TŌRU

By KWANAMI OR SEAMI

Tōru was a prince who built a great palace at Rokujō-kawara, near Kyōto. In its grounds was a counterfeit of the bay of Naniwa, which was filled and emptied twice a day in imitation of the tides. Labourers toiled up from the sea-shore, which was many miles distant, carrying pails of salt water.

In the play a priest passing through Rokujō-kawara meets an old man carrying salt-water pails. It is the ghost of Tōru. In the second part he rehearses the luxury and splendour of his life at the great palace Rokujō-kawara no In.

MAI-GURUMA[213]
(THE DANCE WAGGONS)

By MIYAMASU (DATE UNKNOWN)

A man of Kamakura went for a year to the Capital and fell in love with a girl there. When it was time for him to return to Kamakura he took her with him. But his parents did not like her, and one day when he was not at home, they turned her out of the house.

Thinking that she would have gone towards the Capital, the man set out in pursuit of her. At dusk he came to a village. He was told that if he lodged there he must take part next day in the waggon-dancing, which was held in the sixth month of each year in honour of the god Gion. He told them that he was heart-sore and foot-sore, and could not dance.

Next day the villagers formed into two parties. The first party mounted the waggon and danced the Bijinzoroye, a ballad about the twelve ladies whom Narihira loved. The second party danced the ballad called Tsumado, the story of which is:

Hosshō, Abbot of the Hiyeizan, was sitting late one summer night by the Window of the Nine Perceptions, near the Couch of the Ten Vehicles, in a room sprinkled with the holy water of Yoga, washed by the moonlight of the Three Mysteries. Suddenly there was a sound of hammering on the double-doors. And when he opened the doors and looked—why, there stood the Chancellor Kwan, who had died on the twenty-fifth day of the second month.

“Why have you come so late in the night, Chancellor Kwan?”

“When I lived in the world foul tongues slandered me. I am come to destroy my enemies with thunder. Only the Home of Meditation[214] shall be spared. But if you will make me one promise, I will not harm you. Swear that you will go no more to Court!”

“I would not go, though they sent twice to fetch me. But if they sent a third time ...”

Then Chancellor Kwan, with a strange look on his face, drew a pomegranate from his sleeve, put it between his lips, crunched it with his teeth, and spat it at the double-doors.

Suddenly the red pomegranate turned into fire; a great flame flickered over the double-doors.

When the Abbot saw it, he twisted his fingers into the Gesture of Libation; he recited the Water-Spell of the Letter Vam, and the flames died down.

And the double-doors still stand before the Abbot’s cell, on the Hill of Hiyei.

When the two dances were over, the master of ceremonies called for a dance from one of those who had been watching. A girl stepped forward and said she would dance the “Dance of Tora Parting from Sukenari.” Then they called across to the man who had lost his wife (he was over by the other waggon). “Come, you must dance now.” “Forgive me, I cannot dance.” “Indeed you must dance.” “Then I will dance the ‘Dance of Tora Parting from Sukenari.’”

“But this dance,” said the master of ceremonies, “is to be danced by a girl on the other side. You must think of another dance.”

MAN.

I know no other dance.

MASTER OF CEREMONIES.

Here’s a pretty fix! Ha, I have it! Let’s set the waggons side by side, and the two of them shall dance their dance together.

When they step up on to the waggons, the man finds that his partner is the wife he was seeking for. They begin to dance the “Dance of Tora,” but soon break off to exchange happy greetings. The plays ends with a great ballet of rejoicing.

There is one whole group of plays to which I have hitherto made no reference: those in which a mother seeks for her lost child. Mrs. Stopes has translated Sumidagawa, and Mr. Sansom, Sakuragawa. Another well-known play of this kind is Miidera, a description of which will be found in an appendix at the end of this book (p. [267]).

A few other plays, such as Nishikigi, Motomezuka, and Kinuta, I have omitted for lack of space and because it did not seem to me that I could in any important way improve on existing versions of them.

CHAPTER VIII
KYŌGEN

KYŌGEN
(FARCICAL INTERLUDE)

THE BIRD-CATCHER IN HELL[215]
(ESASHI JŪŌ)

PERSONS

YAMA.

Yama the King of Hell comes forth to stand
At the Meeting of the Ways.[216]

(Shouting.)

Yai, yai. Where are my minions?

DEMONS.

Haa! Here we are.

YAMA.

