirits. Often the spirit appears
first in some homely guise, as, in Catholic
legend, we find Christ appearing as a beggar.
The spirit seems often an old man or old
woman rapt in meditation. In Kumasaka we
come upon a simple recluse. The plot is as
follows:
The pilgrim priest is asked to pray for some
anonymous soul. His interlocutor's hut has
in it no shrine, no single picture of Buddha,
nothing but a spear and an iron mace. The
owner of the hut alludes to himself as "this
priest." His gospel is the very simple one of
protecting travellers from neighbouring bandits.
Suddenly both he and his hut disappear
(vide the comments of the chorus). The
pilgrim, however, having begun his prayer for
the unknown dead man, goes on with the
service.
He is rewarded. The second act opens with
the reappearance of the spirit in splendid array.
He is the spirit of Kumasaka, remembering
the glory of his days, meditating upon them,
upon his bowmen and deeds of arms. The
final passage is the Homeric presentation of
combat between him and the young boy,
Ushiwaka. But note here the punctilio. Kumasaka's
spirit returns to do justice to the
glory of Ushiwaka and to tell of his own defeat.
All this is symbolized in the dance climax of
the play, and is told out by the chorus.
