 | "Noh", or, Accomplishment : |  |
KAKITSUBATA
By Motokiyo
Either Motokiyo or Fenollosa seems to have
thought that the old sage Narihira was in his
day the incarnation of a certain Bosatsu or
high spirit. Secondly, that the music of this
spirit was known and was called "Kohi" or
"Gobusaki's" music. Narihira seems, after
favour, to have been exiled from the court,
and to have written poems of regret.
In the play a certain priest, given to melancholy,
and with a kindliness for the people of
old stories, meets with the spirit of one of
Narihira's ladies who has identified herself
with the Iris, that is to say, the flowers are the
thoughts or the body of her spirit.
She tells him of her past and of Narihira's,
and how the music of Gobusaki will lift a man's
soul into paradise. She then returns to her
heaven.
The rest is, I hope, apparent in the play
as I have set it.
- The Scene is in Mikawa
- Spirit of the Iris, Kakitsubata.
- A Priest.
- Chorus.
Characters
I am a priest who travels to see the sights
in many provinces; I have been to Miyako
city and seen all the ward shrines and places
of interest; I will now push on to the east
country. Every night it is a new bed and the
old urge of sorrow within me. I have gone
by Mino and Owari without stopping, and I
am come to Mikawa province to see the flowers
of Kakitsubata in the height of their full
season. Now the low land is before me, I
must go down and peer closely upon them.
The lightfoot summer comes nigh us,
The branching trees and the bright unmindful grass
Do not forget their time,
They take no thought, yet remember
To show forth their colour in season.
What are you doing here in this swamp?
Priest
I am a priest on my travels. I think these
very fine iris. What place is this I am come to?
Spirit
Eight Bridges, Yatsubashi of Mikawa, an
iris plantation. You have the best flowers
before you, those of the deepest colour, as you
would see if you had any power of feeling.
Priest
I can see it quite well; they are, I think,
the Kakitsubata iris that are set in an ancient
legend. Can you tell me who wrote down
the words?
Spirit
In the Ise Monogatari you read, "By the
eight bridges, by the web of the crossing waters
in Kumode, the iris come to the full, they flaunt
there and scatter their petals." And when
some one laid a wager with Narihira he made
an acrostic which says, "These flowers brought
their court dress from China."
Priest
Then Narihira came hither? From the
far end of Adzuma?
Here? Yes. And every other place in
the north, the deep north.
Priest
Though he went through many a province,
what place was nearest his heart?
Spirit
This place, Yatsubashi.
Priest
On the lowlands of Mikawa.
Spirit
Throughout the length and width of his
journeys—
Priest
Their colour was alive in his thought.
Spirit
He was Narihira of old, the man of the
stories.
Priest
Yet this iris. . . .
Spirit
(still standing by the pillar and bending sideways)
These very flowers before you—
—are not the thing of importance. She
would say:
The man who bound himself to me
Returned times out of mind in his thought
To me and this cobweb of waters."
It was in this fashion he knew her, when
he was strange in this place.
Spirit
I should speak.
Priest
What is it?
Spirit
Though this is a very poor place, will you
pass the night in my cottage?
Priest
Most gladly. I will come after a little.
[Up to this point the spirit has appeared
as a simple young girl of the locality.
She now leaves her pillar and goes off
to the other side of the stage to be
dressed. She returns in her true
appearance, that is, as the great lady
a black hoshiben crest or hat, an overdress
of gauze, purple with golden
flowers, an underdress of glaring orange
with green and gold pattern. This
shows only a little beneath the great
enveloping gauze.
Spiriti
(to tire-women)
No, no. This hat, this ceremonial gown,
the Chinese silk, Karaginu, . . . Look!
Priest
How strange. In that tumble-down cottage;
in the bower, a lady clad in bright robes! In
the pierced hat of Sukibitai's time. She seems
to speak, saying, "Behold me!"
What can all this mean?