If any sinners come along, set upon them and drive them off to Hell.

DEMONS.

We tremble and obey.

(Enter the bird-catcher, KIYOYORI).

KIYOYORI.

“All men are sinners.” What have I to fear
More than the rest?

My name is Kiyoyori the Bird-Catcher. I was very well known on the Terrestrial Plane. But the span of my years came to its appointed close; I was caught in the Wind of Impermanence; and here I am, marching to the Sunless Land.

Without a pang
I leave the world where I was wont to dwell,
The Temporal World.
Whither, oh whither have my feet carried me?
To the Six Ways already I have come.

Why, here I am already at the meeting of the Six Ways of Existence. I think on the whole I’ll go to Heaven.

DEMON.

Haha! That smells like a man. Why, sure enough here’s a sinner coming. We must report him. (To YAMA.) Please, sir, here’s the first sinner arrived already!

YAMA.

Then bustle him to Hell at once.

DEMON.

“Hell is ever at hand,”[217] which is more than
Can be said of Heaven. (Seizing KIYOYORI.)
Come on, now, come on! (KIYOYORI resists.)
Yai, yai!
Let me tell you, you’re showing a great
Deal more spirit than most sinners do.
What was your job when you were on the
Terrestrial Plane?

KIYOYORI.

I was Kiyoyori, the famous bird-catcher.

DEMON.

Bird-catcher? That’s bad. Taking life from morning to night. That’s very serious, you know. I am afraid you will have to go to Hell.

KIYOYORI.

Really, I don’t consider I’m as bad as all that. I should be very much obliged if you would let me go to Heaven.

DEMON.

We must ask King Yama about this. (To YAMA.) Please sir—!

YAMA.

Well, what is it?

DEMON.

It’s like this. The sinner says that on the Terrestrial Plane he was a well-known bird-catcher. Now that means taking life all the time; it’s a serious matter, and he certainly ought to go to Hell. But when we told him so, he said we’d entirely misjudged him.

What had we better do about it?

YAMA.

You’d better send him to me.

DEMON.

Very well. (To KIYOYORI.) Come along, King Yama says he’ll see you himself.

KIYOYORI.

I’m coming.

DEMON.

Here’s that sinner you sent for.

YAMA.

Listen to me, you sinner. I understand that when you were in the world you spent your whole time snaring birds. You are a very bad man and must go to Hell at once.

KIYOYORI.

That’s all very well. But the birds I caught were sold to gentlemen to feed their falcons on; so there was really no harm in it.

YAMA.

“Falcon” is another kind of bird, isn’t it?

KIYOYORI.

Yes, that’s right.

YAMA.

Well then, I really don’t see that there was much harm in it.

KIYOYORI.

I see you take my view. It was the falcons who were to blame, not I. That being so, I should be very much obliged if you would allow me to go straight to Heaven.

YAMA (reciting in the Nō style.)

Then the great King of Hell—
Because, though on the Hill of Death
Many birds flew, he had not tasted one,
“Come, take your pole,” he cried, and here and now
Give us a demonstration of your art.
Then go in peace.

KIYOYORI.

Nothing could be simpler.
I will catch a few birds and present them to you.
Then he took his pole, and crying
“To the hunt, to the hunt! ...”

CHORUS.

“To the bird-hunt,” he cried,
And suddenly from the steep paths of the southern side of the Hill of Death
Many birds came flying.
Then swifter than sight his pole
Darted among them.
“I will roast them,” he cried.
And when they were cooked,
“Please try one,” and he offered them to the King.

YAMA (greedily).

Let me eat it, let me eat it.

(Eats, smacking his lips.)

Well! I must say they taste uncommonly good!

KIYOYORI (to the DEMONS).

Perhaps you would like to try some?

DEMONS.

Oh, thank you! (They eat greedily and snatch.) I want that bit! No, it’s mine! What a flavour!

YAMA.

I never tasted anything so nice. You have given us such a treat that I am going to send you back to the world to go on bird-catching for another three years.

KIYOYORI.

I am very much obliged to you, I’m sure.

CHORUS.

You shall catch many birds,
Pheasant, pigeon, heron and stork.
They shall not elude you, but fall
Fast into the fatal snare.
So he, reprieved, turned back towards the World;
But Yama, loth to see him go, bestowed
A jewelled crown, which Kiyoyori bore
Respectfully to the Terrestrial Plane,
There to begin his second span of life.