Kakitsubata
Whereof they sing in the ballad,
'Tis the gown of the Empress Takago,
Queen of old to Seiwa Tenno,[1]
She is Narihira's beloved,
Who danced the Gosetsu music.
She was his light in her youth.
For the Dance of Toyo no Akari.
Narihira went covered in like.
A hat and a robe of remembrance!
I am come clothed in a memory.
Priest
You had better put them aside. But who
are you?
The Lady
I am indeed the spirit, Kakitsubata, the
colours of remembrance.
And Narihira was the incarnation of the
Bosatsu of Gokusaki's music. Holy magic is
run through his words and through the notes
of his singing, till even the grass and the flowers
pray to him for the blessings of dew.
Priest
To the plants that are without mind,
I preach the law of Bosatsu.
Lady
This dance, in the old days.
(hearing the music)
This is indeed spirit music.
Lady
He took the form of a man.
Priest
From his bright city.
Lady
Saving all—
Priest
—by his favour.
Chorus
I put on robes for the dance.
Lady
A robe for the sorrow of parting.
Chorus
I send the sleeves back to the city.
Lady
No man has known the doer and no man has seen the deed.
Wearing his first hat-of-manhood
Went out a-hunting
Toward the town of Kasuga in Nara.
Chorus
Of the reign of Nimmio Tenno.
Reading: "About the beginning of March,
When the mists are still banked upon Ouchi-yama the mountain. . . ."
He was granted the hat-insignia, sukibitai,
As chief messenger to the festival of Kasuga.
Lady
An unusual favour.
Chorus
It was a rare thing to hold the plays and
Genbuku ceremony in the palace itself. This
was the first time it had happened.
Comes once, blows once, and soon fades,
So also to him: he went out
To seek his luck in Adzuma,
Wandering like a piece of cloud, at last
After years he came
And looking upon the waves at Ise and Owari,
He longed for his brief year of glory:
But my glory comes not again,
Narihira, Narihira,
My glory comes not again.
He stood at the foot of Asama of Shinano,
and saw the smoke curling upwards.
Lady
From the peak of Asama.
Narihira, Narihira,
My glory comes not again.
Chorus
Will they not wonder at this?
He went on afar and afar
And came to Mikawa, the province,
To the flowers Kakitsubata
That flare and flaunt in their marsh
By the many-bridged cobweb of waters.
"She whom I left in the city?" thought
Narihira. But in the long tale, Monogatari,
there is many a page full of travels . . . and
yet at the place of eight bridges the stream-bed
is never dry.
The fire-flies drift away
From the jewelled blind,
Scattering their little lights
And then flying and flying:
Going up into heaven.
The autumn winds come blowing and blowing,
And the wild ducks cry: "Kari! . . . Kari!"
A form impermanent, drifting after this fashion,
Am come to enlighten these people.
Whether they know me I know not.
Spirit
A light that does not lead on to darkness.
Chorus
(singing the poem of Narihira's)
The spring
Is not the spring of the old days,
My body
Is not my body,
Narihira, Narihira,
My glory comes not again.
Chorus
Know then that Narihira of old made these
verses for the Queen of Seiwa Tenno. The
body unravels its shred, the true image divides
into shade and light. Narihira knew me in
the old days. Doubt it not, stranger. And
now I begin my dance, wearing the ancient
bright mantle.
Spirit
The butterfly flying.
Chorus
The pieces of gold flying.
Spirit
Is planted anew.
Chorus
With the old bright colour renewed.
We wear the bright iris crest of Azame.
Chorus
Are they like one another, the flower,
Kakitsubata, Ayame. [The grey and olive robed chorus obscure the bright dancer.
What is that that cries from the tree? [The spirit is going away, leaving its apparition, which fades as it returns to the aether.
Spirit
It is only the cracked husk of the locust.
Chorus
(closing the play)
Dropping their petals in April.
Day comes, the purple flower
Opens its heart of wisdom,
It fades out of sight by its thought.
The flower soul melts into Buddha.
| "Noh", or, Accomplishment : | |